A volunteer wildfire organization is building a permanent 24-hour dispatch center in Brentwood, aiming to speed up emergency response across the Santa Monica Mountains at a time when fuel moisture in the range has already dropped below critical levels.

Southern California Wildfire Response, a nonprofit staffed by trained firefighters and EMTs, told the Westside Current on Tuesday, Aug. 25, that construction on the facility near the Sepulveda Pass should be finished by mid-September. It will be the group's first dedicated command hub, replacing dispatch operations previously run out of a fire station off Coldwater Canyon.

Fire Chief Johnathan Martin said the location was chosen for its access to the Westside, the San Fernando Valley and the Palisades.

"Every call that comes in, every unit we send out, runs through dispatch," Martin said. "We were doing that out of a fire station. Now we've got a dedicated space built for it, and that's going to show up in how fast we can respond."

The center will not take 911 calls from the public. Martin described it as an interagency dispatch hub that will coordinate with Los Angeles city and county fire agencies, route SCWR crews to active incidents in real time and monitor weather and wildfire intelligence around the clock.

Born from the Palisades Fire chaos

The investment traces directly to Jan. 7, 2025, when the Palisades Fire erupted and pulled resources from across the city. SCWR had deployed crews to wildfire-prone areas of the San Fernando Valley days earlier, on Dec. 30, 2024, ahead of forecasted Santa Ana winds.

As public firefighters and equipment surged toward the Palisades, SCWR stayed in the Valley. Hours later the Hurst Fire broke out in Sylmar. According to SCWR's account, an urgent radio request for available resources was met with a dispatch reply that none existed. The organization also reported that 911 callers at times faced hold times exceeding 20 minutes, followed by roughly 30-minute response delays.

That night, SCWR crews handled smaller fires, directed traffic at blacked-out intersections, removed fallen trees and cleared downed traffic signals.

Timing and current conditions

The announcement lands during a week of extreme fire danger across Los Angeles County. The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for interior mountains and adjacent foothills, in effect through Saturday, Aug. 29. Temperatures in the lower mountains and foothills could reach 108 degrees, and the LA Times reported that both the LA County Fire Department and LAFD have pre-positioned extra resources citywide.

In the Santa Monica Mountains, fuel moisture samples had already dipped below the 60% critical threshold by mid-August. That's the level at which firefighters say larger fires become more likely.

Southern California Edison was also considering Public Safety Power Shutoffs for about 5,700 customers, roughly 4,000 of them in Los Angeles County, due to heightened wildfire risk.

What SCWR is

Founded in 2021, SCWR operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. It grew out of LAIT911, a real-time emergency information platform that SCWR says as many as 100,000 people used at its peak during the January 2025 fires. The platform provides live fire locations, evacuation routes, aircraft tracking and radio traffic.

The Brentwood dispatch center is expected to be operational by mid-September, though no public opening date has been announced.