Seven years before wildfires tore through opposite ends of the Los Angeles area, the Tubbs Fire in Northern California’s Sonoma County jumped a six-lane freeway and decimated Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park subdivision, a suburban enclave similar to Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

The fire destroyed about 5,000 homes in Santa Rosa and the surrounding area in October 2017, with about 1,500 of those in Coffey Park, making it California’s costliest wildfire disaster at the time. Within three years, 80% of Coffey Park’s destroyed homes were fully rebuilt and occupied, according to local officials.

The journey was long, uncertain and filled with detours, according to interviews with Coffey Park residents who rebuilt and local government officials. Debris removal was a lengthy, cumbersome process; there was contractor fraud, leading to criminal convictions; the minutiae of government approvals at every step caused frustration.

But the experiences of those who rebuilt in Coffey Park and Santa Rosa also showed the power of collective action by residents, and local government success streamlining construction, which offer a template for the Los Angeles-area communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, where more than 16,000 homes and other structures were destroyed by this month’s fires that also killed 28 people.

“Band together and have a group that you go through it with,” said Jeff Okrepkie, who started a nonprofit rebuilding group for Coffey Park, finished his rebuild in early 2020 and later became a Santa Rosa city council member. “It’s always easier to get your questions answered when you’re asking for 100 people, or 500 people.”

‘Not much you can do’

David Kovalevski wants to rebuild his century-old Altadena craftsman house that burned in the Eaton Fire northeast of Los Angeles, but the task looks daunting. “When can we even start?” he said. “It looks like a war zone.”

He is trying to understand what insurance will pay, and how that will compare to new, higher prices as thousands of homeowners in his area try to rebuild at the same time. “How will they even manage in a reasonable timeframe to rebuild so many houses at the same time?” Damian Clopton had many of the same questions in the weeks after he fled his burning Coffey Park home in October 2017 with his wife, Ashley Osbun, four cats and a laptop.

He remembered the “shell shock,” waking up each morning in an unfamiliar house, only to realize a few seconds later his predicament. “Everything just sucks in the beginning,” Clopton said. “You really want to move on and there’s not much you can do.”

That was because, like in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, residents were largely kept out as emergency crews sent cadaver dogs to search for missing people and Hazmat crews removed toxic waste.

Then came debris removal, which started about a month after the fire and took two-and-a-half months to complete. In Sonoma County in 2017, residents could choose a FEMA-contracted debris removal program or hire a private contractor, which was more expensive and required certifications for disposing of hazardous material.

“People think they’re just going to be able to get a dump truck and a backhoe, build their house and move on,” said Steve Rahmn, a Coffey Park resident who completed his rebuild in 2020. “Government’s got its due process.”

The Santa Rosa FEMA program offered the easiest path but suffered from bureaucratic bungles, such as FEMA’s policy of paying contractors based on the weight of debris they carried off site. Crews eager for maximum weight left sunken lots, and the state ultimately had to create a new program to replace homeowners’ missing dirt.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services this month announced similar debris removal options for private properties in the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires. First, Environmental Protection Agency crews must remove hazardous waste, including electric-vehicle batteries, which began earlier this month. Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella has said debris removal could take six months to a year.

U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson, whose district includes Santa Rosa, said he has developed what he calls a “disaster booklet” to impart lessons to representatives from areas affected by wildfires. “There’s no need to reinvent the wheel,” he said, citing pre-approval of building plans as a model for faster reconstruction.

After crews finished debris removal in Santa Rosa, the neighborhood was a blank canvas, meaning residents had to get property lines surveyed again. Potentially every homeowner had to hire a surveyor in order to start drawing up plans for new homes.

That’s where the collective action began. Though scattered around the area and the country, residents kept in touch on social media, social meetings like “Wine Wednesdays” and an area newsletter. Many started meeting in the first few weeks at a local junior college and a performing arts center, said Okrepkie, and the numbers built as the weeks went by.

City planning officials attended the meetings and started making policies directly resulting from those discussions, said Gabe Osburn, Santa Rosa’s director of planning and economic development.

After hearing surveying concerns, city officials helped connect residents with local surveyors to speed up the process, Osburn said.

Discussions from those meetings also led to the city creating a “resilient” zone for fire-damaged areas, with reduced planning and design requirements.

“Anything that would be an impediment from a time standpoint, or a cost standpoint, we analyzed,” Osburn said.

