Preparations Made Since Last Year, Including Building Perimeter Maintenance
A 3.79 Million-Liter Water Tank Secured for Firefighting
Despite the threat of a massive wildfire in Pacific Palisades, California, the world-renowned Getty Museum reportedly survived unharmed. The museum houses over 40,000 ancient artifacts and protected its artworks using advanced fire defense systems.
On the 14th (local time), local media such as The Wall Street Journal and the LA Times focused on the Getty Museum located in California. This museum, which holds an impressive collection of approximately 44,000 key artifacts from human ancient history dating from 6500 BCE to 400 CE, survived the wildfire.
Getty Villa, where the Getty Museum is located. Unlike the surrounding areas, it survived the Palisades wildfire. Photo by X Capture
On the 7th, when the Palisades fire broke out, the Getty Villa, where the museum is located, was also threatened by embers. The fire spread to within 1.8 meters of the villa’s east wall, and flames reached the boundary wall of the restaurant. In the afternoon, fire flared up in the bushes near the outdoor classical theater but extinguished itself. A fire also broke out at the museum’s pedestrian gate, but the security team responded and successfully extinguished it within six minutes.
The museum had completed thorough preparations before the fire approached. Notably, dry weeds had already been cleared last year, and fire-vulnerable landscaping was maintained and trees trimmed to prevent fire. On the day of the fire, the emergency operations center was activated at 10:40 a.m., and about 20 minutes later, the museum doors were sealed to block smoke entry. Afterwards, staff monitored the situation in real-time from the emergency control room.
The Getty Museum was designed with a focus on fire prevention to protect its numerous ancient artifacts. The building was designed in 1974 by American architect Richard Meier, with walls and roofs made of fire-resistant concrete and an intricate sprinkler system installed indoors. Only trees with low ignition risk were planted around the main landscape.
Additionally, a 1 million-gallon (approximately 3.79 million liters) water tank was secured for fire preparedness, and water is immediately sprayed through pipes when a fire occurs. Even if a fire breaks out indoors, it can be extinguished using vault-type doors installed in each gallery, emergency sprinklers, and an air filtration system.
Meanwhile, the Getty Villa, where the Getty Museum is located, is a building at the eastern end of the Malibu coast, an affluent area of Los Angeles (LA). It is a museum and cultural research institution dedicated to the study of art and culture of ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan civilizations, and it opened in 1954.
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