Patty Burns, a 93-year-old with a sparkling memory, has lived in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles for more than 60 years. She always kept a black suitcase filled with important documents at the ready, in case of a fire.
On Tuesday, she needed it.
Her daughter, who lives just up the road, arrived at her doorstep that morning to usher her out of the house. Flames, propelled by heavy winds, were already raging across the Santa Monica mountains in what would become the most damaging fire in LA history.
Burns grabbed her medication, paused to put on a pair of dark blue dangly earrings, and then left her house for what would be the last time. “We’ve feared this for years,” she said. “I keep on thinking of things I need to do around the house or things I need to get. But it’s all gone.”
The Palisades fires have burnt about 20,000 acres, destroyed 5,000 structures and killed at least two people. Block upon block has been razed, leaving the area looking like the aftermath of a bombing raid. And four days on, the fires are still burning — in the Palisades and other neighbourhoods across LA and its suburbs.
This week’s devastation has further rattled a city that has been juggling multiple social and economic problems. LA is still struggling to get to grips with a homelessness crisis and a lack of affordable housing. Its most visible industry — Hollywood — is grappling with the disruptive impact of the streaming revolution and the aftermath of lengthy strikes. Studios halted work this week on productions in LA because of the fires.
And now LA faces an expensive recovery effort in badly damaged communities across the city, with estimates for financial losses from the fires reaching more than $150bn, according to AccuWeather. All as LA prepares to host the Olympics in 2028.
The Palisades, known for its winding streets, fabulous ocean views, deep canyons, modern architectural masterpieces and Hollywood celebrity residents, has been one of the most desirable addresses in the US for decades.
But this week the winding hillside roads that make the area so dramatic were transformed into hellish evacuation routes. Traffic crawled to a standstill as the blaze loomed in the hills behind. Scores of drivers abandoned their Teslas and Priuses, opting to flee on foot as the blaze ripped down the canyons.
While firefighters struggled to contain the fires in the Palisades, flames erupted in other parts of LA: first towards Santa Monica, where some residents were told to evacuate, then to Altadena, about 30 miles to the east.
Over the following two days, more fires emerged in the Hollywood Hills — dangerously close to the Hollywood sign and other landmarks — Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley.
The blazes were fanned by the dry, seasonal Santa Ana winds, and there was ample fuel thanks to months of drought conditions.
The effort to beat back the flames has been fraught. The strong winds, which have reached hurricane levels at times, grounded the helicopters and “super scooper” aeroplanes that are used to douse flames from the air. The Palisades struggled periodically with low water pressure, hindering firefighters on the ground who found that fire hydrants were dry.
Almost 400,000 residents of LA county were either under evacuation orders or warnings by late Thursday. Many houses safely away from the burning hills filled with friends who had lost their homes or were unsure if they were still standing.
“This is like a wealthy-person refugee crisis,” said Brydon Gerus, an app developer who also owns a branding agency. Gerus’s house in the Palisades burnt down on Tuesday, forcing his family to stay with friends in Brentwood.
“We just have the clothes that we’re wearing. That’s it,” he said. “We have to get more acquainted with the idea that everything’s going to be gone.”
California governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency, and President Joe Biden released federal funds to pay for temporary housing, home repairs and loans to cover uninsured property losses.
But the fires have already become political, with president-elect Donald Trump blaming Newsom for the crisis. And in LA, Mayor Karen Bass has been criticised for being part of a delegation to Ghana when the fires broke out, which critics say slowed the response.
The fires in Altadena have been highly destructive, with between 4,000 and 5,000 structures thought to be damaged or destroyed. Among them was the new home purchased recently by Jake, a musician, and his wife, who were attracted to the up-and-coming area near the San Gabriel Mountains.
“We got married about a year ago and have been saving up. We had literally just bought our house,” he said. “We spent our first night in the house a week ago. The boxes were not fully unpacked yet.”
They packed “go bags” when they heard about the Palisades fires. They evacuated after the winds began whipping trees around their house on Wednesday, and discovered that their new home had burnt down from a television clip.
Jake has house insurance from California’s Fair Plan, but he knows it will not cover all the losses. “We’re working on insurance claims and trying to figure out what to do next,” he said. “The entire town of Altadena is burnt out.”
In the Palisades, there are concerns about the fate of several mid-20th century modern landmark buildings, such as the Eames House, built in 1949 by Charles and Ray Eames. The couple and other architects, including Richard Neutra, built many groundbreaking Case Study houses in the Palisades that helped form the modern, open style that became associated with the rugged Pacific coast.
“We’ve never had a fire of this calibre in terms of the sheer size,” said Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy. “It’s quite intense in terms of what we potentially are looking at in terms of losses to historic places, not just individual buildings, but entire neighbourhoods.”
Some properties have already burnt down, including the Keeler House, a modernist building built by Ray Kappe in 1991, said Fine. But it is not only modern architectural landmarks that are being lost.
William Fowler, an app developer who evacuated from Topanga Canyon, in the Santa Monica Mountains, said more humble places would also be missed. He said the Malibu Feed Bin, a rustic barnlike structure where people bought animal feed and firewood, had burnt down, as well as The Reel Inn, a fish and chip shop along the Pacific Coast Highway.
“Loads of things won’t be the same,” he said. But he believed people would still want to live on LA’s coast, despite the devastation of the fires.
“Everyone knows the risks,” he said. “People will want to build again in the Palisades.”
Cartography by Steven Bernard
Read the full article here
