'Everybody is just numb': Palisades, California, grapples with broken community after fire

Palisades residents trickled back into the community on Thursday, hiking up the hill from the beach or pedaling in on bicycles. They needed to know: whose home survived?

Jimmy Dunne stopped on Sunset Boulevard in front of the charred remains of the Gelson’s market, one of a handful in town. His condo, and the 17 belonging to his neighbors, survived. Dunne hiked and hitchhiked his way into town and picked up his bicycle from home to survey the wreckage.

Many of the houses in the area surrounding the grocery store were entirely destroyed. So were community institutions, Dunne said, like schools, churches and the Gelson’s, where the market staff knew Dunne, his family and dogs by name.

“Everybody at this point is just numb,” he said.

The Palisades Fire erupted Tuesday and ripped through this coastal enclave. By Friday morning, the fire was 8% contained and scorched 20,438 acres ? an area about 24 times the size of Central Park in Manhattan.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County residents remained on edge as fires seemed to pop up all over the region. The second largest fire, Eaton in Altadena, stretched over 13,956 acres with 3% containment. The Kenneth Fire ignited suddenly Thursday afternoon in West Hills, on the Ventura County line, and quickly grew to 1,000 acres although it was at 35% containment.

Dunne has lived in Palisades for years, raising his children here. Though his home survived, he said he’s not yet sure if he will stay.

It’s little things like the Gelson’s being gone, but also bigger ones: Two of his children saw their homes burn down, and Dunne wants to be close to his grandchildren, wherever they are.

But Pacific Palisades, he said, will rebuild. The community is too strong, and the real estate between the hills and ocean too special.

“It’s going to be reshaped, that’s for sure,” he said. “It will find a way to make that work. “

'Is it going to be different next time?'

Along Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Palisades, some buildings had crumpled under the blaze, including small rows of shops near the Gelson’s.

Some stretches of stores remained untouched, with mannequins still posing in store windows and restaurant tables set for service that may never resume.

A duet of fire alarms rang in the distance and the emergency vehicles circulated the city streets.

A black convoy of SUVs pulled over on a side street in front of a burned strip mall. Gov. Gavin Newsom stepped out and wandered down the empty sidewalk, phone pressed to his ear.

A woman who said she was from the Palisades, wearing a microphone pack and accompanied by a camera crew, cornered Newsom as he returned to his vehicle, pleading for action in response to the water that had run out.

“Is it going to be different next time?” she asked.

“It has to be,” he replied.

'We've always known there was a huge fire danger'

Brian Lallement, 71, wandered down a sidewalk off Sunset Boulevard Thursday morning after checking on the status of his mother’s Pacific Palisades home.

Lallement grew up in the area and remembers his dad standing on the roof during the 1961 Bel Air fire, watering the house down with a hose.

“We’ve always known there was a huge fire danger here. We’ve packed up six, maybe seven, times,” he said.

This time, it was for good. His mother, in her 90s, had evacuated with the help of her caretaker. Her house did not make it, Lallement said.

Near Palisades High School Thursday morning, a group of five young men, all 2020 graduates of the campus, surveyed the school’s football field.

Much of the high school campus made it through the blaze after intense firefighting efforts, but at least one large structure and the football team’s clubhouse and weight area were burned.

The group, none of whom live in the city anymore, hiked up the road starting at 6:30 a.m. and were making the rounds to check on friends’ houses.

“It’s a wasteland, man,” said Will Falzarano, 22.

One of the group, Tomas Huttepain, 23, had recently moved out of his dad’s place in the city. The condominium had survived. Of the other homes the group checked, only about three in 10 made it through.

“It’s a biblical fire,” said Waka White, 22.

'We thought we would come back'

In the neighborhood north of Pacific Palisades city’s center — a pocket of single-family houses lining alphabetically arranged streets — only a few homes stood, visible from blocks away above the wreckage.

Sarah and Ben Treger rode borrowed electric bicycles through the neighborhood Thursday evening, checking on a list of addresses from a neighborhood group chat.

Near the end of the list was their own home, which they found collapsed in a pile of rubble. With gloved hands, Ben Treger shoveled through the debris, hunting for the box where he’d stashed a collection of family watches.

The couple had evacuated in a hurry, taking their two small children — 6 months and 21 months — to Santa Monica, where Ben’s parents live.

“We thought we would come back,” Sarah Treger said.

Ben Treger found the base of his office chair and a pair of singed, but intact metal paintings — “The ones I hate,” she said.

A white ceramic vase somehow remained intact, though it was still too hot to hold.

The small family doesn’t know where it will go next. Sarah Treger said she has been trying to find a nearby Airbnb, but they’re being booked so quickly the website’s calendars cannot keep up.

The emotions have come in waves for the couple. Their two children are still too young to know what is happening. The Tregers next stop might be on the East Coast, which doesn’t annually light on fire and where they can reset.

“We’ve been crying for days,” she said, watching her husband dig. “There’s something about being here that’s hopeful.”

From the pile of dust, the corner of a watch strap protruded. Ben tugged.

It was the remains of his grandfather’s watch, six decades old.

“I think it still tells time,” he joked, looking at the hunk of charred metal strap and watch case.

Ben kept digging, finding another few mangled watches and scraps. Then he kept digging.

Sarah kicked at the bushes in front of the house, which still held up strands of useless Christmas lights.

“I was embarrassed we hadn’t taken our lights down. How silly did that seem?” she said.

The Tregers packed the watches and the vase. Sarah plans to plant a flower in it, to remember.

“Honestly,” she said, “I feel like we’re going to come back."

The late afternoon sun tinged orange through the smoke still hanging to the north and west. There was still a list of addresses to check, and bikes to return.

Isaiah Murtaugh covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo for the Ventura County Star, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him on X at @isaiahmurtaugh.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Palisades residents grapple with ravaged community after fire damage