Pacific Palisades residents survey the destruction
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - To escape the deadly and historic fire, all residents are now allowed to briefly enter the burn areas so they can survey the destruction.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is trying to reassure residents the city is moving as quickly as it can to boost the recovery process.
Chuck Peil talked to his neighbors about his emotional return home. For the first time, all Palisades residents were officially allowed to come back. Peil lived with his family in a house on Bollinger for almost two decades.
"For me, the house. That's one thing. It was a great little house, almost 18 years, but all the things inside that we lost. Terrible. My dad's things, my mom's stuff from Africa. No pictures. All that," Peil shared.
Even in the darkest of moments, Peil is looking forward: "It's about recovery. Now, you just gotta say it's not about what you lost, but what do you find. That's the only way I think I can process what's going on."
KCAL News anchor Pat Harvey went to the Palisades to get answers about the timeline for rebuilding from Bass and her newly tapped Chief Recovery Officer, real estate developer Steve Soboroff.
Bass said once hazardous material have been removed, homeowners will have two options for clearing the rest of the debris.
"Once the toxins have been removed, then the owner has a choice. They can do it at no cost with the Army Corps of engineers, or they can do it themselves," Bass shared.
For Peil and so many others, they're trying to move on from heartbreak and sorrow to figuring out how to rebuild not just their homes, but their neighborhoods as a whole.
"The thing I'm really having a hard time with...I just saw a neighbor looking for her cat. What I'm struggling with is...we really had a special street here on Bollinger. We had block parties. We nominated captains. We had pumpkin carving…Halloween. It was this amazing street," Peil remarked.
Peil says he understands why many Palisades residents were frustrated by having to wait for weeks to come home, but he says seeing the destruction for himself gave him perspective.
"I saw when the president came and had that little bit of a standoff with Karen Bass and, you know, you can understand both. Obviously, what he's saying we all feel. We want to get in and see our house. We need closure. But it also has to be safe. These are buildings…ours we can go into because there is nothing left. This side is all red tagged because it's partly. There's stuff about to collapse. What happens if they let us in officially too early and something falls of them and they die, then whose in trouble."
Chuck Peil, fire victim
