The Swindal family lived in their Point Dume home for 20 years. Curtis is an investment advisor at Morgan Stanley; Kristen does flower design, cooking lessons and volunteer work; Mia is studying sound engineering at the Berklee School of Music; and Talia is a student at Malibu Middle School. The family story is told by Kristen.
“We watched the news the night before the fire, and the mass shootings at the Borderline Bar & Grill (in Thousand Oaks) had just happened. My husband, Curtis, had a bad feeling, and he tends to be intuitive. We woke up early the next morning, heard that the fire jumped the 101 Freeway, and left Malibu at 8:45. You could see the flames on Kanan and that big cloud of smoke.
“We packed our two cars, took our two dogs (Rocket and Apollo), some papers, jewelry, clothing and artwork. Talia took her two surfboards, because she’s on the surf team and that’s her thing. We got on PCH heading south, because they said north was closed (we found out later that wasn’t true).
“We spent the first night in a Beverly Hills hotel, where we were glued to the TV. At 10PM. they were reporting live from Dume Drive and it was on fire. We thought maybe the whole Point was on fire. My daughter really cried after that.
“A day or two later, I got a text from our home’s previous owner saying, ‘Thinking of you’ with a heart. I thought, ‘That’s nice.’ I took the dogs for a walk and got a text from a friend. A guy was driving around our neighborhood and writing down the addresses of houses that had burned, and that’s when I finally found out that our house had burned.
“Although we couldn’t get back into Malibu, the people who stayed behind sent me pictures. Another person I know chartered a boat to get in, and they also sent me photos. It took two weeks for us to get in to see our house.
“Once we did, the Sheriffs still had PCH closed at Paradise Cove and they wouldn’t let us drive to Point Dume. So we parked, went to a nearby friends’ and got bicycles, but the Sheriffs still wouldn’t let us in. So we rode our bikes through Paradise Cove, up through some brush and then took the back way around to Point Dume.
“I knew someone who was giving out supplies, and her son took us to our house. That was really hard. We had to wear the masks, because even after two weeks there was still smoke and fumes. All we found were a few coffee mugs, a bowl the kids made at Marine Science Elementary, and a vase my daughter made in third grade. The golf cart we used to run short errands was completely gone without a trace – it melted and there were no parts of it left at all. It was also obvious that other people had come by earlier, looking and looting through our things.
“I really liked to cook and entertain, and I had china from our wedding that I actually used, plates given to me by friends in college, and a cameo pin from my great aunt. None of those things made it through the fire. I also miss my favorite shoes, but I’m most upset about the loss of family photos, my children’s artwork and handmade ornaments, and Christmas decorations – especially the things you collect over a long time.
“Later, there was a map put out of where all the fire had burned, and our house was on the very edge of it. More than a dozen houses burned on our street, but all of them were located across the street – except ours. We had three separate buildings: a ranch house, a guest house, and a three-car detached garage. All of them burned, but my vegetable beds were fine.
“We loved our house, and we had a lot of kids’ parties there over the years. We also hosted a wedding there, both our girls were baptized there, and we had many Christmases. It was a good kid house – cozy but not big or anything.
“I couldn’t believe how many people were so sad for us because they had great memories of those parties. It was touching.
“It’s been really hard for my oldest daughter to go to the property, but I think we’re all better now than we were. We’re moving forward. But if I haven’t seen some people in a while. I’ve known them a long time, and I still start crying.
“It feels different now than it did right after the fire. I think people have processed it, and are moving forward and rebuilding.”
