Our Story

 March 11th, 2025

BREAKING NEWS! Real!ze Safety Wildfire Protection is accepting deposits for our product release and 5% off their entire purchase. Reserve yours today by using the following link: Early Buyer Deposit

January 25th, 2025

Real!ze Safety commits to developing their first product line designs for urban wildfire protection.  Real!ze Safety is a Pressing Enterprise, the collaboration of Pressing Enterprises, Inc and Golling Group, Inc, who together bring our backgrounds in Complex Systems Engineering, Corporate Disciplines, Business Development, Product Realization, including design, integration and manufacturing, and Residential and Commercial Real Estate experience.   We share a passionate desire to Real!ze Safety by first advancing urban wildfire protection as a community effort. 

Our Overall Mission

  Mitigate Short Term Loss of Municipal Services during Emergencies

January 21, 2025 

Patrick Golling releases the following in response to millions of social media hits and hundreds of direct connections, inquiries and well wishes made in response to his family's Palisades Fire experience: 

Thank you for all the amazing responses my family and I have received regarding our experience preparing for, then saving our home from the ravages of the Palisades Fire. I would like to extend my condolences to everyone affected by the fires in Los Angeles and anywhere wildfires threaten people’s lives and homes. The repercussions of these fires reach very deep. Not just affecting families and communities but also surrounding natural habitats and wildlife.  

My name is Patrick Golling, and I am very honored to have grown up in Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades. My family and I lived in the Huntington Palisades until 2003, when I turned 16. I now live in Marina Del Rey with my wife Rachel. We are excited to be expecting our first child and cannot wait to introduce him to the world!  Rachel and I love our drives around the Palisades, especially during Halloween and Christmas time.

Just a few weeks ago we drove throughout the Huntington Palisades admiring all the decorations. Today is a vastly different environment. This area is where dreams are made and never in a million years would I have dreamed that the Palisades would be devastated by this level of fire. Nature has a unique and sometimes cruel way of proving us wrong. But we learn.

From all situations we can extract good.  My hope is that we can all be better prepared for the next challenge coming our way. We don’t know when, we don’t know where, but we do know wildfires will come. A dream of mine has been to incorporate as many beneficial, locally environmentally sustainable ideas as possible. I do understand it is not always possible and often out of our immediate control, but that premise and my desire still stands.

In our case, my father has a swimming pool at the house, which is a bit of a luxury, while not being a completely environmentally friendly luxury, but the pool water became our source of preservation.  

Many have asked me to share the depth of our story and emotions related to the Palisades Fire that started in the Pacific Palisades Highlands just over a week ago on January 7th, 2025.  

Our story begins early August 2024. My father, Eugene Golling (84 years old), his wife, and their 3 younger children live in the Highlands area, about 3 miles uphill from the world-famous Sunset Blvd. The Highlands are scenic, affluent, and private, with a high fire risk due to the immersion into the Santa Monica mountains. 

My father anticipated the threat potential and made a decision to get a device to access his pool water when conditions warned of localized fire. Our pump system is not a simple product that you can just buy off the shelf.  This unique pump and hose system was specifically recommended and set up by David of Brush Fire Battle Systems. David has become one of the most important people that I have been lucky enough to have met. The craziest part is that I didn’t even meet David until after the Palisades Fire.

David consulted with us to set up a home and property defense system that was appropriate for my father and my younger brother Evan (17 years old) to operate. David was spot on! Our system worked precisely and accurately. It reached exactly where it was supposed to and performed right when needed. His expertise brought us a way to spare our home and property and for that we are grateful. As simple as a water pump sounds, operating it in the moment is not simple. David provided so much knowledge beyond the pump system about our home protection needs. There are many things every homeowner can do to prepare themselves for a wildfire.  I will do my best to outline them here. Full disclosure: I am not a fire expert, nor do I claim to be. I am sharing my experiences and hope it can help to educate and prepare people who live with the threat of wildfires. 

One step for wildfire protection is to upgrade home exterior vents to ember-resistant vents. This helps prevent embers from entering your home and works well in heavy winds. We did not upgrade our vents, but what I learned is that it is a smart thing to do. 

