Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak spent Wednesday afternoon reporting from the Palisades fire — and spent an hour time trying to save his own home, one of the last houses standing in the Marquez Knolls neighborhood.
Pollak moved through the Pacific Palisades area where it was reasonably safe to do so — though there were fires burning all around, and many of the power lines that had been downed were still live.
In the process, he checked on his own home.
This is my house. It is one of the only ones left standing. The ficus trees partly shielded it from the wind. But here’s the incredible thing: my fence melted. I found the garden hose fully extended. Some anonymous neighbor or firefighter fought the fire. That’s Palisades. (5/15) pic.twitter.com/Ia60HB45UN
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) January 9, 2025
The water to the house was no longer working, but Pollak was able to find vases and buckets in which to collect water that was flowing downhill through the gutter in the street. He began putting out fires around the perimeter of the house.
Pollak was later assisted by two neighbors — both handymen — who drove by and noticed him fighting the fire. They helped him carry buckets of water to douse small fires near the fences and in his neighbor’s yard.
They left when the fire became too intense.
Pollak continued reporting from elsewhere in the Palisades, including at the site of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s home, which was destroyed.
It is unclear whether Pollak’s house will survive, as the fire is still raging as of Wednesday night, though the winds have calmed significantly.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