In the wake of the Los Angeles-area fires, Newsom suspended certain state environmental reviews in the fire-affected areas, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed an order creating a new permitting center to be staffed seven days a week in the fire-affected areas.

In Santa Rosa, local builders also sped up the recovery process by drawing up a handful of home designs that were pre-approved by local officials. This allowed many residents to choose from a menu of options and quickly build a house. Some homeowners, like Carol McHale, were not so lucky. She and her partner lost more than $100,000 of their personal savings after a builder asked for money upfront but never completed their rebuild. He was among several contractors who were convicted of fraud in the years after the fire.

McHale started over with another contractor, having to revisit every excruciating decision: Vinyl or hardwood floors, quartz or granite for kitchen counters, what paint color inside?

“We were making $10,000 decisions every day,” McHale said. “Even years later, it makes my stomach hurt.” But out of that painful experience, she also found hope: She and her partner, Erin Murphy, re-committed to their relationship, and will soon celebrate their 25th anniversary.

“People say ‘I don’t know how you did it,'” she said. “You do one day; you do the next one.”

‘I can control this’

The rebuilding process was often an emotional roller coaster, residents said.

Clopton chose to be his own general contractor, making substantial changes to the original design. He still hasn’t fully finished.

“Yes, they’ve gone out of their way to get rid of regulations, at the same time that they pile on other regulations,” he said. “This is a slog.”

Okrepkie said that after debris removal was complete, heavy rains in early 2018 delayed all construction, just as he was hoping to break ground. Work progressed, though, and by late 2019 the drywall was complete on his new home.

“All of a sudden you’re like, ‘This is the exact dimension of the living room I’m going to watch the Super Bowl in,” he recalled. “You see all the bedrooms upstairs and you say ‘I wonder which one my son is going to want?'”

For him, there was a satisfaction that came with rebuilding in the wake of a fire, a sense that he once again had control.

“I couldn’t control losing my house, or moving away, but I can control this,” he said. “I can control what my countertops look like. I think there’s a healthy aspect to that.”

A firefighter and his wife were overcome with emotion after he found his wedding ring amid the rubble of their home, now destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires.

Pasadena Fire Engineer Chien Yu, accompanied by CNN’s Erin Burnett, was searching through the rubble when one of his colleagues discovered a silver ring and handed it to him. Upon realising it was his wedding ring, which had been misplaced in the chaos, he showed it to his wife. Overcome with emotion, the couple hugged and cried outside their destroyed home, where they had lived for nearly eight years.

“That’s it-oh my God!” Mr Yu said after fellow firefighters dug through the ruins of his home and found the ring. Asked how he expected his wife would react, Chien Yu said that she had no idea it was missing. Filled with emotion, she said, “What! Oh, my gosh!” and froze for a moment before the two hugged each other.

Speaking to CNN, Mr Yu said when he saw the fire approaching last week, he evacuated his wife and two children before buckling up for a 16-hour shift combating the fire in his neighbourhood. He had no idea his home had been demolished until he got off work that day.

The couple and their two sons have moved, but the kids are having a hard time adjusting. “It’s never going to be the same for the kids,” he said. “They’re doing the best they can, you know?” They frequently ask when they can go back to their house or return to school, which was destroyed in the fire and was located next door, said Mr Yu.

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Eaton Fire had burned 14,117 acres of land and is 55 per cent contained as of January 16. The Palisades Fire has burned 23,713 acres and is 27 per cent contained.

At least 27 people have died and the death count may climb further, as per the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. Over 30 people are still reported missing.

Los Angeles:

US President-elect Donald Trump accused California officials on Sunday of incompetence over their handling of deadly wildfires raging around Los Angeles.

“The fires are still raging in L.A. The incompetent pols (politicians) have no idea how to put them out,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

“This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can’t put out the fires. What’s wrong with them?” he wrote.

The speed and intensity of the blazes ravaging Los Angeles have tested its firefighting infrastructure and given rise to questions and criticism about the state’s preparedness.

Hydrants ran dry in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood as it was ravaged by one of the region’s five separate fires, while water shortages additionally hampered efforts elsewhere.

With just over a week before he returns to the White House, Trump has launched a series of evidence-free broadsides accusing California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of failings in response to the blazes.

Newsom has meanwhile invited Trump to visit Los Angeles and survey the devastation with him.

The fires have so far killed at least 16 people, displaced 150,000 more, and destroyed more than 12,000 structures according to state officials.

