Without skipping a beat, the locals are already planning the renovation.
As flames blaze across the Southern California landscape, some people are focusing on what comes next. Quarters of Pacific Palisades were burned to ashes in the Palisades Fire. Containment is minimal, while debris, downed trees and power lines remain strewn around — posing a dangerous fire hazard amid Santa Ana winds.
Without skipping a beat, the locals are already planning the renovation.
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“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that what I’m seeing right now would come from the phone call I received,” said fourth-generation Palisadian Chuck Hart.
Another Hart heard about firehe and his team of contractors jumped headfirst into the front lines to protect their community.
A burned playground in Pacific Palisades. (Sunny Tsai / FOXBusiness)
“I used to put water on the fire, but when it goes up the canyon with the wind tearing and blowing hot embers and flamesand now the hot steam, my eyes, my nose, my face… I mean, it’s intense,” Hart said.
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After battling the flames, Hart and his team headed straight into the street cleaning.
“I think more than anything it’s a desire to get this cleaned up, to get this going so we can go up and down the streets,” Hart said.
A tractor removes fallen trees from the road. (Sunny Tsai / FOXBusiness)
These efforts go far beyond Hart and his team.
“I think it’s easy. It’s just what we know how to do. It’s like we don’t want to leave or be far from here… We want to be a part of building it,” said Palisidian Nicole Gyarmathy.
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Gyarmathy and Eli Johnson’s home burned in the Palisades fire. Without hesitation, they immediately returned to the destruction, ready to rebuild their community.
A view of a fire-ravaged beach overlooking the Pacific Ocean that burned as a result of the Palisades Fire on January 12, 2025 in Malibu, California. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“I grew up here and I know my dad grew up here and knowing my grandparents are here, I mean this is where my roots are. And you protect that,” Johnson said.
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That’s exactly what these Palisadians will do, as they toil day in and day out.
“This is so new that we’re going to start something we’ve never done before—one day at a time it will be revealed what our next indicated action is,” Gyarmathy said.
