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California Resident Credited With Creating Homemade Water Pump That Saved Home from L.A. Fire

By Kiri Blakeley
January 21, 2025

While the Los Angeles fires have destroyed up to 20,000 structures and left tens of thousands of people displaced, some homes have miraculously escaped the blazes.

One white mansion in Malibu, owned by Waste Management CEO David Steiner, shockingly survived despite all the homes on either side of it burning to the ground. Highly fire-resistant materials are likely to thank for the oceanside mansion's narrow escape.

But Palisades Highlands father and son, Gene and Patrick Golling, credit the survival of their house—when most in the neighborhood perished—to a homemade water pump and their swimming pool.