One of the first people I met at the Disaster Recovery Center today was someone who lost their home in the Palisades Fire but was there to volunteer to help others.
That’s the spirit of Los Angeles.
— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) January 15, 2025
The Getty Villa, a museum housing thousands of priceless antiquities, activated its emergency operations center at 10:40 a.m. on Tuesday in response to the fast-moving Palisades fire. By 11:44 a.m., the fire could be seen over the ridge, less than a mile away. Flames reached the property at 12:27 p.m.
The Extraordinary Defense of the Getty Museum Against the L.A. Fires #GettyMuseum #LosAngelesFires #ArtConservation #CaliforniaFires by @KellyCrowWSJ
https://t.co/nAq6I7Zm9q— Artprice.com (@artpricedotcom) January 16, 2025
The fire ultimately spared the Villa and its more than 44,000 objects, including many Roman, Greek, and Etruscan relics dating from 6500 BC to AD 400.
J. Paul Getty Trust President and Chief Executive Katherine E.
Under siege by Los Angeles wildfires, the J. Paul Getty Museum is emerging as a near-miraculous beacon of disaster preparedness. Behind the scenes, it’s taking a small army to defend. by @KellyCrowWSJ https://t.co/aFw6npPaLY
— John McCormick (@McCormickJohn) January 14, 2025
Fleming described how she and her staff worked from a conference center-turned-war room at the Getty Center in Brentwood, about 10 miles away, while 16 staff members remained at the Villa to implement emergency protocols.
How the Getty Museum Is Surviving an Inferno:
Flames made it to within 6 feet of the Getty Villa and yet it still stands. Inside the museum’s powerful tools for disaster preparedness.https://t.co/P0Uk4mfafJ— Kelly Crow (@KellyCrowWSJ) January 14, 2025
“We did get lucky in some ways, and people were rushing around,” Fleming said in an interview after the danger had passed. “But there were also a lot of people who were really thoughtful about this over a long period, and I think that clearly paid off for us.”
Extensive brush-clearing over the last year, completed with the knowledge that fire is a way of life in Los Angeles and frequent droughts made a massively destructive fire inevitable. Landscaping that might catch fire had been pruned, tree canopies were raised, low-lying brush significantly thinned, and the grounds were irrigated Tuesday morning.
According to Fleming, at 10:45 a.m., the dampers regulating airflow in the building’s HVAC system were turned off, as was the air conditioning. By 11:04 a.m., the museum doors were sealed due to the strong smell of smoke.
Getty Villa’s emergency fire response
Security swept the grounds to ensure only emergency staff was present. Heat from the fire caused several cameras to fail. An aerial fire crew dropped water over the Villa’s ranch house, which was most vulnerable due to its original construction.
Communication between the Getty Center and the Villa was challenging as Villa employees’ radios stopped transmitting more than 100 feet away. As ash accumulated, staff worked to clear obstructed drainage in the parking structure. At 2:40 p.m., flames were reported on the perimeter wall behind the restaurant and bushes above the outdoor theater.
These fires eventually subsided. By 3:59 p.m., fire at the museum’s pedestrian gate was extinguished by Getty security. Though the Palisades fire became visible from Brentwood by 5 p.m., and museum officials decided to close the Getty Center at 6 p.m., the Villa continued to monitor the fire threat throughout the night, appearing to remain safe.
“A lot of what there was to burn has burned. The rosemary is gone. The low-level vegetation is gone,” said Fleming, though she was cautious about declaring the danger completely over.