The Palisades Fire: My Story
January 7, 2025
It wasn’t just any Tuesday. It was the first Tuesday of a brand new year! My start-in-2025 healthy habits had kicked off. I made it to the 7am class at my gym that day. I decided to forego my daily morning walk because the Santa Ana winds were particularly bad. I showered, made breakfast, and got ready for my work day.
11AM: I started the second work call of the day. I was on a Zoom with a client and a business partner team. I recall that I made sure I was ready to dive into an intricate subject for 60 minutes. I had my water filled and my coffee all set on my desk, because this call was to discuss permissions and roles. If you work in my field, you understand that this subject is not exciting by any means. It’s complex and demands complete attention. This is exactly why I started to get annoyed in the middle of it…
11:20AM: I heard some fire trucks and emergency services going by. This was nothing new really. Our home was ON Sunset Boulevard, and my desk faced the window along Sunset Boulevard. I was used to hearing these noises, especially since there was a fire station just down the road.
11:30AM: I was still hearing the sirens. It was distracting! All my efforts to stay focused on my client’s complex subject matter were being interrupted. What the heck was going on?! That’s when I turned my phone over. It was on silent, but I could see I was receiving a lot of alerts and text messages. I held off on checking them and decided to tell everyone on the Zoom that I needed to hop off and find out what was happening. I walked to John’s office and saw that he, too, was getting off his work call. We both walked out front and instantly saw the dark cloud of smoke west of us. Only then, did I start to read my missed messages and notifications to learn that a fire had started in Pacific Palisades, on Palisades Drive, which was the only road in and out of a neighborhood called The Highlands. That’s when the panic set in. First, because that wasn’t far from my stepdaughter’s ("M’s”) school. Second, my friend Tiffany lived in The Highlands and was often home during the day.
John got a text from the school that said parents should pick up their kids immediately. Then he heard from M’s mom that she was taking care of that. Whew. (We would later find out about the horrifying and traumatic experience that the children and staff of Marquez Charter Elementary School went through.)
I tried calling Tiffany. It went straight to voicemail. More panic. Tiffany’s mom called me. She couldn’t get a hold of her either. We both tried calming one another down. I messaged Tiffany’s husband “once you pick up the girls you all can come over here.”
The alerts said the fire was growing fast. We saw this in real time from our driveway. Mandatory evacuation orders were set for the area only two miles from us. We told our friend Adam, who lived in that area, to come over to our place. Adam packed two large bags for himself, his kids, and his wife. He and the dog walked outside of their home to find that the traffic wasn’t even moving. So he began to walk to our home.
Eventually, Tiffany’s mom heard from her. She was safe. She had a front-row seat to the fire, but it was moving away from her. Firefighters were all around her neighborhood. I started to calm down. Tiffany was OK. M was OK. We awaited our friends heading to us and were ready to have a house full of guests for as long as was needed.
12:30PM: John and I kept monitoring our phones and the news, but we truly thought the situation had peaked. We returned some calls. I checked the laundry. I cooked a piece of salmon for lunch. Then, John said I should come outside. I walked out to the driveway again, and I could see the flames on the top of a nearby mountain. The fire was at Temescal Canyon State Park, an area we frequently visited and drove by. An area that was one mile from our home. The panic resumed. Did M and her mom’s family evacuate in time?! What about the school?! What about all of our friends who lived toward that side of the Palisades?! WHAT THE F IS HAPPENING?!
12:45PM: Adam arrived at our home with his dog. He had walked more than two miles and relayed many scary sites he saw along the way. We all watched the news, and we began asking if WE would soon be evacuated.
1PM: I got the alert. Mandatory evacuation for our area. Leave now. I looked at John and Adam. I asked, “Um…I guess we should do this?” Everything was happening so fast and seemed unbelievable. It felt like we were in a movie. John looked out at Sunset Boulevard and saw the bumper-to-bumper traffic already in place. We decided to pack. We dashed around the house to fill one bag for each of us, plus one for M. I grabbed three changes of clothes, my client’s laptop, my passport, my prescriptions, my opal ring from John, my toiletries bag, and my purse. John grabbed a few clothes and his work laptop. I thought about grabbing my personal laptop, and some more of my jewelry, but a little voice in my head said, “I’m sure we’ll be back soon.”
1:30PM: Myself, John, Adam and his dog…we pulled out of the driveway in John’s car. Little did we know, that would be the last time we saw our home standing. Just a few hours earlier, it had been a regular day. How did this all happen so fast?