“Thousands of magnificent houses are gone, and many more will soon be lost. There is death all over the place,” Trump said in his post.

Despite firefighters’ heroic efforts, including precision sorties from aerial crews, the Palisades Fire has continued to push east towards the priceless collections of the Getty Center art museum and north to the densely populated San Fernando Valley.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Los Angeles:

A-list actors, musicians and other celebrities were among the tens of thousands of people affected by terrifying wildfires in Los Angeles this week that killed at least five people. Over 70,000 people were evacuated from Los Angeles and the Greater Los Angeles areas of California in the last 24 hours due to four to five major fires that remain uncontained as the wind speed is very high in Palisades, Eaton and Hurst areas. 

Los Angeles is fighting the largest blaze in its history amid water and firefighting shortages. A state of emergency has been declared in the area, with Washington sending help to bring the situation under control. Retired firefighters with experience in firefighting, have been called for help. More than 1,000 buildings have burned in fires that have broken out around America’s second-biggest city, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes. The situation remains tense in the areas, with a blanket of smoke covering the skies. 

Firefighters Struggle To Contain Situation

Hurricane-force winds whipped up fireballs that leapt from house to house in the upmarket Pacific Palisades area, incinerating a swathe of California’s most desirable real estate favoured by Hollywood celebrities. Gusty winds pushed the flames, pushing embers hundreds of meters and sparking new spot fires faster than firefighters could quell them.

According to Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, his crews were overwhelmed by the scale and speed of the unfolding disasters.

“We’re doing the very best we can. But no, we don’t have enough fire personnel in LA County between all the departments to handle this,” he told AFP.

The blaze raging in Pacific Palisades had consumed around 16,000 acres as of Wednesday afternoon, taking 1,000 homes and businesses with it. A separate 10,600-acre fire was burning around Altadena, north of the city, where flames tore through suburban streets.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said an earlier death toll of two had now increased, with more deaths feared. “Unfortunately, it’s grown to five as we continue through this area,” Luna told radio station KNX.

“And remember, this is still a very fluid situation, there’s zero containment on this fire. I’m really praying we don’t find more, but I don’t think that’s going to be the case,” he added.

Evacuation orders were in place for about 70,000 people across the area. A large number of people who did not heed warnings to leave had suffered “significant injuries,” Marrone said.

Water Shortage

As a pall of dark smoke hung over Los Angeles, hydrants were drying as the water supply dropped in the area. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power chief executive Janisse Quinones pleaded with people to save water after hydrants in Pacific Palisades ran dry.

“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” she said.

Joe Biden, who was in Los Angeles with California Governor Gavin Newsom, was briefed on what the president called an “astounding” situation.

“We’re doing anything and everything, and as long as it takes to contain these fires,” Biden told reporters.

Hollywood Screeched To A Halt

The showbiz capital has been besieged by multiple out-of-control blazes, with Hollywood events including a glitzy awards show and a Pamela Anderson film premiere among those cancelled as firefighters battle flames in hurricane-force winds.

Hundreds of homes were destroyed in the swanky Pacific Palisades area, a favourite spot for celebrities where multimillion-dollar houses nestle on beautiful hillsides, while other infernos sprang up across the north of the city.

Tesla boss Elon Musk showed the aftermath of the fire in one of the suburban areas in LA with cars, homes and trees completely charred.

A friend in LA just took this video pic.twitter.com/WJBWCHmCUs

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2025

Mandy Moore, the singer and “This Is Us” actress, told followers on Instagram she had fled with her children and pets from the path of a blaze that had left her Altadena neighbourhood “levelled.” 

“My sweet home. I am devastated and gutted for those of us who’ve lost so much. I’m absolutely numb,” she wrote, in a caption to footage of the destruction.

Emmy-winning actor James Woods posted a video on X showing flames engulfing trees and bushes near his Pacific Palisades home as he got ready to evacuate, and shortly afterwards said all the fire alarms were going off.

“I couldn’t believe our lovely little home in the hills held on this long. It feels like losing a loved one,” Woods said.

“Star Wars” star Mark Hamill told followers on Instagram that he had fled his Malibu home with his wife and pet dog, escaping down a road flanked by active fires.

Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis was also forced to evacuate, later writing on Instagram: “Our beloved neighbourhood is gone. Our home is safe. So many others have lost everything.”

Meanwhile, next week’s unveiling of the Oscar nominations was pushed back until January 19, to give Academy members affected by fires more time to cast their ballots this week.