Another home fire protection method is to move your exterior furniture at least 6 feet away from your house. This was a bit trickier for us to understand, because some of the furniture was made of wood. It felt counterintuitive to move it into open space, closer to open flames, but the wood furniture could easily become fuel to accelerate the fire right next to the house. This was a sacrifice to protect our structure, but the day of the fire we moved the furniture.  

The most challenging, but most important part of our preparation was brush clearance. After consulting with David, my father scheduled brush clearing immediately. Brush clearing was so critical to successfully save our home. It is something that everyone should do today to protect your home! In our case, we removed dead branches and bags full of dry leaves that had been accumulating. We even shucked numerous palm trees that had dry palms. The brush would be more fuel that would grow the fire, and the goal is to not have to even have fire to fight. So, wherever possible, don’t give the fire any more fuel to ignite. This was the most critical piece of advice we followed.  

The star of the show was our water pump. The equipment contained a hand-pull gasoline powered motor which was crafted and set up by David. The equipment was uniquely designed for our house and property and the environment in which we live and contained a mobile sprinkler and a fire hose. It pumped water out of our pool and fed both the sprinkler and the hose. The sprinkler is adjustable and can spin a full 360 degrees. It can also be confined to a smaller spray window. The sprinkler was a great tool for creating a perimeter around what we wanted to protect. The fire hose can be used at free will. We used the hose to spray our pool water onto the roof.

I have received so many requests, and I understand that everyone is asking for a link to a product, a product list, and instructions to create what we have and more. Our configuration was supplied by David - curated uniquely for us. Our setup was a great performance baseline. As of now, these systems are on backorder. Are the components out there? Yes. Is there some training or experience needed to work a water pump? Yes. If you have any experience with motors, pumps, and plumbing it is very feasible to set up your own system. The reality is that most of us are not.

Our training prepared us for what we later discovered as the most critical day of protecting us from the Palisades Fire. From 6pm to midnight on Wednesday, January 8th we set up the property perimeter defense. At that point we had already drained most of our pool. So, we brought the pump to the neighbor's house which was located just upwind. From here we had a better vantage point to saturate the plants on the side of the house and the large Sylvester palm tree that is in the corner of the back patio. We set up the sprinkler head to rotate about 120 degrees and let it spray, back and forth, wetting everything in between. We also had our handheld hose and sprayed as much of the neighbor's backyard as possible. During that evening, we were also very eager to check on a number of family friends’ homes in the neighborhood. When we left, we tied up the hose to a wall mounted light and directed all the water to our roof and let it saturate to fend off any embers in the smartest and least dangerous fashion we knew. 

During the next several late-night hours on Wednesday January 8th, Eugene, Evan, and I were working together to monitor the conditions on our street as well as checking on friends in the Highlands area. Since I was a child we have been welcomed into the home of our friends Klaus and Jennifer. This visit was a unique one.  

Upon safe arrival to Klaus and Jennifer’s house we encountered a bit of a situation. Their house is definitely one of those aforementioned affluent homes that supports their unique hobbies which include growing wine grapes on the hillside below their expansive deck. And yes, they have a pool. We did not have a pool pump to work at their house, but you better believe we wish we did - so we took to being a bucket brigade using their pool water!

We got straight to work and continued the cycle of monitoring and guarding homes across the neighborhood as best we could. Approximately every hour we returned to the pool pump guarding our house. We prioritized the ever-so important and delicate task of refilling gasoline for the motor. We continued the rotation of home monitoring until about midnight and refilled our gas tank multiple times. We then left the area and headed to Marina Del Rey to get some sleep.

At around noon on the following day, Thursday January 8th, we made our way back up to our house. We were tired and weren’t quite sure how to feel during the ride. Our uncertainty was quickly dismissed when we pulled up to a beautiful standing house with intact neighbors’ homes. It was amazing!  

We rushed to the backyard and were both shocked and pleased. The fire encroached as far as the defensive water curtain we set up with the exception of one spot. Our Sylvester palm tree was burnt on the bottom half, but the top with all the palm fronds was not! There is no doubt in my mind that we needed every drop of water we put on that palm tree to prevent it from igniting, creating more embers and spreading into something much more aggressive that would have taken down the wall of plants in between our house and the neighbors and then easily spread to both roofs. Our training and preparation in advance saved the house.  

