Andrew is a world-renowned concert pianist who has played with dozens of symphony and philharmonic orchestras, spending much of his year traveling on tour. His home in Malibu had been under construction for several years, and was just about finished at the time of the fire.
“The night before the fire, I had the whole family over –my parents, my brother and his kids – and everyone was in the pool. It kept getting smokier and smokier: I’ve been through other fires in Malibu, and I thought I could gage how close or how strong it was by the amount of smoke.”
“The smoke was stifling. I called the nearby fire station around 11:00 pm and asked if it was safe to go to sleep. They said, ‘Oh sure, don’t worry, the fire is far away.’ When I asked if we would get a notice of evacuation, they said, ‘Of course, we’ll call you, we’ll be on your street.’
“Then they admitted their information about the fire was pretty much the same as ours. I found it alarming that our local fire station was so relaxed about it and didn’t have any more information than I did.
“My brother (who goes sailing) had a wind app on his phone and said, ‘I don’t care what the Fire Department tells you, the wind is blowing 50 mph towards Malibu.’ He had better information than the Fire Department – that’s screwed up. He decided to send his family home and stay in Malibu overnight as a precaution, because my parents lived nearby and might need help if there was an evacuation.
“I was hesitant to sleep in the house by myself. I saw my neighbors – husband, wife and daughter – fully packing three cars even though there had been no evacuation notice, and that was alarming. They told me they just wanted to be on the safe side. And yet I’d just heard directly from the horse’s mouth, the Fire Department: ‘Don’t worry.’
“I gathered a few items and put them near the door. I went to sleep and was woken up by a phone notice about the fire, and that got me nervous because I knew it had jumped the 101 freeway. I called Fire Station #99 again and the lines were all tied up and I could never get another human on the phone.
“My brother, who was at my parents’ up the street, called and said, ‘You’ve got to get out, the fire is now in Malibu working its way into Charmlee Park.’ My parents were in their house for 30 years and have way more things than I do, so I went there to help them pack. I then went back to my own house and got my essential items, including my computer, important documents, the dog, and a bottle of tequila (because I knew I’d need it one way or another!)”
“Then I saw the flames coming over Decker Canyon – two sets of flames – and I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock about it – and also regretting that I didn’t stay up all night packing the whole car with everything I could, because I’d relied on the information the Fire Department gave me. Based on the wind direction and speed, they should have known the fire would hit Malibu.
“Even as I drove down the canyon in my car, I never thought the firemen would abandon us when the time came to defend the houses, and leave us to burn. Once I was on Pacific Coast Highway, I saw the whole hillside on fire, about 9:30 am, and I couldn’t believe that all western Malibu was burning. It was total shock given the tone of the firemen when I called them just ten hours earlier. I filmed it all, too: it was like a scene from Armageddon.
“I stopped at Zuma Beach, because that’s what the family agreed to do. It was a crazy scene down there with a whole menagerie of animals, like Noah’s ark before the flood. What was conspicuous by their absence were Super Scoopers, helicopters and fire engines. We all stayed until the smoke was too bad. I had no mask and decided to head into town around 1:00 pm.
“My parents’ house and neighborhood was in the direct path of the fire and I was certain their house was a goner. As it later turned out, all the homes but one were still standing after the fire – and it wasn’t a matter of luck: there were two woman firefighters (one was retired and one was off-duty from the LA City fire department) and they were absolutely heroic. One of their mothers lived there, so they stayed and defended all 15 homes with nothing but garden hoses.
“It took me two more days to learn that my home was destroyed. When I heard how many homes had been destroyed, I didn’t feel particularly unlucky because more than 400 homes went down in Malibu. But yet I did feel extremely unlucky because my house burned after a 4½-year remodel which was almost done, making it almost a brand new house with a new swimming pool. And we were planning to be home for the holidays and for the first time ever, relax and enjoy our newly remodeled house.
“I lost my piano. That was the most important thing I lost, a hand rebuilt Yamaha. I’d flown my technician in from Paris to rebuild it. It was a special, one-of-a-kind Yamaha and I loved it, but now it’s gone and I’ve got to get over it.
“The photo of my burned house on the front page of The LA Times was not exactly the publicity photo we wanted to introduce it to the public: we were hoping more for Architectural Digest. The whole thing makes me extremely sad, and extremely angry.
“We evacuated our homes thinking in good faith that we would have protection. Everything was botched. Where was the California Highway Patrol? Where were the volunteers knocking on doors after the power went out? Some people never got the telephone evacuation notice. If one neighbor hadn’t been woken up by a fellow neighbor, she might have burned up. It’s a terrifying thought for the elderly and the handicapped – no one went through the homes to see if everyone got out.”
Andrew had ambitious plans for the house once it was completed, all of which have now been put on hold. “The house had already won several architectural awards, and we envisioned it as a venue for concerts, music videos and fundraisers for nonprofit organizations,” he said. “Someone joked that my new album should be titled ‘Out of the Ashes.’
