Fire Comes Dangerously Close to the Getty Center and Villa—How It Built a Fire-Resistant Fortress for Its Art

The Palisades fires are not only causing death and destruction, but they’re also testing the limits of an iconic landmark.

The Getty Center and Villa was threatened by the fast-moving fires, but officials were quick to calm fears about the priceless collections housed inside.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles contains some of the most valuable works of art in the world. Monet, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Turner, and Rubens are a small fraction of the world-famous names housed in the museum’s collections.

On Tuesday, the grounds around the adjacent Getty Villa, which contains artifacts and antiquities from Rome and Greece, caught fire.

“There is no need to evacuate the art or archives, because they are already in the safest place possible: the Getty Center itself,” says the museum’s website. “Both indoors and outdoors, its materials, design, construction, operations, and controls are purpose-built for safety.”

The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, where the Los Angeles fires have been mostly concentrated, was already closed to the public on Tuesday when a fire reached its grounds.

Katherine E. Fleming, president and chief executive officer of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement that the villa itself had not been touched.

“The Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades remains safe and intact this morning. … While trees and vegetation on the property have burned, Getty structures have been unaffected, and thankfully, both staff and the collections are safe,” read her statement.

“Fortunately, Getty had made extensive efforts to clear brush from the surrounding area as part of its fire mitigation efforts throughout the year. Additional fire prevention measures in place at the Villa include water storage on-site. Irrigation was immediately deployed throughout the grounds Tuesday morning. Museum galleries and library archives were sealed off from smoke by state-of-the-art air handling systems. The double-walled construction of the galleries also provides significant protection for the collections.”

The villa will remain closed to nonemergency staff until at least Jan. 12.

The Getty Museum is located 20 minutes away from Pacific Palisades. According to the latest Los Angeles Times wildfire map, fires are spreading in that direction.

Fierce fires

According to a blog post written in October 2019 after a major brush fire that consumed over 600 acres to the north and west of the Getty Center, there is no safer place for art than inside the museum.

California is no stranger to wildfires and the Getty Center (a sprawling campus with 12 separate buildings) is a “marvel of anti-fire engineering,” according to the website.

All of the Getty buildings on its grounds are constructed from highly fire-resistant stone, concrete, and protected steel, according to the website. Roofs are also covered with fire-resistant stone aggregate.

The campus also features wide-open travertine plazas with extensive open space around the buildings to slow down a fire, and the landscaping is well-irrigated and regularly cleared of brush.

The buildings are equipped with sprinklers and a special air filtration system to keep out smoke and ash, and the various galleries are “self-contained modules”—buildings within the buildings.

“With separations, if a fire starts, it doesn’t have the ability to travel,” Mike Rogers, Getty’s director of facilities, said in the post.

“The Getty gallery rooms are actually separate vaults that can be completely sealed,” fire safety expert Jessica Lauren, at Fire Damaged House Aid, tells Realtor.com®. “The Getty museums have an amazing system of protections.”

She adds: “There is a complex system that mists the roofs to keep fire embers from igniting. It also ‘spritzers’ the building exterior. Both museums have their own water supply, so they’re not reliant on municipal supplies. Malibu has a history of wildfires, and the interior and exterior design at both Gettys directly address the dangers.”

Fire safety expert Daniel Vasilevski, owner of Sydney, Australia-based BrightForce Electrical adds: “The Getty Museum is usually described as fireproof, but it’s more accurate to call it highly fire-resistant or fire-retardant. While no building is completely immune to fire under extreme conditions, the Getty is designed to withstand wildfires in ways that few structures can match.”

“The Getty Museum seems to be in a much better position regarding fire safety than your average building,” Steve Lockwood, owner of Mountain State Fire Protection, tells Realtor.com.

However, “fires can be unpredictable,” warns Lockwood, who has over 30 years of working in the fire safety industry.

Realtor.com has reached out to the Getty Trust and the Getty Museum for comment.