Evacuees began returning to their homes in the Pacific Palisades with law enforcement escorts on Saturday, some waiting nearly all day for a few minutes with what was left of their homes.
One family said they already learned the fate of their beloved property, but needed to see it in person for some level of closure.
As each resident or family passed through a checkpoint, they received an allotted amount of time to check on their properties, grab anything they could salvage, and then get back into their vehicles and leave the area before the 6 p.m. curfew.
KTLA’s Chris Wolfe visited a checkpoint that was set up in Brentwood at San Vicente and 26th Street, hearing from many frustrated evacuees who said they waited up to 11 hours for access and didn’t understand why the process was taking so long.
“We’re still kind of numb, we just found out Wednesday that our house burnt down,” said resident Debbie Tenenbaum. “We haven’t been up there, we want to go see it. We’re sad – all of our stuff is gone.”
“I was not good the first few days,” shared Debbie’s daughter, Molly Tenenbaum. “I’m doing a little bit better now but I think once I see everything in person, it might be a little bit worse.”
Shortly before the start of the curfew at 6 p.m., in an effort to get as many people back to their properties as possible, police started waving in car after car — and dozens of vehicles rolled through the checkpoint very quickly.
After the curfew, National Guard members and local enforcement from the LAPD, Santa Monica Police and Airport Police Departments will patrol fire zones until 6 a.m., ready to arrest anyone for trespassing, looting or any other type of violation.
The Palisades Fire, already one of the most destructive natural disasters in Los Angeles history, erupted on Tuesday, Jan. 7. As of Saturday evening, it had claimed five lives, burned 23,654 acres and was 11% contained. More than 5,000 structures, many of them homes, have been destroyed in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
