Life After Woolsey: Malibu Still Soul-Searching One Year Later

MALIBU, CA — DeAnna Postil Krawczyk watched the Woolsey Fire chase her husband and kids from their home, and she was powerless to help them. Safely 1,000 miles away in Boulder, Colorado, she watched aghast through her video doorbell app as they raced in and out of their Malibu home and packed up the car with what little they could, smoke clouding her view as she peered closer.

She watched her husband clinking together cans of cat food in a vain effort to draw out their spooked pets. And finally, she watched as the car’s tail lights drove off without their cats.

“It was just the weirdest feeling not being part of such a horrible moment but watching it unfold,” Krawczyk said. “It was just an apocalyptic and surreal visual and feeling.”

She took the next flight home as her family inched down Pacific Coast Highway in the mass exodus of cars. Shortly after reuniting with her husband and children, they received a video text message from a neighbor that showed what remained of their home. It was a pile of ash.

Videos bookended the tragedy. The doorbell camera gave Krawczyk the last view of her house standing and the neighbor's text showed it was no longer there.

The Malibu community is forever changed by the largest wildfire in county history. A year later, residents are still working through their grief and trying to rebuild their lives; some residents are unsatisfied with the response from local officials during the emergency. Since the Woolsey Fire broke out Nov. 8, 2018, city and county officials have evaluated their emergency response and learned from it, setting up new programs and establishing new protocols so they are better prepared for the next big fire.

The blaze overwhelmed local fire agencies during its initial hours. It was a fire of "epic proportions," according to a report released by Los Angeles County. Strong winds were met with depleted resources as officials were already dealing with the aftermath of the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, fighting the nearby Hill Fire, and sharing resources with other parts of California that were already ablaze. The "After Action Review" of the Woolsey Fire said the fire quickly evolved into "an event never experienced in the Los Angeles region."

As soon as Malibu was under mandatory evacuation, city employees began working around the clock to set up emergency centers, send out disaster notifications and set up shelters, said Public Safety Manager Susan Duenas.

“The first few days were rough, and the stress was high. Half of the staff started getting sick, like too sick to work.” Duenas said. “Even if you were told to go home and sleep, you couldn’t. It was too intense.”

After the fire had died down, Mayor Karen Farrer drove around the city with her husband to see what was left.

Parts of the landscape were still smoldering, she recalled.

“It was like a smoldering lunar landscape. There were power poles leaning at a 45-degree angle with wires hanging from them,” Farrer said. “As I was looking at it, I was thinking of what was there just two or three days before. Landmarks were gone, and vegetation had been completely demolished.”

The task ahead would be about more than rebuilding; it was also about finding a way to feel safe again in Malibu.

In an effort to prevent another chaotic evacuation, the City of Malibu hired an independent firm to evaluate the city’s response to the fire. And to better prepare for the next emergency, the city hired a new fire safety liaison and established new programs, workshops and activities while residents recover from the Woolsey Fire.

In a report released in July, the independent firm Management Partners offered 53 recommendations on how Malibu can better prepare for the next emergency.

The report detailed communication issues between city staff, Malibu and Los Angeles County, as well as between the city and its residents, including two different alert systems, a lack of electricity and cellular coverage.

Malibu officials had little influence on evacuations, and the evacuation that did occur was clumsy — instead of occurring in phases, it happened all at once. Many residents stayed behind after an emergency evacuation was in place, and the evacuation notices didn’t clearly state who was able to leave and re-enter the small coastal city.

Besides the communication lapses, the report noted that although Malibu officials have little input on the decision-making process during the emergency, they can work on pre-planning and organizing communication between the various agencies that work with them during emergencies.

The city has already been working on and implementing many of the recommendations from the report, including the evacuation plan, Mayor Karen Farrer said.

The mayor said about two-thirds of the recommended actions were already in place or in the process of being implemented when the report was released, which gave her confidence in the city’s ability to adapt after the destruction.

One of the challenges Malibu faces: The only primary access routes out of town are Pacific Coastal Highway and the canyons, Farrer said.

