Private Firefighters Saved Caruso's Mall as 6,800 Structures Burned

Private firefighters hired by Caruso responded within hours when the Palisades Fire ignited in January 2025. They protected the developer's $200 million Palisades Village mall while more than 6,800 nearby structures perished.

The mall reopened recently after an 18-month smoke cleanup and refresh. Its surrounding Pacific Palisades neighborhood still shows charred lots, burned foundations, and homes under reconstruction.

Caruso's private firefighting service had been on standby before the fire started. Crews reached the property within hours of the first spark.

"We learned very early on that building systems and materials were very important, as well as fire prevention protocols and having an emergency response team on hand," says Corinne Verdery, CEO of Caruso.

How did Caruso build a fire brigade?

The plan dates back to December 2017. The Thomas Fire, one of California's largest, broke out near Montecito, the affluent Santa Barbara enclave where Caruso was building the 153-unit Rosewood Miramar Resort with wood framing just months from completion.

Local firefighters told Caruso the unoccupied site would receive no city help if flames arrived. The company accepted the reality and picked up the phone.

"We totally understood that," Verdery says. "So we immediately started making some phone calls."

Caruso hired a private firefighting outfit with its own trucks and water tanks. The firm staffed up with retired or off-duty firefighters. Crews stayed for weeks clearing brush, watering wood structures, and spraying fire-retardant gel when embers intensified. The construction site came through intact. The resort opened in March 2019.

What does the program cover now?

After Montecito, Caruso formalized the approach across its portfolio. Private firefighters now guard the firm's Southern California properties every fire season.

"They're part of our normal operating processes and procedures," Verdery says.

The portfolio includes The Grove, another Los Angeles shopping center. Both properties sit in wildfire-prone terrain. Crews were on call when the January 2025 fire broke out.

Rick Caruso, the company's billionaire founder who ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022 as a Republican, framed the model as community stewardship rather than pure asset protection in an emailed statement.

"Developers have a responsibility to be good stewards of the communities they serve, and that requires a long-term commitment," Caruso says.

What design choices kept the mall standing?

Materials carry as much weight as the fire crew. Tom Veje, Caruso's executive vice president of construction, lists the firm's standard specifications for every project in its portfolio.

• Plaster, brick, stone, and cementitious siding on exteriors
• Noncombustible poly-slate tile roofing
• Buried utility lines instead of overhead wires
• Sprinklers inside every building
• Screened attic vents that block airborne embers

"The codes are catching up with this and I'm pretty certain that, going forward, nobody will be building that way anymore," Veje says.

Veje's team treats every fabric awning with fire retardant before installation, keeping the developer's signature ornamental look while still meeting the firm's portfolio-wide fire-resilience standards. Every awning at Palisades Village survived the January fire with minor char marks.

"They may have had little char holes in them, but they didn't catch fire," Veje says.

What does this mean for the next wildfire?

Caruso's protocols run beyond standard building code. Most homeowners cannot afford them. Other developers may need to adopt pieces of the playbook as wildfire spreads into new zip codes.

Verdery says the January result shifted the company's appetite for risk, making fire-prone sites less of a concern as the developer weighs new opportunities across Southern California.

"Palisades Village, in the way that we built it, in the way that we operate it, and the way it was able to withstand that devastation, shows us that we can develop in these fire zones and still come out the other end," she says.

The next test arrives whenever Santa Ana winds return to Los Angeles.