This was a very special moment. To come back and see that our home defense strategy worked and that we were safe ourselves is priceless. We joyously were able to share this with our family who were understandably concerned for our safety. We are not professionals. We don’t know anyone’s circumstances and don’t want to make specific recommendations to anyone. Each house is different. Each property has a layout that should be uniquely considered. Please prepare knowing your environment and the equipment that works best for your situation.

My father, my brother, and I learned so much about our equipment in the 2 days we operated it under live emergency conditions, and we made some mistakes. We trained ourselves about once a month, but the real-life scenario completely changes the game. Our lessons learned should make us even more prepared for the next fire danger.  

We learned to place additional tools in the emergency kit. We learned to add more supporting supplies which can make our firefighting equipment more effective, and we are thinking about ideas to be even more mobile to better assist beyond our home perimeter and have made contact with someone who has the experience to lead a team to develop a system that could be uniquely integrated into homes at scale.

Currently the cart that we got from David at Brush Fire Battle Systems is not in stock. He has been working around the clock to respond to all who are interested but he can only do so much. We are working together to come up with a plan to make these available to the community in an efficient and timely manner. I will be sending an email update as we have more information on the supply of pumps.  

The Honda gas powered motors seem to be the top choice. But, like anything, the more practice and training with your tools the better suited you will be, no matter what those tools might be. For anyone looking to start protecting their home today - please - start your brush clearance now. Do it yourself or hire a landscaper.  Those who know your property well should be the first to understand and put together a routine maintenance plan. 

In difficult times like these we must pull together to learn from today’s mistakes to be prepared for a brighter tomorrow. We can extract good from the horrifying and learn how to be more successful next time.  

We express our thanks to the endless teams that were on the front lines fighting this fire. In times like these we should all keep all the families that have been impacted by this fire in our hearts. This goes beyond the residents of the Palisades, the amazing people who have lived in the Palisades community for so long. These heartfelt thoughts include the teachers, landscapers, community servants, restaurant staff, and everything involved, so of whom lost their lives. The memories of the Palisades shall live in our minds and hearts as we rebuild and create new memories.  

To all the people who have reached out to learn more about how we used our equipment - Thank You! This story is surreal and with the momentum gained on social media we can hope it can give more people who want it a chance to defend their homes and help their community. We are now providing our experience as users to work with those who can bring you refined, proven, effective systems in an efficient manner. Everyone - stay vigilant with the existing fire danger and we will continue to work hard to provide an opportunity to get a system for their home.  

At the time of writing this on Sunday January 19th I have been into the Palisades disaster area multiple times.  Each time we go in with the media to share our story is painful. We have had a chance to explore nearly every block. I feel deep empathy with those that will be going soon to see for themselves for the first time. It hurts.  

The community will come back, but differently, and at different paces. We met neighbors who never left, never lost power, and never ran out of supplies, including cleaning supplies so they can at least keep clean as they continue there. We met another couple with some health concerns who were visiting their older home. He expressed that he does not see a way back in the foreseeable future. My hope is that everyone can, at their own pace, support each other in the process of moving forward.  

I will be sending updates on our progress to make even more efficient, effective fire safety systems for home use available to all. I believe that the feedback from our experience can be implemented into newer, more modern designs. I do, however, want to stress the importance of acting ahead of time on the steps that can be taken before the fire is an immediate threat. Protect yourselves as best as possible first! 

Defense against wildfires can become a community effort if we take some level of action to be prepared. If you have not submitted your email, please do so by clicking on the link. This allows us to share our story with a wider audience and see how we can best facilitate getting equipment available to others in the community. 

January 14, 2025 

After seeing Patrick Golling of the Golling Group interviewed on television, Tony Robinson of Pressing Enterprises makes a call to Patrick to discuss collaboration to serve communities first, based on the Golling family's direct experience.  Tony discussed the similar direct experience of his friends who defended their Arizona property during the 2002 Rodeo Chedeski fire.  The intent is to use Pressing Enterprises' well-established Product Realization, Complex Systems Engineering and Corporate Discipline models to establish viable product designs to serve those who are in danger of wildfires, wish to protect their property and have lost primary municipal services.  Patrick accepts Tony's proposal in principle and the next day Tony goes to the Los Angeles area for a series of discussions, agreements and goal setting.   Real!ze Safety is born!