A Los Angeles family in the Palisades Highlands shared this week how they used their swimming pool, a generator, sprinkler, pump and a fire hose to save their house from the wildfires, which have destroyed thousands of homes. 

The system is “very budget friendly and easy to operate,” Instagram user Cali_._love wrote along with a video showing them pumping water out of their pool and spraying it on vegetation around their hillside home.  

“There is no doubt in my mind that this generator, pump, pool, sprinkler and fire hose contributed to saving our family home,” Cali_._love wrote. “My dad was so adamant about all the neighbors having one. He was correct as he has been so many times in his career.” 

They said they drained two swimming pools — theirs and their neighbors — running their equipment for 10 hours over two days, soaking the plants and their roof “just to come back the next day to find the bottom half of the palm tree burnt along with the whole hillside.

The system is “very budget friendly and easy to operate,” Instagram user Cali_._love  wrote along with a video showing them pumping water out of their pool and spraying it on vegetation around their hillside home.   (cali_._love/Instagram)

“Since we were in the area we did our rounds on the neighbors’ homes and our dear family friends,” they added. “We encountered a lot of threatening embers and live fire. It was a challenge to put them all out but we did the best we could with buckets and their pools. If they had this, we would have been 100x more efficient.”

A home reduced to ashes during the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025.  (Michael Nigro/Bloomberg via Getty Images)