Traffic was unlike anything I’d ever seen on Sunset before. We were inching along. When we were about a quarter mile down the road, I looked at John and said, “Oh, my car! I didn’t even think to take it. Should we turn around?” We looked at the amount of traffic surrounding us, and then we both said something along the lines of, “I’m sure we’ll be home in a night or two.” It still didn’t feel real. I called my client to let him know we had been evacuated and that I likely wouldn’t be available the rest of the day. My Uncle Jimmy called me, from his home in Tampa. He said he was getting news alerts about a fire in Pacific Palisades. I assured him everything was a formality and literally said, “there’s no way it will get to our home. We’re fine. We may need to stay with our friends in Santa Monica for a bit.”
2:30PM: It took 60 minutes to drive four miles to where Adam needed to be dropped off in Brentwood. At that point, we were out of danger, and I decided to go to the chiropractor’s appointment I already had scheduled that day at 2:45. My chiropractor said that we walked into his office in complete stress and disarray. We were in a state of disbelief for sure.
3:45PM: We drove to our friends’ Melany & Derec’s place in Santa Monica. They graciously offered up their home to us. I put my bag down in the guest bedroom and began to unpack. Then, I quickly walked over to Whole Foods to grab something for the lunch I never had. I pictured that salmon I had prepared earlier in the day. I wondered if our home would smell like fish when we returned, since I never took it out of the toaster oven. Melany asked what we wanted to do for dinner. John and I were glued to our phones. I felt like a bad houseguest because I was either watching the news or responding to messages on my phone. Our friends Caitlyn & Peter messaged us consistently, urging us to come further south and stay with them in Redondo Beach. We thanked them but didn’t think it was necessary. By this point, we were switching news channels constantly to see if one of them was broadcasting from our street or in front of our home.
5:30PM: Dinner arrived. I couldn’t eat. And not because I had a late lunch. This was different. I felt sick to my stomach at this whole thing. I already knew…Pacific Palisades would never be the same. But was our home ok? Surely it was. Maybe we would have smoke damage and need to live with Melany & Derec for a little while? Would I feel up for working the next day? So many thoughts were running through my head. Then there was the air quality and the wind. All the smoke in the air, even where we were in Santa Monica. The wind reminded me of Florida hurricanes. I read that it got up to 80 miles an hour that evening. The fire was still raging. Would we be evacuated again soon? More texts from Caitlyn and Peter saying we should come to Redondo Beach.
8:30PM: Me, John, and Melany had a serious talk about whether to stay in Santa Monica or leave. The wind was downright scary. The air was beyond horrible. Melany’s home wasn’t in a mandatory evacuation area, but would it be? Would that alert come in the middle of the night? None of us felt safe. Melany’s husband, Derec, was out of town for work. Caitlyn and Peter were not giving up their efforts to convince us to come to them. They even offered to have Melany and her dog stay with them, too. (They didn’t even know Melany or Derec.)
9PM: The entire situation was getting even more stressful and scary, and that’s when we made the call to leave Santa Monica. John and I repacked our bags to evacuate a second time. Melany pulled some things together and hopped in her car with the dog. She followed us to Redondo Beach. By that time, we already had confirmation of a number of places in Pacific Palisades that were gone. Friends’ homes. Our local Starbucks. The library. The recreation center. Most of The Village, the heart of our town. We knew M and her mom’s family were safe, thank goodness, but our hearts were heavy for our friends and our community.
9:30PM: We pulled up to Caitlyn & Peter’s. I hugged Caitlyn, and in the midst of that hug, I could feel the weight of the day about to come out of me. I whispered something in her ear like, “I think I’m gonna lose it.” She said, “it’s ok.” And I did. I let the tears come. I hugged my friend as the physical representation of my fears came pouring out. The rest of the night was spent watching the news. We caught many moments when the broadcast was happening around the corner from our home, but we never saw or knew the status of our house. The uncertainty was unbearable.
We “went to bed” not knowing. In the course of that day, I received more messages, notifications and calls than I have in my entire life. I was overwhelmed on many levels. I don’t recall if I slept that night, but I know for sure I did not the night of January 8.
That was one month ago today. The very next day, John went to our home and saw that it was a total loss. Maybe I’ll write in detail about that day sometime soon. I still wake up in disbelief each morning.
The outpouring of support for me and my family has been THE factor in getting us through this. How do I even begin to thank all the people who have reached out or donated or done something for us? This is kindness on a level like I’ve never experienced. I am still learning how to receive it. ❤️
If you would still like to help, here are a few ways:
Donate
Please consider making a donation to one of the following:
Marquez Charter Elementary School (M’s school)
GoFundMe Campaign to benefit the many families from our gym who were affected
Volunteer
If you live in LA, these are a few of the orgs (that I have personally benefited from) doing amazing work for victims:
The Council Shops (locations around LA)
This newsletter will serve a new purpose for the time being. The word “community” has a whole new meaning in my life now. For the next few months, this newsletter will consist of personal updates. I’m currently taking a leave from my consulting practice, but eventually, this space will be dedicated to digital community strategy again. Thank you for your support and understanding. ❤️
~Jenny
Oh my friend. 💔💔💔