Palisades Fire: Uncertainty and chaos for residents trying to get news of homes

Ellen Silverman was among a group of residents waiting Saturday for a police escort to get back to her home on Chautauqua Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.

At one checkpoint at Mandeville Canyon Road and Sunset Boulevard, police officers took residents into evacuation zones while members of the National Guard stationed themselves at the entry point. Residents waited for hours to visit their homes and grab medicine and other mementos.

When the Palisades Fire took off Tuesday, Silverman initially evacuated to Santa Monica only to leave again when that area had also been evacuated. She left with only a change of clothes and some family photos she managed to grab.

“It’s uncertainty, and it’s chaos,” she said of the situation. “But we’re here and we’re safe, I think. I’m not sure, but I think.” 

The fire has since scorched its way from Pacific Palisades across nearly 24,000 acres of Los Angeles County. It is the largest of several that erupted Tuesday and following days amid raging Santa Ana winds.

Silverman said she did not know the status of her house but she has friends from the area who lost homes and at least one whose was thought to still be standing. She had seen a satellite image that suggested her house may have been destroyed, but it had been hard to tell for sure.

Silverman said that unlike many of those who had waited in line, she understood the concerns about safety and looting that had led police to require an escort even as she found the wait frustrating. 

Still, she said it’s hard to think of the loss of the home she designed and the family heirlooms it contained, which included items from Europe where her parents came to the U.S. as refugees. She said it’s also been difficult to hear about the destruction of children’s schools. 

Frustration brews; 'It's ridiculous'

Among those waiting for the required police escort to get back up to Pacific Palisades was Al Kini, who has lived in the area for 45 years. He said he had already learned his son’s house had burned, and he now wanted to check on his own.

“I wish I could know what happened to my car, my house,” he said. “I don’t know anything. It’s been almost a week.”

When the Palisades Fire erupted Tuesday, Kini said his family fled to a hotel with almost nothing. He was wearing the same outfit he wore the day he fled. 

He added that he was concerned if his house was lost and about finding a new place to live. Kini said he expects there will be a rush to rent homes at a time when housing is already expensive.

Kini said the government’s handling of the fires has shaken his belief in America.

“We are living in America not in Afghanistan or Africa. This is the United States of America,” he said. “There is no water.” 

Kini said he was surprised to see the handling of the situation.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said, adding the government response was particularly frustrating given how much the public pays in taxes. 

“What can I say? I am really desperate, really angry about the situation. It’s horrible,” he said. “We have no power, and they don’t do anything.

"They’re just talking, talking, talking. They suck you dry, and they don’t give you any services.” 

'You can't relax'

David Carlin waited his turn Saturday for a police escort to the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood.

Carlin, who had been waiting for four hours, was trying to get home to grab some things he left in the rush to evacuate, including medication and a priceless autograph by legendary baseball player Ty Cobb. He had been staying at a hotel in Culver City since he evacuated around 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Carlin said that up until Friday he knew his and his neighbors' houses had been unscathed because some of them had been able to monitor security cameras at their homes. But with the power cut off to the area on Friday, he said they have now been relying on TV reports that provide comparatively less certainty although he said his area had not been burned as far as he knew.

“We accept the fact that our house might go, but for now it’s still there,” he said.

But he said the knowledge that if one house in the canyon burns they all likely will mean he can’t take much solace in his house apparently being unscathed so far. On Saturday, the news that the fire was moving toward the canyon brought new worries.

“If you ask anybody, it’s been hell. You can’t relax,” he said. “Even if there is good news, it could change in five minutes.”

'Nobody thought it would get this bad'

Leonardo Rojas-Garcia’s life has been touched by both the Palisades and Eaton fires.

He lives in Altadena but had been working as part of a team that was building one home and remodeling another in the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood.

Rojas-Garcia had been with the crew at one of the job sites on the day the fires began. He said they decided to leave at 2 p.m. because they thought traffic would be bad and figured they would probably be back the next day.

“It didn’t turn out like that,” he said.

Rojas-Garcia said he got “so lucky” that his Altadena home was unharmed but said many nearby homes were not. His uncle’s home, which was nearby, was among those destroyed.

“It’s just heartbreaking,” he said. 

Rojas-Garcia said he wants to help rebuild Altadena.

“Such beautiful homes just gone,” he said.

On Saturday, Rojas-Garcia to be escorted by police into the neighborhood. He said he was hoping to check whether one of the job sites had been burned and retrieve important paperwork and thousands of dollars of tools that they left at the site. The other site had been destroyed.

“I should’ve just pulled my tools out,” he said before, noting that at the end of the day tools can always be replaced. “It’s 20/20 hindsight, but nobody thought it would get this bad,” Rojas-Garcia said.

Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and email him at [email protected].