Palisades fires: Mostly sorrow but a little joy

Anita Bajpai hugs her husband, Brett Peterson, after discovering on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, that her 1940s-era childhood home survived the Pacific Palisades fires. Maps indicated it was in the fire zone but only a garage apartment in the back was destroyed. Bajpai’s mother, who is safe, lives there now. The couple are from Orange County. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Anita Bajpai discovers her dad’s old manual Olympia typewriter survived the Pacific Palisades fire unscathed. Her father, who died in 2018, was a history professor who used the machine for all his work, Bajpai said on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. Bajpai’s childhood home also survived. Only the garage apartment, in background, was destroyed. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos and his daughter, Charlotte, react as they see their burned-out neighborhood on Boedoin Street in Pacific Palisades after fires tore through it last week. Their 1927 Spanish-style home was destroyed. “I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Chris Tragos said on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. ”I want this community to survive this, but I dont know how,” he said as his voice trailed off. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

With the Pacific Ocean in the background, dozens of Pacific Palisades homes are piles of rubble on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A water-dropping helicopter is silhoutted against a bright orange sky in Pacific Palisades on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Charlotte Tragos, 19, gets emotional on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, after discovering part of a thank-you letter she hastily wrote to firefighters letting them know her family got out safely, survived the Pacific Palisades blaze. Her home did not survive. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos and his daughter, Charlotte, check out their home on Boedoin Street in Pacific Palisades after fires tore through their neighborhood last week. Their 1927 Spanish-style home was destroyed. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos shows a 1920s-era photo of his family’s Spanish-style home. The home was destroyed in the Pacific Palisades fires, but a framed photo, included in the sale of the home throughout the decades, was spared. It was in a shop getting restored. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos shows what the Pacific Palisades fire looked liked when his wife spotted the smoke and before the family evacuated their 1927 Spanish-style home. The home was destroyed. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A chimney and fireplace with logs stand oddly alone in burned-out Pacific Palisades on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A car’s partially burned tail light is melted in front of destroyed Pacific Palisades homes on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos checks out his friend and neighbor’s burned Rivian electric truck, the same ar he has, in Pacific Palisades on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An outdoor chair that managed to survive the Pacific Palisades fire, sits in front of a burned out home on Erskine Drive Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Cars in a gridlock pose, some burned, some crashed, and some perfectly fine, fill Sunset Boulevard on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, after fires ravaged Pacific Palisades last week. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

After a 24-hour shift battling blazes in Pacific Palisades, firefighters from Pleasant Hills, Oregon are exhausted ..Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos and his daughter, Charlotte, embrace while standing in the rubble of their 1927 Spanish-style home on Boedoin Street in Pacific Palisades. “I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Chris Tragos said on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. ”I want the community to survive this, but I dont know how,” he said as his voice trailed off. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Anita Bajpai of Orange County, has momentary joy after discovering on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025, that her mother’s home and her childhood 1940s-era childhood home, survived the Palisades fires. Maps indicated it was in the fire zone but only a garage apartment in the back was destroyed. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos examines what was once an outdoor light sconce as he roots through the rubble of what’s left of his family’s 1927 Spanish-style home on Boedoin Street in Pacific Palisades. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

With a monochromatic landscape of burned out homes, fruit on a tree adds a pop of color in Pacific Palisades Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Two intentionally placed Christmas decorations managed to survive the Palisades fire and perhaps induce a smile or two from passersby on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A helicopter makes a water drop on fire that encroaches on a home in the Mandeville Canyon area where homes were evacuated on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Chris Tragos and his daughter, Charlotte, react as they see their burned-out neighborhood on Boedoin Street in Pacific Palisades after fires tore through it last week. Their 1927 Spanish-style home was destroyed. “I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Chris Tragos said on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. ”I want this community to survive this, but I dont know how,” he said as his voice trailed off. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)