The raging Getty fire has licked the edges of the Getty Center campus and threatens to encroach on the tram arrival platform, but the art and archives are safe, the museum said.
As water-dropping helicopters buzzed above the center Monday, Lisa Lapin, the museum’s vice president of communications, said she was on site with Getty President James Cuno, Chief Operating Officer Steven A. Olsen and security and facilities personnel. They had not been asked to evacuate, Lapin said, and they didn’t expect that to happen.
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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, L.A. City Councilman Mike Bonin and California Gov. Gavin Newsom look at a home along Tigertail Road in Brentwood burned by the Getty fire. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom, from left, with Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin and L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti tour a home along Tigertail Road in Brentwood on Tuesday that was burned by the Getty fire. The National Weather Service issued a rare “extreme red flag warning” for Southern California through Thursday evening, saying winds could top 80 mph and be the strongest in more than a decade. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Traffic on the 405 Freeway flows as flames roar up a steep hillside near the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The Getty fire has forced evacuations and burned more than 600 acres. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters try to save a home from the Getty fire on Tigertail Road in Los Angeles on Monday morning. (Christian Monterrosa/Associated Press)
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A firefighting aircraft drops fire retardant on the Getty fire in Mandeville Canyon near the Brentwood Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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A man walks past a burning home during the Getty fire in Los Angeles on Monday morning. (Christian Monterrosa/Associated Press)
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The sun rises over smoke-filled canyons above the Getty Center and a burned home on Tigertail Road as the Getty fire burns in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters head out for brush work along Sepulveda Boulevard in the Sepulveda Pass as the Getty fire as it burns in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters try to save a home on Tigertail Road during the Getty fire in Los Angeles on Monday morning. (Christian Monterrosa/Associated Press)
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Firefighters work heavy brush along Sepulveda Boulevard in the Sepulveda Pass as the Getty fire burns in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter sprays down hot spots on a home along the 12000 block of Sky Lane on Monday in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
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From left, Betsy Landis, 90, and her neighbor Nola Hyland, 79, who both evacuated from their homes at the end of Mandeville Canyon, talk with Rochelle Linnetz inside the Westwood Recreation Center on Sepulveda Boulevard that was turned into an evacuation center. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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An L.A. firefighter keeps down flames at a burned home in the 1100 block of Tigertail Road in the Brentwood Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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Alex Holbrook, a student emergency medical technician at UCLA, talks with Sylvia Snow, 95, inside the Westwood Recreation Center on Sepulveda Boulevard, which was turned into an evacuation center. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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The sun rises over a smoke-filled canyon above the Getty museum as the Getty fire burns in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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L.A. Fire Department arson team conducts an investigation near a utility pole of a possible area of origin of the Getty fire along the 1700 block of North Sepulveda Boulevard. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
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Barn manager Stephanie Nagler leads a horse named Howie Doin to a horse trailer while helping to evacuate around 120 horses from the Sullivan Canyon Equestrian Community near the intersection of Rivera Ranch Road and Sunset Boulevard in Brentwood. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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A helicopter makes a drop on the Getty fire, which was threatening thousands of homes in Brentwood and other hillside communities on the Westside of Los Angeles on Monday morning. (Gray Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
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Aerial view of homes shrouded in smoke from the Getty fire. (KTLA)
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Barn manager Stephanie Nagler, left, holds a rabbit named Chi Chi while helping to evacuate animals, mostly horses, from the Sullivan Canyon Equestrian Community near the intersection of Riviera Ranch Road and Sunset Boulevard in Brentwood. (Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters work the Getty fire as it burns homes along Tigertail Road in the Brentwood Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles firefighters mop up after a home was destroyed by the Getty fire along Tigertail Road in Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)
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Firefighters work in heavy brush along Sepulveda Boulevard in the Sepulveda Pass as the Getty fire burns in Los Angeles. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
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A firefighter watches flames approach the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood during the Getty fire on Monday morning. (Christian Monterrosa/Associated Press)
“The Getty is an incredibly safe place for the art,” she said. “It’s sealed and it’s secure. There are double walls. We’re very confident. The Getty Center is safe right now thanks to a combination of our fire prevention measures and the fire fight from the air. Once the sun came up, it’s been quite aggressive in terms of planes and helicopters.”
The museum’s emergency plans do not call for evacuating art. When the Getty Center opened, the buildings and grounds had been designed as the safest place for the collection in the event of a disaster.
A 1-million-gallon reserve water tank is on site. At about 2 a.m., the museum began using that water to irrigate the property, Lapin said.
Brush is cleared regularly, and plants with the highest water content are planted closest to the buildings, Lapin said. She also noted the museum’s travertine and metal exterior.
The deleterious effects of air pollution on the art is the main concern, but the museum’s sophisticated air filtration system is doing its job just fine, the museum said. The system works something like a reverse air conditioner, forcing filtered air through the galleries while maintaining the necessary temperature and humidity levels. With the buildings are closed, no doors open to let in polluted air.
This Getty Center closed because of a raging wildfire in December 2017, but that blaze burned on the other side of the 405 Freeway. Although the flames came closer Monday, the museum said it was safe.
“We really are OK,” Lapin reiterated. “Our vistas will be a little bit different. It will look different to the north and the west.”
The biggest concern, Lapin said, was the museum’s neighbors.
“Some have lost their homes,” she said, “and that is tragic.”
Lapin said the Getty Center in Brentwood and the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades will remain closed Tuesday to allow emergency responders the space they need.
“We are safe, the fire is largely knocked down, but there are still hot spots,” Lapin said in a follow-up email midafternoon Monday. “Fire crews are using Getty Center as a staging area, a rest area, and a logistics base to view the fire and make operations decisions.”
The Getty fire is a wind-driven brush fire that erupted about 1:30 a.m. along the 405. It spread south and west and quickly consumed more than 500 acres. About 10,000 structures have been placed under mandatory evacuation orders. The evacuation zone includes Mulholland Drive on the northern side, the 405 on the east, Sunset Boulevard on the south and Temescal Canyon Road on the west.
The Skirball Cultural Center, which sits a few miles north of the Getty Center, said it was not threatened by the fire but was closing until further notice because of poor air quality and road closures.
