Emergency contacts for Sunset Mesa (and Malibu, Pacific Palisades)

Sunset Mesa located in Malibu and Pacific Palisades California

Here are websites, links and contacts for agencies helpful in fire and natural disaster emergencies relating to Sunset Mesa and neighboring Pacific View Estates (adjacent to the Getty Villa), Malibu and Pacific Palisades.

sunset mesa google mapBecause Sunset Mesa is in unincorporated L.A. County (but with a Malibu mailing address), and Pacific View Estates is in the City of Los Angeles, there can be overlapping agencies that cover the area.

For example, L.A. City Fire, and L.A. County Fire, or LAPD (city police) or L.A. Sheriffs (county police). Sunset Mesa is NOT within the city of Malibu, but it has a Malibu mailing address.

My advice:

  1. Bookmark these sites and put them all in a bookmark folder labeled “emergencies” or something like that, on your Chrome browser bookmark area. Then you can simply open the bookmark folder when you want an update, and click to open whatever sites you like, and they will open in new Chrome tabs.
  2. Take note of what the fire or incident is officially called (#Palisadesfire, for example), and on any of the social media sites like Twitter, you can search the hashtag to find more about that specific fire.
  3. Call 911 if you have an emergency

Main helpful sites for fires

T-CEP (Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness)       LOOK AT T-CEP FIRST!

T-CEP page
–When the page opens, you’ll see an “emergency status” box along the top. Click that and it will open to more detail, updated as frequently as they can (many times a day if there is an active fire threatening the area). If there are evacuations, they will post the map, which is clickable. The page auto-refreshes.
–During an emergency, they have an active Twitter feed  @TCEP90290. You can also get to their Twitter feed from this website, by clicking the blue Twitter bird at the top.

T-CEP is a non-profit, volunteer organization to help the Topanga community prepare for and cope with disasters such as wildfires, floods and earthquakes. It deals in confirmed fact, no rumor or hearsay.

Los Angeles Fire Department

City of Los Angeles Fire Dept. alerts page    If there are alerts relating to Sunset Mesa or surrounding areas, you will see them here.
City of Los Angeles Fire Dept. main page    Main page will tell you what is happening firewise in the city of L.A. now, and on the right column is their Twitter feed @lafd

Los Angeles County Fire Department

L.A. County Fire Dept. main page   Latest incidents will be on this front page. Click on the status update for your incident to get details.

Cal Fire

Cal Fire current incidents    navigate to our area, click on the fire icon for more info about that fire
Depending on where the fire is, it may be declared a Cal Fire, or not. Even if it isn’t a Cal Fire, they will likely have maps and other important info.

AlertCA.  (cameras in wildlands)

Alertca.live.  This will get you to a page that shows (blue) camera location for wildlands (left side of page). Click on whatever camera seems to be near the incident. The camera you are clicked on will show in yellow; the area it is filming will be shaded. On the right side of page will show what that camera is filming. Find the play button in upper corner of photo, click it and choose 15 minutes, or, say, 6 hour time lapse, to see the fire progress over that length of time. 

Tracking aircraft

This shows aircraft in an area. Hone in on the region you want, and keep going closer until you get the exact area you want, as close as you want. (Using desktop, use mouse roller to go more close-up on the map). You can see the terrain of an area pretty well with this map. You’ll see the aircraft hovering, and if you click on each aircraft, you can see the path they took before this (so you can see lots of circles if an aircraft is hovering or has been in the area for awhile).  (Flightradar24 is a global flight tracking service. It’s online and also available for iOS and Android devices.)

Nextdoor.com

If you live in the area, Nextdoor.com will no doubt be a good resource because neighbors share info and photos/videos about the latest emergencies. You must join to use this site, by submitting your address. And with this site, you will only be able to see the Nextdoor.com that serves your area. So if you don’t live in the Sunset Mesa region, you won’t be able to see our Nextdoor.com, you’ll only be able to see the one that covers YOUR address.

Phone apps

PulsePoint app   an app for your phone that allows you use see alerts on calls being responded to by fire departments and EMTs.
Citizen app      an app for your phone that alerts you when crimes, emergencies and dangerous events happen in your area. Users near the scene can upload videos of what’s going on, so often there will be videos of the fire in question.

