The fiery destruction of wide swaths of Pacific Palisades and Altadena sent Ramin Yazdi flashing back to the night in May 2022 when he stood in the street watching his home burn down in Laguna Niguel’s Coastal fire.
“I couldn’t get myself to leave,” remembered Yazdi, 62. “It was like a war zone.”
Yazdi knows better than most what’s in store for victims of the Los Angeles County wildfires — the dislocation, the litigation decisions, the dance with insurance carriers, the debate over whether to rebuild, the wrestling with inspectors and contractors.
But there are things that Yazdi has no way of knowing. His ocean-view neighborhood lost 20 houses while 11 others were damaged, but the city was still there. The Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires devastated entire neighborhoods, leveling more than 16,000 structures and taking 29 lives.
Yazdi, a businessman and an attorney specializing in advising internet startups, wondered whether they could find enough materials to rebuild simultaneously.
“I don’t think there will be a nail left at the Home Depot,” he said.
Yazdi, president of the Coronado Pointe homeowners association, offered some counsel to the Los Angeles County victims whose heads are undoubtedly swimming with all the decisions they must make.
He advised Eaton fire victims to join one of the lawsuits — there are dozens of them — against Southern California Edison alleging the massive utility’s equipment triggered the fire.
Yazdi was among the first of the Coastal fire victims to sue SCE, whose equipment sparked the blaze, according to a joint state and local investigation. The probe found that sparks from an overhead power line ignited the vegetation below.
The main lawsuit involving the 20 destroyed homes in Coronado Pointe was filed by the firm Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian. Attorney Richard Bridgford said claims by nine of the property owners have already been mediated and the rest are set to go to mediation. Yazdi’s house is among those still in the process.
“People are getting paid out and they are rebuilding,” Bridgford said. “The most rewarding thing about handling these cases is seeing people go from complete devastation to rebuilding their lives and their homes.”
Aimee Larr has already finished rebuilding her home with an expansive view of the ocean and the hills and has moved back in. She said tenacity and organization were key.
Edison committed to rebuilding
Edison spokesperson Gabriela Ornelas said the utility will continue to work toward getting the community rebuilt.
“Our thoughts remain with everyone that was affected by the Coastal fire,” Ornelas said. “We are committed to helping the community rebuild and are working with the appropriate agencies to ensure that is a smooth and efficient process.”
Yazdi used money from his insurance policy and some of his own to start rebuilding his home, which he expects to be completed in September.
With alleged evidence mounting against SEC in the Eaton fire — caught by cellphone cameras, surveillance camera videos and sensors — Yazdi said it would be unwise not to join the lawsuit against the utility. A state investigation into the cause of the Eaton fire has not concluded.
Choosing a law firm
Yazdi advised victims to pick a law firm that has the financial and logistical resources to take the case all the way to trial if need be.
“There are a lot of attorneys who have no intention of prosecuting the case,” he said. “Don’t pick an attorney firm that has so many cases that they can’t handle.”
Pick a firm that “can make a credible threat to go to trial,” Yazdi said.
Compiling an inventory
He also counseled those who lost homes to take the time to inventory their property losses, which they will have to do by memory. And which can be especially painful.
“Every time I sit down with my wife to go through this, she starts crying,” Yazdi said. “It’s so hard to go through memory lane, it’s like reliving the nightmare.”
Gone are the written messages that Yazdi’s late father left to him. Others may lose irreplaceable things such as wedding dresses or kids’ baby shoes.
As painful as it may be, the inventories must be done as part of the financial recovery process.
Yazdi advised victims to “close your eyes and go from room to room.”
He also said to ask friends and family if they have any pictures taken inside the home, which can help victims remember what was there.
Working with insurance companies
Yazdi warned that the day after the Coastal fire, the neighborhood was swarmed with public adjusters, whom he described as middlemen who offer to negotiate with the insurance companies on behalf of victims in exchange for a cut of the claim.
He said victims should try to work directly with the insurance companies, get as much as they can on their own and then, if they feel it is needed, sign with a public adjuster. That type of adjuster is not to be confused with the claims adjusters employed by the insurance companies.
Challenges of rebuilding
Victims who lost homes will be faced with the decision whether to rebuild — which can be agony.
“It’s been a nightmare trying to deal with contractors and price gouging. It’s been really difficult to build a house in this (economic and regulatory) environment,” Yazdi said.
Approvals must be obtained from the homeowners association, if applicable, the city, the county, the state and the fire agency. There are fees and inspections.
“It’s a constant request for inspectors, waiting for inspectors to come out, constant delays and aggravations,” Yazdi said.
He advised homeowners not to be the first in the neighborhood to hire a contractor. Wait and watch while others bring on their contractors. Look at the jobs they are doing. Get estimates from those contractors. Compare notes with neighbors.
Even with the due diligence, rebuilding is a grueling, years-long experience, and Yazdi said there are pitfalls.
For one thing, while he has obtained an interim insurance policy during the construction phase, he is having trouble getting insured for when the house is complete.
“The insurance companies are so worried about fire. If there’s a tree within two miles, they’ll say it’s a fire hazard,” Yazdi said. “I’m worried I’ll never get good insurance (coverage), and if there were another fire, I would be financially destroyed.”
With the neighborhood becoming a construction zone, there have been some nagging disagreements among neighbors, Yazdi said. Some are complaining about the noise, the trucks, the dirt, the inability to walk their dogs without bumping into a construction worker. One neighbor sued another whose rebuild is now obscuring their view.
“These are complaints they should be making to (SCE) not their neighbors,” he said.