Like many of you, our thoughts have been with those in the Southland where we grew up. We grieve from afar. My family had kennels in Burbank (Lima St.) & Malibu (PCH & Puerco Canyon), and Meme’s lived in Inglewood and later Woodland Hills: common denominators were families involved with showing AKC terriers, paternal grandmothers living next door to us, and communities with multiple combustible components.
Meme & I have a special connection to Pacific Palisades in that we first met in ’72 while working the Great Western Terriers (GWT) dog show that our parents were involved with (they were very good friends; plus past & current presidents of the show). GWT was at the Will Rogers State Historic Park’s polo field. I was just back from a semester of study in Mexico and helping the folks out.
Photo (ca. ’72) right to left are Meme, her mother Ruth and brother Mark.
Six years later we had a family & friends wedding celebration there, near the green of Will’s one-hole golf course, conducted by “John the Methodist” from Malibu: unfortunately I stiffed him, not realizing that one of the duties of a groom was to pay the pastor. My bad. Some photos of from then:
This 2nd one shows Will Rogers historic home in the background.
In the late 80’s, as the NPS District Ranger for the eastern half of the Santa Monica Mountains Nat’l Rec. Area (think Hollywood Bowl to Kanan Dume Rd.) I had opportunities to visit the area multiple times. Very dear to us. Unfortunately the historic home Will Rogers had has been lost to the Palisades Fire, but our loving memories remain strong.Before and after photos of WR's home.
I was fortunate in my NPS career to attain some semi-competency of Ranger Skills in law enforcement & wildland firefighting: being a Regional Senior Special Agent in the former and decades of command staff involvement, as a Safety Officer, with national Incident Management Teams and being part of the cadre teaching team for Advanced Incident Management at the national level. So, also like many of you, we have deep and educated empathy for the residents that have lost so much and their fur-n-feather friends (all pets & wildlife) that were only there because a human put them in that situation, in that very fuel rich environment.
After the Bel Air fire (’61), which I remember watching on TV as a young teen, Los Angeles passed a series of laws and policies to mitigate future disasters. What they couldn’t do was stop the modern (last 8,000 years or so) inclination to grow things: with the fire dependent chaparral eco-system getting more fuel ready for fires that were sure to come pushed by the Santa Ana winds (also sure to come). In the late 80’s I was privileged to work with Battalion Chief Gary Nelson (he gave me my 1st white helmet an indicator of BC status), from LA County Fire, as we performed prescribed burns and developed pre-attack maps & plans. He called Santa Ana wind driven incidents as “catch them at the beach fires” as that is ALL we could expect to do. The time honored “Anchor, Flank & Pinch” wouldn’t work in the extreme conditions of SA winds. He also pointed out we’d never “lost one” over that fireline called the Pacific: the scene of burnt up beach houses tells you all you need to know about this fire’s intensity.
The released energy components must have been biblical: think of the NBC reporter on Pacific Coast Highway that pointed to the sea and said: when you look that way you used to see ocean, now all you see is ash & rubble. Let that sink in about how hot that would have to be. I realize it just an excited utterance (it didn’t boil off one tidal pool), but I’m glad I didn’t have to give running reports during my decades as an emergency incident manager (too many OWTFs). Just as perilous, will be future mudslides that are sure to come: they always do, and unfortunately they’re often as deadly as the fires.
Our best wishes and thoughts remain with the so many that have lost almost everything: As Jimmy (Buffett) wrote post-Katrina: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On’ – I’m afraid we’ll be generations in this rebuild, but one day at a time with a positive mental attitude (PMA) is the way to start eating the elephant (one bite at a time and PMA-all-the-way, everyday).