Highway closures

California Highway Patrol 
CALL 911 for emergency
Twitter: @CHPWestValley  (serves Malibu, Topanga Canyon, Agoura, Calabasas)
 
Caltrans District 7  (covers our area)
road closures  http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/

General help

Sheriff

Sunset Mesa is covered by the L.A. County Sheriff (which covers unincorporated Malibu).
The Lost Hills Station dispatches to Sunset Mesa.
Twitter: @LHSLASD
Instagram for Lost Hills Sheriff

Red Cross

If you need help finding shelter if you’ve been evacuated, call (323) 374-3525.   #RedCrossLA

City of Malibu

Sunset Mesa is not officially in the City of Malibu, but you should go here and sign up for City of Malibu Disaster Notifications. Any disaster  or alert that affects the City of Malibu invariably affects us in Sunset Mesa.
Then go to the general page here and there are several other layers of alerts you can sign up for, including lower-level emergencies such as lane closures, beach advisories (sewage spills), utility advisories (water main breaks or power outages), and weather advisories (dangerous wind, rain, heat and other).  I signed up for all of them, because our little area is so vulnerable. One lower-level emergency can affect so many things. I also find it useful to sign up for road closures, and lower level emergency advisories, since PCH is our only way in and our of here. It has paid off to be informed, for us at least! The city uses the Nixle notfication system to send traffic and low-level emergency advisories by text message and email (you choose your options).

News Sources

 
99.1 KBUU Radio Malibu    (from County Line to Big Rock; radio station owned and run by professional journalist Hans Laetz)
 
The Local Malibu     (a publication by activist Cece Woods)
Instagram: @thelocalmalibu
Website: The Local Malibu

Twitter feeds (if your preferred site to follow incidents is Twitter)

@lafd    (city of Los Angeles)
@laCoFDPIO     (official Twitter feed of L.A. County FD Public Info Office, for emergency incident-driven info)
@LACoFD   (official feed of the L.A. County Fire Dept.)   
@LAFDwest  (West bureau, which covers our area;  NOT AS UP TO DATE AS THE 2 ACCOUNTS ABOVE)
@LACoFireAirOps 
@CAL_FIRE     (Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection for the state)
@TCEP90290   (Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness)
@RedCrossLA  (Red Cross Los Angeles region, for those who need help in finding shelter overnight if evacuated)
@LHSLASD    (L.A. Sheriffs Dept. Lost Hills Station.  Lost Hills is the station that covers Sunset Mesa)
@LASDHQ  (L.A. County Sheriffs)
@CHPWestValley   (California Highway Patrol West Valley, which is the station that covers Sunset Mesa [unincorporated Malibu] )
@thelocalmalibu   
@991KBU    (99.1 KBUU Radio Malibu)
@TheMalibuTimes   (The Malibu Times)
@MalibuNews   (Malibu Surfside News)
@MalibuSAR   (Malibu Search and Rescue)
@NWSLosAngeles  (National Weather Service Los Angeles)

Lesser-Emergency Numbers for Sunset Mesa

Sheriff (Lost Hills Station, non-emergency):  818 878-1808

Edison (to report a power outage):  800 611-1911

SoCal Gas Co. (to report  gas leak or if you smell gas):  800 427-2200

Trash (Universal Waste Systems Inc.):  800 631-7016. Trash is picked up on Tuesday morning.   Office open M-F 8-5p, Sat 8-noon. We are in the County of Los Angeles Malibu Garbage Disposal District.
Trash holidays are Memorial Day, Labor Day, July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Bulk Pickup: free, unlimited bulky item pick-up service at any time of year (6 items per pickup; Thursday is bulk items day but you must call ahead to tell them what you have and reserve their time; you can’t just put it out on the curb without calling.)

Water District 29: 
Water emergency during working hours (water main break, etc.): 877 637-3661
Water emergency after-5 p.m. and weekends emergency line: 626 458-4357

Graffiti: If you notice graffiti in the Mesa, call neighbor John Lehne, who will eradicate it.  310 394-6463

SMPOA (Sunset Mesa Property Owners Association):
Website: Sunset Mesa
SMPOAboard@gmail.com, addressed to appropriate position (put President in subject line, or Treasurer, depending on what your problem is)
SunsetmesaAC@gmail.com (Architecture Committee)
Current president (May 2021) is Ed Weitzer

Air Quality
To see the air quality of our area (perhaps due to smoke from area fires?), go to a couple of different sites:
—Air Quality Index for Coastline Drive
—Plume Labs’ Air Quality in Santa Monica (closest reading)
—Air Quality for Pacific Palisades, from WeatherBug  (closest reading)
–this South Coast Air Quality Management District air quality map and click on “Current Hourly Air Quality Index Map.” Then put your address in, or simply hone in with your mouse on desktop until you can find Sunset Mesa, and you will get a reading.

Read more about Sunset Mesa

Here’s an article I wrote about Sunset Mesa for the L.A. Times. 

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