Eliot was 13 years old when his family lost the 1950s ranch house he grew up in. Eliot and his sister, Thea, both attend Malibu schools.
When the fire came, it didn’t just take the house where Eliot had lived his entire life; he lost the home that was the center of his best childhood memories. It was the “back lot” for the videos he made with his friends. It was where he spent endless weekends transforming an old barn into a western-style “saloon” where he and his sister could have parties. And as someone just reaching his teenage years, for Eliot the fire also meant the end to his big plans to transform his bedroom and the garage into hangouts for his friends.
On the morning of the fire, “We knew about the fire around 3:00 am – we heard it on the radio,” Eliot recalled. “So my Dad attached a rack on the car roof and started packing. I got up at 7:00 am and school had been cancelled, so I was kind of happy – until we went to a trail and I saw the flames across the valley from the house. It seemed like it was only a mile or two away, so I started picking out things I wanted to go in the car.
“I packed my BB gun, one airsoft gun, and some clothes. Then we put sprinklers on the roof of the house. One corner of the house had a big tree branch overhanging it, and we sprayed that part of the roof with a lot of water.
“All of a sudden, the fire really started burning down the hill so we got in the car. The smoke was following us, and there was like a wall flying past us, spinning, and I was kind of scared. The neighbor had several gas tanks,” which Eliot thought he heard exploding as they drove down the driveway. A family friend sent photos two days after the fire showing the family house had burned down. “I was hoping it was a mistake,” he said.
After the fire, local schools didn’t reopen for more than a month. During that time, Eliot says that he really missed his friends, especially his best friend.
Because of the mandatory evacuations, the Lefevre family wasn’t able to get back into Malibu for three weeks. On their first visit, seeing what was left of the home for the first time “was a weird feeling,” Eliot said. “Now that they cleared the lot [of debris], it’s even weirder,” Eliot noted. “I never imagined it being all flat like that.” Eliot blamed the mulch around the house for causing it to burn down. He thinks mulch caught fire, but burnt slowly, which then caught the deck on fire, and then the house.
Eliot said when his sister, Thea, first saw the burned down house, “She was crying and didn’t want to go back again. Now she always stays in the car on her phone when we go there.”
When asked how he felt about the house burning, Eliot said, “I’m sad and it’s hard to believe. When I realize my house burned, it’s a sad, alone feeling; kind of like a ball in your stomach. I don’t think my parents cared too much [that the house burned down] because they wanted to re-do it anyway, but I think it was cool the way it was,” he said, recalling all of the good times he had had growing up there.
