CARLSBAD — Acting Fire Capt. Ryan Grothe at McClellan-Palomar Airport has spent his career responding to emergencies, but his recent journey to document the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles left him awestruck by the sheer scale of destruction.
Grothe, a part-time freelance photographer, traveled north before sunrise on Jan. 9, navigating roadblocks and treacherous conditions to capture the wreckage from wildfires still rampaging across Los Angeles County.
“It looked like a bomb went off,” Grothe said. “Power lines snapped in half, street lights knocked over, burned out cars — (the fire) destroyed everything in its path in Pacific Palisades.”
Grothe’s journey began at Sunset Boulevard, where he witnessed the damage firsthand. From there, he ventured to Malibu along Pacific Coast Highway, photographing firefighters battling flames at beachfront homes, many of which had been already reduced to smoldering rubble.
Among the other scenes Grothe captured included firefighters protecting properties, aerial firefighting efforts by Canada’s CL-415 Super Scooper, Cal Fire’s new C-130 tanker and neighborhoods decimated by the blaze.
“The scope of the incident and how fast it moved was unbelievable,” Grothe said.
As of Monday morning, the Palisades Fire had scorched 23,713 acres and was 14% contained, up slightly from 13% Sunday night.
At least eight people have died in the week-old blaze. However, authorities said they anticipate the number of fatalities to continue rising as crews begin sifting through the ash and rubble.
At least 5,000 structures have been destroyed in the blaze that has been burning since last Tuesday. That number is also expected to rise as more assessments are done in the burn area.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
“This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen in my 15 years as a first responder,” Grothe said. “The fire went all the way to the beach, and that just blew my mind.”
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, 34 people had been arrested in fire areas patrolled by the sheriff’s department — 30 in the Eaton Fire area and four in the Palisades Fire area.
Two more arrests involved suspected drone fliers above the Eaton Fire, which underscores new challenges for fire response, such as drones interfering with aerial firefighting operations, Grothe said.
“I got pictures of the Super Scooper (40 minutes before it was) struck by a drone, leaving a wallet-sized hole in the wing,” Grothe said. “It’s the third fire this year where there’s been a drone strike (of an aircraft).”
The FBI is looking for the operator whose hobby drone struck the aircraft, grounding the plane and removing it from critical firefighting efforts.
For more photos, visit Grothe’s Instagram page: @palomar_airportfire_photo
City News Service contributed to this report.
