Palisades Fire Survivor: Peter Viles
After years of renting, Pete and his family moved into a dream house… in a neighborhood made dangerous by Mother Nature
For years Peter Viles wrote about real estate hear in LA for the LA Times in for his popular LA Land blog.
What made him so popular in print is what you will immediately find endearing in this episode: Peter is engaging, smart, thoughtful, kind, and truly cares about the people.
I was lucky enough to work with him for a number of years at the Times and it was fascinating to watch him hustle and mix it up with the commentators (yes there used to be comments in newspaper articles) who quickly became his biggest supporters.
Over the years we have kept in touch, so when the fires hit the Palisades in January, I kept my eye on his Facebook page awaiting the all clear from him.
For days it didn’t come and it was nerve-wracking. I was too nervous to call. I assumed he was ok, but I didn’t want to be among the parade of people blowing up his phone. The man has a wife, three kids, animals… he didn’t need to rehash whatever his tale was with me as it was still happening.
As people left notes of encouragement and prayers on his FB page, I wrote a similar comment and then I saw it: a like on my comment! Pete was alive!
Last week he wrote something new on his Facebook page that made me think he might be interested in talking about what went down, now that a few months had passed by. Turned out he did!
Click the play button below to hear our whole conversation. Apologies for the sound quality, it was done using an iPhone and not two mics.
This podcast has never been about sensationalism, trying to jump on a trend to get clicks, and for goodness sake it’s never been about trauma porn, but because I know what a good storyteller and good-hearted person Pete is, I knew there couldn’t be a better man to explain his experience than him.
What you will hear will seem like a cheesy made-for-TV movie.
The Viles crew are wholesome, loving, talented, and extremely active. He’s got a teenage son that plays quarterback for Palisades High’s JV squad.
His daughter is an avid surfer and a senior at Pali, currently finishing up like her classmates, virtually.
And his oldest son has a job in golf, a sport they all play together.
As beautiful as it sounds: they do everything together, including surfing, something mom, Stacy Johnson, is also extremely talented in.
When people (like me) drive through the westside, especially the Palisades and Malibu, we might look at the restaurants and beautiful homes and think how nice it would be to see the ocean and the pretty beaches all the time. But as a background scene.
This family often made the two-mile trek down from their home to Will Rogers State Beach to not just swim and surf, but Pete says all the kids excelled in the Junior Lifeguard program, an activity you’ll hear him say they loved the most of all.
So for this family to finally have made their American Dream come true and then have to be forced to escape a place they utilized to the max, was so tragic. And yet Peter isn’t running around pointing fingers… unlike some of his neighbors — who have every right to feel the way they do.
And for good reason. Their nearby 117-million gallon reservoir was empty due to repairs, both LA City Council and the Mayor had cut millions of dollars from the LAFD budget (monies they claimed they’d give back to the department in raises in the near future), and a Mayor who jetted off to Africa days before the record windstorm.
But Peter is much like how he describes his son: cool in the pocket. He’s reserving judgement until all the facts are in.
While it’s terrible they are displaced and could only find year-long leases as they await for their home to be cleaned of toxins and smoke damage, Pete understands it could have been much worse and is choosing to count his blessings.
One of those is the high school his youngest son is currently attending Mira Costa in Manhattan Beach has been nothing but welcoming. There have been parties greeting the Palisades evacuees, the MB mayor has welcomed them all, and even the surf team is so competitive the teen’s skills will be challenged at a higher level.
On top of that one of Pete’s friends started a GoFundMe for the Viles family to help them out during this trying year where they not only are still paying the mortgage for a home they can not live in, but they are now forced to rent an additional residence.
In this episode we will talk about how many evacuees and victims of the fire were treated to clothing and many services, but some fear the giant donations we have heard about, like the FireAid concerts won’t actually go to the ones who need it most. And if it does, it might just be a fraction of what was raised.
But mostly what you will hear is a positive take of a traumatic experience that happened to a family who is truly one of the nicest group LA is lucky to have.
This is precisely what this podcast is intended to do: shine the light on the people in your neighborhood that make it great.
How great was Peter?
He was so great this will probably be our last episode on Medium. We are in the process of moving to Substack hear: hearinla.substack.com
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Hear in LA is produced and edited by Tony Pierce.
Music and music supervision by Jordan Katz.
Songs by Orgone and Jordan Katz.
Special thanks to Cindy for creating the logo, Jen for inspiring this. And everyone who is doing everything they can to restore the neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
Thank you Patriots!
