President Roosevelt once famously said that December 7 was a “Day That Will Live in Infamy.” Now I can say that “January 7 is a New Day That Will Live in Infamy.”
On that fateful morning a 100- foot high fire storm driven by 90 mph winds came rushing down from the Palisades Highlands and consumed our beautiful town of 30,000 people. What we have left are heartaches and rubble. As one Palisadian put it, “I looked into the swirling fire wall and saw the Devil dancing in hell.”
The day started off innocently with me enjoying the L.A. Times in the kitchen. My wife yelled that there’s a fire starting way over in the Palisades Highlands. We went outside and took videos of the Super Scooper planes dropping water, never thinking that it would ever get over to us.
In fact, the smoke color was changing from black to white and we were cheering that it indicated they were putting the fire out. Friends were already calling and saying they were evacuating and I thought, “What an overreaction!”
Then, the police and fire department cars started cruising around yelling, “Evacuate!” and we started getting messages on the phone. I went to the backyard and started hosing down our back hill, assured that I would stay and fight the fire if it ever got near us. All the while, tornado-like winds were swirling around us. Then 20 minutes later, I was up in our back hallway and saw huge flames coming over at the top of our back hill. I ran and screamed to my wife, “We have got to get out of here!”
And, we scrambled around the house trying to collect what we needed – in moments of panic and desperation. While in our cars in the street I wanted to go back and get some shoes, but by then the smoke was so thick I couldn’t even see our house. I knew if I got out of my car and started breathing this air without a special smoke mask, that I would destroy my lungs. We drove down the street and met nothing but gridlock. We parked by the side of the road, praying that we would have a home to return to.
Update: We are now living in a hotel in Santa Monica, and by some miracle our house was one of the few that survived.
The Santa Monica – Pacific Palisades Lions Club has created a special fund for the Palisades Fire Victims. All donations are tax deductible with 100% going towards emergency efforts.
Donate now by check, payable to the California Lions Foundation with the designation SM-PP Lions Club – Palisades Fire Relief. Mail to Calif Lions Foundation, Attn: David Hedebrand, 20231 Valley Blvd. #E, Tehachapi, CA 93561.
For online donations, go to and complete the online form at californialionsfoundation.org/contact
Interested in learning more about Lionism? Contact Kingsley Fife at jkfife88@yahoo.com
By Kingsley Fife
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