Posted on 01/10/2025 8:58:35 AM PST by dennisw
Hollywood star Mel Gibson got home from talking to Joe Rogan about his anger at the Los Angeles wildfires to find his own Malibu home among those “completely toasted.”
“I was kind of ill at ease while we were talking because I knew my neighborhood was on fire, so I thought, ‘I wonder if my place is still there,’” the actor, 69, told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” late Thursday.
“The Patriot” actor, who blasted California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his handling of the crisis during his interview with the mega-popular podcaster, said his Malibu property was in “cinders” by the time he returned.
“I have never seen a place so perfectly burnt,” he said.
“There was a dozen places or so that were just non-existent. I mean, nothing but a chimney and a few roof tiles, and you dare not walk around for the nails and the whole deal. The vehicles were gone, everything,” Gibson ad
“But when I got home, sure enough, it wasn’t there.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I see a lot of dried scrub bushes around his beautiful house. Was he not allowed to clear that stuff out. How sad to lose one’s home and all of one’s possessions.
By the way, I chose my screen name after seeing The Patriot and watching Mel Gibson’s flag-waving charge on a horse, shouting “freedom”.
He has a chapel on his Estate. I hope that was spared.
It is sad.
We have known how to build fireproof buldings for decades.
Instead, in areas we know are prone to wildfires, we build homes which are vulnerable to fires.
If I had his money, I would have elected for a stone exterior above ground; steel shutters made to easily cover the windows without outside manpower; Steel roof structure with steel beams and steel exterior roofing. The bottom four feet of the ground floor would be earth sheltered. Add significant interior, fire resistant insulation. There would be a fire system to supply the roof with water to cool it during a fire, by running down from the peak, and a drainage system to direct the water away from the house.
Those things do not add much to the cost of a mansion when built in. The make the house very hard to burn down, and esy to heat and cool. They are a good way toward fallout protection.
“see a lot of dried scrub bushes around his beautiful house. Was he not allowed to clear that stuff out. How sad to lose one’s home and all of one’s possessions.”
I don’t understand it. In northern California we were assessed a fee every year to get that brush cleared from our lots or we got fined. I thought that was for all of California. Maybe it was just for poor rural people.
Maybe it was a common sense rule by a local government in a conservative area. I was under the impression that clearing out brush was not allowed in a large part of California due to harming some kind of little rats or other endangered species. Perhaps I am wrong.
Nothing is fireproof. You can make it highly resistant, but if your landscaping looks like the entrance to the bat cave or a structure close to the house burns there’s a fair chance it will burn.
Everything in my shipping container 30 feet from the burning structure burned my propane tanks 75 feet from a burning structure cooked off.
Perhaps I should have used the term you supply: Highly resistant.
Medieval castles were constructed to be highly resistant.
If they burned, it was because the fire came from the inside.
My cousins lived in fire prone mountains in northern California and they had a swimming pool.
They had a gas electric generator and a large submersible water pump attached to sprinkler system that could drench the entire house.
If there was a fire threat they would fire up the generator and evacuate. The system could run by its self for 12 hours or until it ran out of gas.
The system cost less than a thousand bucks.
How come the trees few yards away look fine?
Only thing I can think of moisture content. If you fill a paper cup with water and take a blowtorch to the bottom of the cup, it will not burn through.
Green logs won’t burn in your fireplace either
Photos....
I think you should edit your post. Showing us pictures of your personal home isn’t news. Lavish as it is. 😁
That’s commonplace in fires. Winds blow it around and portions do not catch hold and burn.
““I think all our tax dollars probably went for Gavin’s hair gel,” Gibson later quipped.”
Yeeeeeouch. That’s gonna leave a mark.
To make a structure more fire resistant you have to get rid of soffit vents.
The heat from the outside will make the wooden materials inside the soffit/fascia/rafter cavity combust.
This has happened in prior fires even when the exterior materials are all stucco/metal/masonry.
The other factor is removing all shrubs, ornamental and large trees away from the building.
In the Paradise, CA fire almost all the houses had multiple huge trees within 10-15 feet of the houses. If the 100’ high tree hanging over your house ignites, most likely your house is going to burn too.
These fire suppression systems are not that expensive as you pointed out. Especially IF you have a 20-50000 gallon reservoir(swimming pool) in the back yard.
You would think that a person who owns a $5-25 million dollar house could afford to do that.
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