Paul Rosenblu was finalizing the purchase of a restaurant in Vancouver, Wash., when he learned his existing eatery in Altadena, Calif., had been incinerated.
He and his wife, Monique King, had operated Fox Restaurant, a “jewel on the hill” in the Los Angeles area community, since 2017. The diner has been a local staple dating back to 1955, and Rosenblu first laid eyes on the charred restaurant. He shared the story via a Facebook video sent to him after the Eaton Fire ripped through the area this week.
Fox Restaurant co-owners Paul Rosenblu and Monique King lost their iconic diner in Altadena, Calif., to the Eaton Fire last week. (Paul Yem, NBC News)
“I don’t want to say it, but [we’re] You trade one restaurant for another, and that’s how it happens,” Rosenblu recalled thinking during the 14-hour drive back to Altadena. “We literally just closed escrow on Tuesday when this whole thing started going downhill.”
He said many across Los Angeles are just beginning to think about the devastating wildfires that have raged across Los Angeles, reducing decades of history and years of entrepreneurial efforts to ashes in a matter of hours. He is one of the small and medium business owners.
Buildings destroyed along the coast near Topanga Beach (NBC News’ Ray Sinclair)
Mr. Rosenblu said Fox’s performance was stable — and always had been. The diverse neighborhood had many older residents who had retired and never left, and the diner always had “a lot of regulars.”
“They came into the restaurant and [I] I spoke to them in a back alley. We knew these people,” he said. Today, many of their homes are “just gone.”
The couple is currently evaluating how their other area restaurants, Cindy’s and Little Beast, both in Eagle Rock, can absorb Fox’s approximately 15 employees into their operations. As they think about it, they remain on alert as response forces continue to battle the fires. . Although Fox was insured, Rosenblu said there was little hope of a turnaround.
“Once all the infrastructure is gone, you can’t rebuild the buildings without electricity, gas and water,” he said. “Or customers.”
Those who lost their buildings, like Bunny Museum co-founder Candace Frazee, are also defiant.
“We will rebuild,” she vowed, even though the property’s insurance won’t cover construction costs. In an Instagram Story announcing the closure of the location after 27 years, Frazee asked if anyone would like to donate the building to the 501(c)(3) organization.
This Guinness World Records-certified site was an Altadena institution featuring a wealth of rabbit-related memorabilia, from hand-crafted antiques to pop culture characters. Frazee and her husband tried to extinguish the fire by dousing the building with water, but after an all-night effort, it was completely destroyed Wednesday morning.
A firefighter walks past charred topiary at the site of the destroyed Bunny Museum in Altadena on Thursday. (Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)
“I’m still in shock,” she said Friday. “It was standing, and then it wasn’t.”
Owner Christina Adam said that unlike long-established stores, Aether was just beginning to develop a loyal customer base when it went up in flames.
She opened her wellness studio about a year ago two blocks from the rental home she shared with her husband and 2-year-old daughter in Pacific Palisades. By Thursday afternoon, they had taken shelter at a friend’s house in the West Los Angeles area, but although they made it to safety in time, they were unable to save either property from destruction.
Dishes litter the ground near Topanga Beach restaurant (NBC News’ Ray Sinclair)
Adam said he built Ether’s customer base from zero to several hundred people by offering retreats, energy readings and yoga classes. Like Rosenblu, she witnessed all her work reduced to ashes from miles away, via video footage of text messages on her cell phone screen.
“The roof was gone, the walls were on fire, the front stairs were on fire,” she said. “It was a very heartbreaking moment.”
Topanga Beach picnic table and part of guest list survive blaze (NBC News’ Ray Sinclair)
Adam said he recently started hosting group wellness events in collaboration with other Topanga Beach businesses. She suspects those partner studios are probably gone as well. “I don’t know if anyone is thinking about what’s going to happen now that the Palisades is almost wiped out,” she said.
It may be some time before Adam and others in the local business community fully learn of each other’s plans and predicaments. More recently, it has led to harrowing experiences for some residents who are struggling to trace family members during the crisis.
A drive through the areas of Altadena that were destroyed by the Eaton Fire shows the devastation the fires have wrought on communities. Annette Arreola reports on NBC4 News Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 at 12:30 p.m.
The man spent the afternoon handing out cash to fire victims. “Even if they have Louis bags, that money is not earmarked for them.”
On Thursday, James Benjamin posted the following notice on the Instagram account of Wylie’s Bait Shop, a Topanga Beach establishment since 1946. She doesn’t have a cell phone. ”
Benjamin, 23, runs the store’s social media and was referring to his great-aunt, Ginny Wiley. Benjamin said the owner of the bait shop, who is in his 80s, had not been contacted for more than 24 hours.
At Topanga Beach, burnt cans sat on melted metal shelves and broken bar stools sat among the remains of a burnt-out store. (NBC News’ Ray Sinclair)
“We are posting on NextDoor and also calling the Red Cross and various shelters,” he said Thursday afternoon. “I know she was escorted out by the sheriff, but I don’t know exactly who the sheriff was.”
Wiley, who could not be reached by NBC News, inherited the business from his grandparents, the original owners, and became known as the local authority on Malibu surf fishing. In 2018, one Yelp reviewer wrote, “Take your time and be prepared to share some stories. She always makes you feel like you’re a kid trying to go fishing with your grandpa.” ” he wrote. There are not many places like this in the world. ”
Wylie’s Bait and Tackle, frequented by surf fishing enthusiasts since 1946, was destroyed in the Palisades Fire (NBC News’ Ray Sinclair)
Wiley’s was “a huge hub for the Topanga-Malibu surf fishing community,” Benjamin said, adding that his great-aunt was “definitely something of a legend.”
Wiley was seen leaving the store Wednesday morning and trying to call his family from the shelter, police said. Customers have since reported on social media that the store, along with other nearby buildings, was engulfed in flames.
By Thursday afternoon, Benjamin said authorities had found her great-aunt in a makeshift shelter set up inside a Ralph’s supermarket. “She’s still there and doing well,” he said late Friday.
A few miles away in the Palisades, another Ralph’s store had already burned down.
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