Before the celebrities and influencers came, Pacific Palisades was a 'small town'
Before the celebrities and influencers arrived, the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles had the feel of a small town within a sprawling metropolis.
LOS ANGELES — Just four days before a raging inferno descended on his Pacific Palisades house, Rick Citron and his wife left town to mourn the recent death of their adult daughter.
They never imagined it would be the last time they’d see their home of more than 40 years.
Around 5 p.m. on Jan. 7, Citron remotely turned on his Tesla car camera to watch the unimaginable unfold.
He saw large embers fly through the air, swirling around the home on Ocampo Drive he purchased in 1982. “This doesn’t look good,” he remembers thinking before forcing himself to get some sleep around 11 p.m.
But at 5 a.m. on Jan. 8, a sinking feeling startled him awake. He switched on the camera and saw firefighters running away from his house, pulling a hose behind them, trees lighting up like matchsticks. He switched to the rear-view camera and saw his house ignite. A few moments later, his electric car exploded.
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