Jon is an acclaimed fine arts metal sculptor with gallery exhibits and commissions for large-scale public art installations. His art studio was on the property. Deanna (Dee Dee) is self-employed with DPA Fine Art Consulting and a fourth generation Californian. After their marriage in 1999, they moved into their home the following year – and their children (Jack, 16, and Georgia, 14) were born and raised there.
“It was a beautiful way to live, and a place where Jon could create,” Dee Dee said. “This place was Jon’s everything – vacations, work and relaxation – all. There was so much for him to do on this property. It was quiet and very private, and we’ve had tons of animals over the years: pigs, chickens, peacocks, goats, ducks, quail, parakeets, dogs, cats, and rabbits, with turtles, koi and frogs in the ponds. We also had seven dogs and three cats, along with five beehives – but three didn’t make it. After the fire, the chickens made it, the koi pond, and the dogs. Two of our cats never came home – but magically, three months after the fire, our teeny little black cat showed up at midnight one night.”
The night before the fire hit Malibu, Dee Dee’s parents were evacuated from their home in Westlake Village (across the Santa Monica Mountains). Dee Dee was out of town for a class reunion, but her parents drove down to Malibu to be with Jon and their grandkids. They arrived around midnight, only to be forced to evacuate again the next morning.
Jon picks up the story from there. “The in-laws were staying in our bedroom. They had all the TVs on and were doing their own thing. I just wanted to sleep, but there was too much commotion – so I spent six hours packing up the art studio, organizing, thinking things through. I got all our photos, kid and baby stuff into the car about 2:00 am. I remember thinking ‘God, what a pain it’s going to be when I have to put all this stuff away tomorrow when the fire doesn’t come.’
“I’d gone over it hundreds of times in my head, what I would take if there was a fire – but when the fire actually comes, everything goes out the window,” Jon said.
Dee Dee says she was also guilty of not thinking properly. “I made a document that listed everything I wanted to take if there was a fire – but when Jon called and asked what he should take, I didn’t even remember it. As a result, we didn’t get my grandmother’s silver or any of that. It was the middle of the night and Jon kept saying that they were evacuating, but I was such a brat about whether he would wrap everything properly (that) I now blame myself for losing our entire art collection.”
“They send young men to war because they don’t believe they’re going to die,” Jon added. “[Similarly], You think you’re fine when you’re evacuating.; you don’t think your house is going to burn. I expected to come back and still find it standing. We got all the important stuff we could think of – but unless you’ve been through something like this, you don’t really know what to do or what to expect.”
“We evacuated Friday morning around 7:30 and the entire property burned down about an hour later. There wasn’t a single firefighter or policeman anywhere the night before – but as I was driving down the hill to evacuate that morning, I got pulled over by a cop on Kanan Road because I was hauling a trailer down a steep grade in a ‘no-trailer’ zone. He was going to give me a ticket and started to lecture me, so I said ‘Yes, I know. I lived here for 20 years, but I’m being evacuated because my house is on fire.’ He looked over the hill and the fire was right there, but he was still going to write me up. I had to spend 10 minutes explaining it to him. I said ‘I have to drive on this road unless you want me to drive back into the fire’ – and he finally said, ‘Okay, you can go.’”
Jak, who only had a learner’s permit, drove with the dog and a carful of household possessions, meeting up with his father at Zuma Beach.
“There were some weird little “gifts” the fire gave us,” Dee Dee said. “For my Dad, it was to a chance to see what a great young man our son had become – evacuating and taking charge. Dad was also in awe of how methodical and calm Jon was. After 19 years of marriage, my Dad has a whole new relationship and fondness for him after seeing a whole new side of him that he didn’t know.”
