{"id":409390,"date":"2025-11-27T23:32:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/409390\/"},"modified":"2025-11-27T23:32:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T23:32:23","slug":"pacific-palisades-holds-first-turkey-trot-since-deadly-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/409390\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Palisades holds first turkey trot since deadly fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Residents of Pacific Palisades have had little chance to congregate since the Palisades fire ripped through their community in January. <\/p>\n

But bright and early on Thanksgiving morning, runners could be seen stretching their limbs in front of hollowed-out buildings, while attendees in turkey costumes walked along charred streets, ready for the 11th annual Pacific Palisades Turkey Trot. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s heartwarming to see so many people back here supporting the community after everything that we\u2019ve lost and suffered through this year,\u201d said lifelong Pacific Palisades resident Brian Garrett, whose home burned. \u201cIt gives us hope that we can build our town back and get back here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palisades fire broke out on Jan. 7 and wasn\u2019t fully extinguished until the end of the month. It is considered the third-most-destructive wildfire in California history<\/a> \u2014 6,800 buildings were destroyed by the flames, 36.5 square miles of the Santa Monica Mountains were scorched and at least 12 people were killed.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

David Houston, whose home burned in the Palisades fire and who is now living in Venice, came dressed in an inflatable turkey costume.<\/p>\n

\"Heidi <\/p>\n

Heidi Lindelof of Brentwood celebrates the day with turkey socks. <\/p>\n

(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Given the state of the neighborhood, David O\u2019Connell, the event\u2019s co-founder, wasn\u2019t sure the holiday run would be taking place this year. But after Labor Day, he started getting calls from sponsors and runners who were eager to participate. About 2,000 people signed up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt became apparent that the community really wanted an event to get things back together. This is one of the biggest running days of the year and a lot of these people want to be with their friends and family,\u201d said O\u2019Connell, who also lost his home in the fire and has been living in Century City.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThis is a new course too. I\u2019m not sure what we\u2019re going to do in the future, but for now, we\u2019re here in downtown Pacific Palisades, which, given the circumstances, adds a level of magnitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

The course began and ended at Palisades Village Green, a small triangular park in the middle of the downtown area. The runners made their way through the Via de las Olas bluffs, an area largely scorched by the fires. The blocks, once filled with homes, were now vacant lots, either cleared out entirely or still filled with pieces of rubble. There were some surviving homes along the track, but their windows were boarded up, with signs posted to keep out.<\/p>\n

\"People \"People <\/p>\n

Many blocks, once filled with homes, are now vacant lots, either cleared out entirely or still filled with pieces of rubble.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Palisades, a largely affluent community tucked between Malibu and Santa Monica, was home to more than 21,000 people before the fire. Afterward, many residents were displaced,<\/a> with many moving to other neighborhoods on the Westside.<\/p>\n

Micah and Julie Levin and their two sons, who lost their home, had been renting in Brentwood until recently moving into a different house in the Palisades. While running, the family realized they were going to pass the site of their burned home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was grateful for doing this today, because every time I\u2019ve gone up to the house has been a sad experience,\u201d said Julie Levin, after finishing the race. Now, she added, \u201cI have something different to project onto it \u2014 something more lively and happy.\u201d <\/p>\n

She says there\u2019s nothing left \u201cbut a patch of grass\u201d where they used to live. Their son Merritt added that he could barely tell which lot was theirs because they all looked the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose [to live in] the Palisades because of the community\u2019s strength. So the fact that we are all here right now doesn\u2019t surprise me at all,\u201d said Julie Levin. \u201cIt is so peaceful here. We miss the peace and quiet. We miss the sunsets and the sunrises. We miss being near the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

The course passed through a mixture of commercial and residential areas. Along one of the blocks, Ryann Mackston stood on the corner where her parents\u2019 pizzeria, Beach Street Cafe, was before the fire. Her parents had owned the restaurant for about 20 years and both Mackston and her brother worked there as teenagers. She said seeing that many people gathered in the streets took her back to her childhood.<\/p>\n

\"Runners <\/p>\n

Runners pass the site where Community United Methodist Church of Pacific Palisades once stood.<\/p>\n

(Christina House \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost feels normal \u2014 obviously it\u2019s not normal. There\u2019s shattered glass still on the ground and we\u2019re surrounded by rubble,\u201d Mackston said. \u201cBut it\u2019s good to have some sense of normalcy in the community and do something that we all used to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to losing the family business, the Mackstons also lost their home and then relocated to Manhattan Beach. The 24-year-old says that no matter where her family moved, they would always come back to the Palisades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a part of us. We are going to rebuild. People are going to move back in when they can, and they\u2019re still a part of this community,\u201d Mackston said. \u201cI want to keep it alive, even if I don\u2019t live here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents of Pacific Palisades have had little chance to congregate since the Palisades fire ripped through their community…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":409391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,718,115676,246,192724,316,192723,2961,224,5337,7088,27894,192722,6278,17254,33433,192721,192725,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-409390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-deadly-fire","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-hollowed-out-building","14":"tag-home","15":"tag-julie-levin","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-lot","20":"tag-many-people","21":"tag-new-course","22":"tag-pacific-palisades","23":"tag-palisades-fire","24":"tag-runner","25":"tag-ryann-mackston","26":"tag-santa-monica-mountains","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115624278244186726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}