By Jackie Luna and Jonathan Allen
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Before one of the most devastating wildfires in California history swept through, the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Los Angeles’ west side was filled with expensive homes fronted by green, manicured landscaping and popular boutiques and cafes.
This week, the Palisades Fire leveled much of it to black rubble. To see what was lost, a Reuters video journalist visited the neighborhood on Friday to retrace the path taken by a pair of YouTube influencers who made a walking tour video last year, which is reproduced with their permission.
In May 2024, when the original video was shot under California’s blue sky, the white building with its ionic columns on Sunset Boulevard in the Palisades Village shopping complex was home to Starbucks (NASDAQ: ) and Cafe Vida. Now it is destroyed, darkened by soot, the palm trees outside are bare, the sky is cloudy and yellow.
On the surrounding residential streets, house after house collapsed in charred heaps covered with scattered terracotta tiles that had withstood the fire. A still-standing concrete door opens to the ruins.
The Palisades fire has grown to more than 20,000 acres since it broke out Tuesday and was still only 11% contained Saturday, with the Palisades neighborhood still in a mandatory evacuation zone. Other fires, some nearly as large, are ravaging other parts of Los Angeles and neighboring cities, so far killing at least 11 people and destroying thousands of buildings.
The Palisades was almost devoid of life on Friday: a few Los Angeles firefighters here and there and a few ravens watching from the road before they scattered. In front of one house, what had once been a wheelchair rested on the sidewalk, all melted or burned except for the steel frame.
The scenic viewpoint from Point at the Bluffs encompasses the ocean and the winding Pacific Coast Highway. From there, what’s left of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates fills the view: dozens of relatively affordable mobile homes that used to slope down to the beach are now rows of rubble.