“There was a lot of trauma from the evacuation, people feeling that they were trapped, inch by inch, going down the highway with the smoke and flames very close,” Farrer said. “We’ve hired a traffic consultant to create a custom evaluation plan for the Malibu community and it’ll help the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department when they work with us on evacuating.”

Malibu also hired a fire safety liaison, Jerry Vandermeulen, to help assess residents’ homes and give suggestions on how to better prepare for the next fire. Making homes more fire safe is extremely important because 50 percent or more homes burn from embers, which can be carried miles away in conditions similar to the Woolsey Fire, Vandermeulen said.

A major part of his job is public outreach — keeping the community engaged, increasing situational awareness and resisting the urge to become apathetic as time passes, which is “human nature,” he said.

“In the Woolsey Fire, there were a lot of emotions, and people were upset — that’s what created this position,” Vandermeulen said. “I’m trying to get people more engaged and aware that there’s more they can do for the survivability of their house. We’ll have to keep beating the drum and keeping people aware.”

Vandermeulen, who worked for the Ventura County Fire Department for 35 years, said the Woolsey Fire was a difficult one. But as California’s fire seasons get longer, and the fires get more intense, paying attention to wind alerts, dry conditions and possible power safety shut-offs becomes increasingly important, he said.

However, in an emergency when electricity is inaccessible, cell phone alerts may be useless to some residents. Instead of solely relying on technology, the city will set up emergency stations throughout the city and use physical signs to relay information residents need about fires, Mayor Farrer said. The City Council also passed a motion to fund the study and design of a siren system, similar to those some communities use during tsunamis, she said.

“Some of these things are really old-fashioned, but we all need to do a better job and that wheel is turning,” Farrer said. “When the power goes down, Malibu’s alert system won’t work without electricity and cell phone usage. An old-fashioned, low-tech siren addresses that.”

The city has also “quadrupled” the number of Community Emergency Response Team courses, and they’ve “all been at capacity,” she said. City staff want to give residents as many opportunities to prepare for and educate themselves about what the need to do in fire emergencies, Farrer added.

Malibu has had everything from cultural arts events related to the Woolsey Fire, poetry readings and visual arts exhibitions, speakers and therapy groups, she said.

“People still need to know that the city considers them a priority. People need to know we’re paying attention,” Farrer said.

Although the Woolsey Fire destroyed homes, took three lives and changed the Malibu community forever, the community “really came together,” Vandermeulen said.

Residents have also resolved to build safer homes and landscaping, vowed to become more educated, and take advantage of resources, Farrer said.

“There’s been a lot of instances of neighbor helping neighbor, and people helping people when they don’t even know each other,” she said.

There also have been plenty of serendipitous moments of joy.

Three months after the Woolsey Fire destroyed her home, Krawczyk’s family had their own “gift from God,” she said. Her husband returned to the property late one night, and one of their lost cats emerged from the darkness. The Krawczyk family got one of their beloved pets back, and she was pregnant, so they kept all of her kittens, too.

With the birth of the kittens came the rebirth of a family after the destruction, and like a phoenix, they are rising from the ashes.

Woolsey Fire Anniversary Series

Nov. 8, 2019, marks the one-year anniversary of the Woolsey Fire — the most devastating and destructive fire in LA County history. This weekend, we reflect on what happened during the fire with emergency response crews, residents and officials and prepare for what lies ahead in an era of catastrophic California wildfires.

We talk to firefighters, city officials, lawyers, residents and researchers to see what the recovery has been like, who is still fighting for the fire victims one year later and what lessons we've learned along the way. Fire victims share what it was like to lose it all and the complicated grief that followed. Firefighters tell stories of fighting on the front lines for multiple days in a row, and city officials recount what it was like to evacuate the entire city of Malibu and rebuilding destroyed communities. Lawyers describe their ongoing battle for accountability, and scientists explain how California's fires are changing over time.

One thing is for certain: The Woolsey Fire changed us.

Other stories in this series:

No Going Back After Woolsey: How The Monster Changed Firefighting

The Fight's Not Over: Victims Seek Justice After Woolsey Fire

Photos That Captured The Heartache And Enormity Of Woolsey Fire

Don't miss a single installment by signing up for free morning newsletters from your local Southern California Patch.