Jeff served on Malibu City Council from 1994-1998 and from 2000 - 2008, including several rotations as Mayor. For years, he’s also served on the Malibu Planning Commission (where he’s currently vice-chair); and maintains the private practice law office of Jennings & Associates. Kris is a retired school teacher from the Santa Monica/Malibu USD.
On the day the Woolsey Fire hit Malibu: “When we got up, it didn’t look that threatening. The plume of smoke didn’t seem to be going over us,” Jeff noted. Even so, the couple prepared to evacuate. Kris gathered photo albums and jewelry, and other items on the list of things she wanted to save; Jeff got busy outside with barrels of feed for their horses. He also put a water pump in the Jacuzzi in case the fire department needed extra water later to put out spot fires.
“On the morning of the fire, our oldest son, Tyler (who lives nearby in Point Dume Club), sent his wife, Tina, and daughter, Freyja, to stay with her parents in eastern Malibu. He then came by to help us around 9:00 am,” Kris said. “He helped us continually throughout the day and night of the fire, and was our rock.”
The Jennings needed to evacuate their two horses, so they walked them over half a mile down to Zuma Beach. “Easier said than done,” Jeff said. “There were horses down there already, and after two hours we finally got ours locked up in the enclosed leach field next to the restrooms. The fire department had keys to the ‘pen’ and other people brought hay. The whole process was pretty exhausting.
“By the time we finished getting the horses out, you could see the fire had advanced – but we were in denial until the fire came down Zuma Canyon and was almost to the edge of the parkland,” Kris observed.
“It advanced at almost 90 degrees to the wind,” Jeff said. “This fire was a whole different order of magnitude than what we had experienced in the three or four fires I’ve been through since I moved here.” Jeff and his son tried to drive back to the house, but were forced to take a detour because of downed power lines. They saw a firetruck near the house and decided to just stay out of the way, so they went back to Zuma Beach where Kris was keeping an eye on the dog and horses.
“At dark, we came back up to the house again and put out small fires, but there was only a trickle of water pressure because the power was out,” Jeff said. “The City had talked about putting gas-powered generators at water tanks, but that hadn’t happened.
“We saw that a house two houses down from ours was on fire. At 3:00 am, we went to my son’s place at Point Dume and got a few hours’ sleep. That was when our house burned. A friend of my son’s had gone by there in the middle of the night, and called and said the house was gone. So we came back in the morning to put out more smoldering ashes,” Jeff continued.
“Then we decided to bring the horses back. We went down to the beach, but they weren’t in the pen. We saw a horse trailer nearby, and the person driving it said our horses were being loaded into the Ventura County Humane Society trailer: they were picking up animals left at the beach and transporting them to their facility in Ojai. I went over and asked if they could drop them off at my nearby property,” Jeff said.
The Humane Society explained that taking the horses to Ojai would be the better solution since the Jennings’ property no longer had water and the horses might be standing outside in high winds. The group offered to let the horses stay in Ojai as long as needed for free, and Jennings agreed.
Later on Saturday, the Jennings’ middle son, Miles, flew in from San Francisco, borrowed a truck from a friend, and got through the Sheriffs’ road blocks. He stayed with his brother on Point Dume, and “they both helped put out smoldering embers and hot spots wherever they could,” Kris said.
“Our kids tried to salvage through the ashes, but there wasn’t really anything left. I’ve gone through different stages, and I’m sad at the loss of my great grandparents’ things,” Kris said. “I’m mourning for the things that burned. I know they’re just inanimate objects, and that sounds weird, but I feel like each piece had to suffer after lasting for so long.”
“Then there was the barn, which had a lot of stuff in it,” Jeff said. “My Dad worked in movies as an assistant director, and had all these scripts of MGM films he’d worked on, including “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Deliverance,” “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” and lots of Elvis and Judy Garland movies. Of course, there’s no way to replace them. Sometimes I would sit and watch one of those movies with script in hand to see what changes they made, and now they’re gone.”
Kris was proud of the work her sons and daughter-in-law put in to help others after the fire. “Our two oldest sons continued to make day runs with supplies to people in Malibu after the fire. (Youngest son Austin was out of town on his honeymoon). Our daughter-in-law, Tina, has become a force in Malibu, helping with a fund for Malibu educators that lost their homes, getting supplies for others in need in our community, and helping others find homes.
“Ours is such a tight knit community and so supportive. Very quickly after the fire, people banded together to help those that lost their homes. Having lived and worked here for so many years, Jeff and I are lucky to know so many people and feel so much a part of the community,” Kris said. “We’re devastated for what we all lost but we also look forward to rebuilding with our friends and neighbors. We are Malibu Strong!”
