Getty Fire 2019 - Free Printable PDF 2025

On the morning of October 28, 2019, residents of West Los Angeles woke up to an orange glow spreading across the hills near the iconic Getty Center. What began as a small brush ignition in the Sepulveda Pass exploded into one of the most alarming wildfires in the city's recent history, threatening multimillion-dollar homes, forcing freeway closures, and sending thousands of Angelenos scrambling for safety. This is the story of the Getty Fire — how it started, how it was fought, and what it taught one of the world's largest cities about living with fire.

A Blaze Ignited in the Dead of Night

Flames climbing a hillside during the Getty Fire of 2019

The fire erupted around 1:30 a.m. near the intersection of the 405 Freeway and Getty Center Drive, a corridor packed with dense, drought-parched brush. Fanned by ferocious Santa Ana winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour, flames leapt across ridgelines at breathtaking speed. Investigators later determined the cause was devastatingly simple: a tree branch had snapped in the wind and fallen onto power lines, raining hot embers into the tinder-dry vegetation below. Within hours, roughly 745 acres had burned, and evacuation orders covered thousands of homes in Brentwood, Mandeville Canyon