'It looks like
a war zone'
When teaching assistant Morgan Kleyweg first saw the smoke rising, nothing could have prepared him for the devastation he would return to.
Before the evacuation order came in and the flames began licking at Hartzell Street, Morgan put down a bowl of water for any animals caught in the blaze, an act of kindness that had become a habit whenever wildfires threatened the local fauna.
“It’s hard for me to look back at that day without regret,” Morgan said, “to see how much time I really had.”
For 29-year-old Morgan Kleyweg, the house on Hartzell Street was more than just a home, and much more than the mere skeleton that remains now — it was alive with memories inhabiting every room, imbued with the joys and sorrows of 50 years of family life.
Bought by Morgan's grandparents in 1969, when his mother Risa was three, the two-story house had been in his family for three generations, three generations of birthdays, holidays, and memories.
Now the lone chimney stands in the ashes as an epitaph to his family’s history.
A flyover showing the Pacific Palisades after the fires. Morgan's evacuation route is shown in blue
A flyover showing the Pacific Palisades after the fires. Morgan's evacuation route is shown in blue
Morgan, a teaching assistant at Palisades elementary school, was settling into a lively classroom filled with students when he first glimpsed the smoke billowing over the horizon.
“From 10:30 the classroom phone was ringing every few minutes telling us to send another child to be evacuated with their parents.”
Within hours, the sky turned an ominous shade of orange, and the air grew thick with ash. One by one the phone would ring out, and another student would leave.
By midday, only five of the 19 students remained. Morgan was sent home, and the school closed. It hasn't reopened since.
“Even seeing the flames from my yard didn’t scare me as much as it should have.”
"It's hard to look back without regret."
Firefighters tackle the wildfires from the ground. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope
Firefighters tackle the wildfires from the ground. Photo credit: AP Photo/Ethan Swope
The skeleton of Morgans house after the fires Photo Credit M. Kleyweg
The skeleton of Morgans house after the fires Photo Credit M. Kleyweg
The fire, which officials believe may have been sparked by a downed power line, destroyed multiple
homes in the area, and whole streets were gutted by the flames.
“Every room had a story,” he said. “We've lost so many irreplaceable things.”
For now, Morgan and his family are starting to put their lives back together. Living out of a hotel room provided by FEMA, the future is anything but certain. "I'm figuring it out day by day." Morgan said.
A GoFundMe campaign launched by his mother Risa's employer has raised over $17,000 to help the family cover immediate expenses.
Despite this windfall, the layers of this tragedy reveal themselves like the tide, pulling away in one moment only to crash back down the next.
"If I didn't take the time to talk with my family, or hang out watching the news - even the two minutes it took to place water outside for the animals could have been two more minutes to get my possessions out."
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