Mary Pritchett has been a personal trainer at Malibu Fitness for the past 33 years, and has lived in the Malibu area for the past 40 years. She raised two children – a son now living in Agoura Hills (north of Malibu), and a daughter in the Northern California community of Chico. For the past 30 years, Mary and her three best friends all lived in the Seminole Springs mobile home park. All four lost their homes – along with 97 others.
Mary was able to get through the aftermath of the Woolsey Fire because she and her three “BFFs” (Carol Ornelas, Judy Bailey and Terri Keossian) were among the 101 families who lost everything in the Seminole Springs mobile home park (located in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu).
The four friends first met when they all lived in Malibu’s Point Dume Club mobile home community. All four women had school-age sons in the same grade who soon became best friends, and the parents became best friends as well.
“We went on vacations together. Every weekend, we had cocktail parties together. We had lots of pool time, and just did everything together at Point Dume Club,” Mary reminisced.
After 20 years, things began to change – but not for long. “Slowly, for one reason or another, each of the families moved away from Point Dume Club,” Mary explained. “Due to the economic downturn, one person lost their house and had to move. Another couple moved to Mexico. Three years ago, I decided to sell my house and move to Seminole Springs. Then, all four of us ended up buying a place in Seminole Springs, so we only lived apart for four or five years. It’s crazy, right? And now we’re all going through the fire loss together. It’s great to be able to talk to people who know how you feel.”
Mary’s boyfriend, a retired LA County Fire Chief, had warned her that her house would burn someday, and encouraged her to up her fire insurance and put her photo albums in storage. When the fire started, he told her, “I know this fire and I know it’s coming right this way” – so she and her friends all evacuated Thursday night instead of Friday morning.
After the fire, Mary moved seven times in three months until she finally signed a one-year lease. The Boys & Girls Club gave her $2,000, and she was able to get free clothing from various groups helping the fire victims.
She considers herself fortunate to still have work as a personal trainer. “I’m so lucky Malibu Fitness didn’t burn down – that would’ve changed everything. It opened up three weeks later, and I was really lucky my clients were not affected. Some of the other trainers there lost up to half their clients.”
Photographed months after the fire, Mary said that “We brought champagne to the photo shoot because enough time had passed that we wanted to celebrate life instead of the loss. Had this been done only a month after the fire, it would’ve been a totally different vibe.”
