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Dan S
·Hoping for the best for our friends near the catastrophic SoCal fires. Stay safe and my fingers are crossed for your homes and other property.
SoCal Of-ers near the fires
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xpri325
·It’s been a crazy few days. I live a couple of miles west of Altadena, used to have an office on N Lake, kids went to high school in Sierra Madre so drove through the effected area every day for years. Evacuated 6am Wednesday but my house is safe so far. I know several families that lost their homes. Hopefully worst is over.
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pdxleaf
·Washington Post reported:
"The scale of the destruction has left institutions reeling. Julia Milton is an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Firefighters managed to protect the laboratory from the advancing inferno, and Milton’s nearby apartment building is still standing. But more than 150 of her colleagues lost their homes, according to a post by the laboratory’s director on X."
"The scale of the destruction has left institutions reeling. Julia Milton is an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Firefighters managed to protect the laboratory from the advancing inferno, and Milton’s nearby apartment building is still standing. But more than 150 of her colleagues lost their homes, according to a post by the laboratory’s director on X."
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The Father
·In Malibu a month ago. Every place I was at and stayed burned to the ground.
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Walrus
·We have a friend who stayed with us while she was finishing school at Yale. She moved out to cali where she set things up nicely. We have been trying to reach her make sure everything is ok but not hearing back. Just hoping it’s a communication issue nothing more. Looking at the maps she is in the fire area.
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Foo2rama
··Keeps his worms in a ball instead of a can.
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Jones in LA
··Not in LA anymore.
A close friend of ours has elderly parents, and and a son (with young family) living in Pacific Palisades; the parents and son both lost their homes. My wife and I have numerous friends and work colleagues who have been evacuated from their homes in Woodland Hills and Sherman Oaks. As I write this the Palisades fire is lapping at the edges of Encino and Tarzana, where evacuations are underway.
I'm worried about Forum member @calalum who is no doubt living in peril right now.
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Walrus
·Washington Post reported:
"The scale of the destruction has left institutions reeling. Julia Milton is an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Firefighters managed to protect the laboratory from the advancing inferno, and Milton’s nearby apartment building is still standing. But more than 150 of her colleagues lost their homes, according to a post by the laboratory’s director on X."
Then these people who film the “citizen rescue” volunteers they helped a lady who’s EV ran out of juice get to her home rescue her dog just before the house lit up it’s really intense things to see really heart wrenching.
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wagudc
·My heart goes out to all that have lost their homes. Stay safe everyone, I'm wishing for the best!
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calalum
·We relocated from LA to northern Sonoma County last July, so we are thankfully unaffected by the present castrophe. Weirdly, I was in LA finishing up a work assignment last Monday (the day the fires started) and decided to get an early start on the drive home in order to avoid the forecast extreme wind that eventually came howling down Interstate 5. By the time I got back to Sonoma County the LA disaster was well underway.
A close friend of ours has elderly parents, and and a son (with young family) living in Pacific Palisades; the parents and son both lost their homes. My wife and I have numerous friends and work colleagues who have been evacuated from their homes in Woodland Hills and Sherman Oaks. As I write this the Palisades fire is lapping at the edges of Encino and Tarzana, where evacuations are underway.
I'm worried about Forum member @calalum who is no doubt living in peril right now.
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Porteroso
·We happen to be in Oz right now for a wedding, so we are safe and dealing with the fire remotely. Our daughter and her baby have been evacuated. We have many friends and friends of friends who have lost their homes and everything in them. We are trying to help but it is overwhelming. On a selfish note my watch collection is at a bank that may or may not survive. But the devastation and emotional pain is so visceral it is hard to imagine. The city and people’s lives will never be the same.
I keep thinking of all the wildlife too. It's such a tragic loss of life, yet the way of nature. Reminds me to be respectful of the power of nature. We can usually avoid nature's wrath, for a time, but it is bigger than all of us, and sometimes we can't do anything about it.
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Larry S
··Color Commentator for the Hyperbole.Important to remember that it’s not just Hollywood types losing homes here. My heart goes out to the families clobbered by this catastrophe.
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fiberguy
·My godparents lived just south of Moonshadows in Malibu, their house burned to the ground in the early days of the Palisades fire. The scope of the damage is unfathomable
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Donn Chambers
·Important to remember that it’s not just Hollywood types losing homes here. My heart goes out to the families clobbered by this catastrophe.
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JwRosenthal
·Important to remember that it’s not just Hollywood types losing homes here. My heart goes out to the families clobbered by this catastrophe.
I was in LA for a family funeral 2 years ago and my wife wanted to see where I grew up. The drive from the 405 on sunset toward the coast was just as I remembered- nothing really had changed. We ate dinner at Gladstones (a favorite of mine as a teenager- right on the water at Sunset and PCH- clam chower in a sourdough bread bowl) and we walked on the beach. I felt like I had come home for the first time visiting LA over the last 30 years.
I not longer have family in the Palisades, but step-brother lives in Pasadena and sister in Northridge. I have been doom scrolling KTLA news to see what the current conditions are and texting with them. My sister has 3 work colleagues who lost their homes.
