Our Fire Story, Part III

It was January 10, 2025

Three days after the fire…..

We woke up for the third morning of what would end up being nearly 6 weeks in hotels.

Another blessing amidst the darkness was how easy it was to be completely in the moment. While relearning to be ‘in the now’ is something that I, and many others, work on as a daily practice, being entirely upended, literally having the entire foundations whisked away from under one’s feet proved to the the strongest impetus to be right there because… what else was there?

Any semblance of what even the very near future held was a giant question mark.

In one way, it was reminiscent of college – not being sure where you’d move next after the first year in the dorm, not having many possessions to speak of…. But in college, there was a clear sense of knowing what the path was.

Right after the fire, not quite.

Chris immediately took on his additional full time ( dealing with the aftermath – filing claims, dealing with Fair Plan and beginning a search for a rental) which was anything but simple given the sudden and gigantic jump in demand for housing for the approximated 150,000 people displaced in the two fires combined.

Anyone with large dogs knows the extra challenge that comes with finding a rental which is both dog-friendly and, to be frank, not gross.

Yves’ school burned as well, and while the incredible director began to search for a new location right away, it would be weeks before they found a new place to land.

Many of his classmates had family or relatives somewhat nearby and relocated right away to Orange County, San Diego, Palm Springs as well as other places further away.

We took a one day at a time approach.

Super basic and complicated at the same time.

Find a place to live.

Try to wrap our heads around the loss, which for me, seemed greater every day.

The first loss was that of our home.

And then the loss of so many friends’ homes.

And then the loss of the community sank in.

Keep in mind, I barely ever left the Palisades.

On a weekly basis, I drove about 20 miles. I’d walk Yves to school, run to the pool to swim or go on a run. Work from home. Walk to the village if needed. Walk to pick Yves up from School. Go on our daily walk with the dogs around the neighborhood. Really the only times I drove were to the Santa Monica and Brentwood Farmer’s Markets, to the kitchen downtown and to the occasional dentist or doctors appointment in West LA.

And then, the loss of so many people, tens of thousands, who may not have lived in the Palisades, but who worked there.

Our ‘family’ of incredible people who helped us with our garden, cleaning the house, walking the dogs.

People who became friends that ran the dry cleaner, the nail salon, Cafe Vida and worked in the shops.

All.
Completely.
Gone.

To say that this experience is incomprehensible isn’t even enough,

It’s nothing we ever even imagined in our darkest nightmares.

A flood, maybe (in fact, we’ve had a flood- two, actually! $250 K in damage which both of us would swap in a heartbeat if we had the chance).

An earthquake, sure.

But a fire? That takes out the entire village?

Never. Not in a million years.

We spent the next 6 weeks in a total of 5 hotels and staying with friends, both nearby and not so close (including a close friend of Chris’ who invited us to take a breather in Park City).

We landed in a cute beach rental in Malibu West which resonated with me, as it seemed being so close to the water (which is far enough from the burn scar to not be in the middle of it) would be quite grounding.

Yves’ school reopened in a new location (Westwood) about six weeks after the fire, and although we tried our best, the combination of traveling on PCH (even with our pass) with the road closure and random checkpoints installed by the national guard and LAPD when people starting making fake passes to get in to loot, the sometimes 2 hour drive to get to the new place was just too much.

Fortunately, we found another school much closer where Yves will be going to complete this school year.

We’re finding our feet around here; where to swim, where to go to yoga, and traveling into Santa Monica + Brentwood twice per week thus far has been working out.

Close enough to feel connected but not too close to be in the middle of all of the tangible ghosts everywhere starting at Carbon Beach all the way through to Chautauqua up Sunset all the way past Amalfi.

So here we are.

Taking in a day at a time. Mostly feeling ok, but still, it’s quite simply just… sad.

When a friend or client or even a stranger asks what they can do, I wish I had something intelligent to reply.

I believe it’s just a matter of the passage of time, now.