This thing started at 10:30 on Tuesday and moved so quickly that many people didn’t even have a change to go home and get their pets, pack up any family keepsakes- they lost everything without warning.
This is a tragedy on par with a tsunami, an earthquake, a hurricane (but at least with a hurricane you have some warning). The fact that it happened in LA just proves that Mother Nature doesn’t discriminate- rich or poor.
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Larry S
··Color Commentator for the Hyperbole.I am from Pacific Palisades. When I left for college in 1993, it was predominantly middle class, many had lived there for decades and bought their houses when nobody wanted to live that far away from West LA or downtown. It was very affordable through the early 00’s (so was Malibu until the 80’s- only crazy hippies and Martin Sheen lived in Malibu). Many of the working class families in the Palisades passed their houses down from generating to generation. The area around the village was densely populated 1920’s -30’s single story bungalows. It was a sleepy beach community when I lived there and from what I gathered it still was. The well-heeled who lived up the canyons will have an easier time finding new homes (not to mitigate their loss). But in a city where the real-estate market is already out of control, housing stock is very short and between 5-10k desirable structures just got wiped off the map, there aren’t many options for those who were lucky enough to inherit a home in such a idillic place and have now been forced to flee.
I was in LA for a family funeral 2 years ago and my wife wanted to see where I grew up. The drive from the 405 on sunset toward the coast was just as I remembered- nothing really had changed. We ate dinner at Gladstones (a favorite of mine as a teenager- right on the water at Sunset and PCH- clam chower in a sourdough bread bowl) and we walked on the beach. I felt like I had come home for the first time visiting LA over the last 30 years.
I not longer have family in the Palisades, but step-brother lives in Pasadena and sister in Northridge. I have been doom scrolling KTLA news to see what the current conditions are and texting with them. My sister has 3 work colleagues who lost their homes.
This thing started at 10:30 on Tuesday and moved so quickly that many people didn’t even have a change to go home and get their pets, pack up any family keepsakes- they lost everything without warning.
This is a tragedy on par with a tsunami, an earthquake, a hurricane (but at least with a hurricane you have some warning). The fact that it happened in LA just proves that Mother Nature doesn’t discriminate- rich or poor.
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OneTwo
·Appreciate this thread being started as I was thinking about other local OF members as I was making my way back to LA after having to be in EU for work this past week.
Relieved to hear the fellow OF members here in the LA area homes are also okay. While my family and I are in Burbank, not in direct threat of the fire, the smoke and air quality that the area has been experiencing has been astounding. I definitely was feeling guilty that I was away on work and not able to be here for my loved ones to comfort and help where we can, but just got back into town yesterday. Many friends have lost everything of fires, not only their homes but also their place of business, workshops and few artist studios with their entire body of work in it. Most of them are staying as strong as they can be and saying "we'll rebuild and get through" but the pain in their voices and destruction they have endured is devastating.
This is a such an important note that I was thinking about a lot as I was watching the international media cover the fires. There was a lot of focus on the celebrities losing homes in the palisades but as JW said, many of the families in both the Palisades and Altadena are generational to that area. Altadena was also one of the few areas that Black families were allowed to purchase home and lands here in LA pre and post WW2. It's a wonderfully diverse area that we were looking to potentially move as many of the business and restaurants in that area are run by wonderful individuals, of which we really enjoyed being patrons.
One note on the air quality that if you can spread the word to any friends you have who may be in areas were the smoke is blowing towards. Many of the homes destroyed by the Eaton and Palisades fires were built pre-1980, so the use of Asbestos and other now illegal toxic chemicals used for construction was widespread during this period of construction. When these chemicals are burned becoming airborne, a quite concerning air quality issue has arisen. While this air quality is being noted in the news, I haven't seen many recommendations of wearing a mask in these smoke affected areas. A few healthcare professional friends have noted on how throwing a N95 mask or KN95 on will be very helpful to one's lung health until the air quality gets better.
Relieved to hear the fellow OF members here in the LA area homes are also okay. While my family and I are in Burbank, not in direct threat of the fire, the smoke and air quality that the area has been experiencing has been astounding. I definitely was feeling guilty that I was away on work and not able to be here for my loved ones to comfort and help where we can, but just got back into town yesterday. Many friends have lost everything of fires, not only their homes but also their place of business, workshops and few artist studios with their entire body of work in it. Most of them are staying as strong as they can be and saying "we'll rebuild and get through" but the pain in their voices and destruction they have endured is devastating.
Important to remember that it’s not just Hollywood types losing homes here. My heart goes out to the families clobbered by this catastrophe.
One note on the air quality that if you can spread the word to any friends you have who may be in areas were the smoke is blowing towards. Many of the homes destroyed by the Eaton and Palisades fires were built pre-1980, so the use of Asbestos and other now illegal toxic chemicals used for construction was widespread during this period of construction. When these chemicals are burned becoming airborne, a quite concerning air quality issue has arisen. While this air quality is being noted in the news, I haven't seen many recommendations of wearing a mask in these smoke affected areas. A few healthcare professional friends have noted on how throwing a N95 mask or KN95 on will be very helpful to one's lung health until the air quality gets better.
