Luxury property specialist Julian Alexander’s Malibu home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire; PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIAN ALEXANDER
Julian Alexander had just finished a Pilates class at the newly opened Equinox gym on Sunset and PCH when he first noticed something was off. “I went outside and could smell some smoke and saw an occasional speck of ash,” he recalls. At first, Alexander, a luxury property specialist at Coldwell Banker Realty wasn’t overly concerned. A quick online search turned up a report of a structure fire east of the 405. Nothing major, or so it seemed.
But as he left the gym, stepping out onto the balcony, he saw a different story unfolding before his eyes. “There was an enormous amount of smoke towering over the building, blocking the sun and casting a shadow over the ocean.” He drove home to Sunset Mesa, his Malibu neighborhood, and as he made his way west on PCH, the sky above him darkened with an ominous cloud of smoke.
Alexander’s view from his morning workout at Equinox the day the Palisades Fire broke out; PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIAN ALEXANDER
By the time he arrived home, it was 11:45 a.m. He had a few hours before evacuation became urgent, but, as he admitted, “You don’t really practice a fire drill like this on a regular basis.” He packed carefully—his essentials, legal documents and business materials. His Porsche Panamera didn’t offer much space, which forced him to decide what truly mattered. “That’s when I came to a clear understanding of what was most valuable to me, he shares. “It was my identity.”
As the hours passed, the reality of the fire became clearer. “I was outside with the only neighbor that stayed in the area, and we were hosing down properties.” The situation escalated when a vehicle two doors down caught fire and exploded. Flames spread rapidly, igniting nearby homes. When the house across the street went up in flames, Alexander knew it was time to go. “It was 4 p.m., and the entire sky was grey, the sun a little red dot in the distance,” he says.
His Malibu neighborhood as the fire grew closer; PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIAN ALEXANDER
Leaving wasn’t easy. Authorities blocked eastbound exits, forcing him to drive west—deeper into Malibu, directly toward the fire. “I looked to the right, and there was a wall of black smoke. The hills were on fire, RVs and cars parked along PCH were on fire—it looked like hell, and I was supposed to somehow drive through,” he shares. “I thought to myself, ‘This is it,’ and pressed firmly down on the gas pedal.”
For the next 10 hours, he moved with the fire, keeping in touch with clients, updating them, and even stopping to spray down their beachfront properties. “I begged the firefighters to not let these homes burn down,” he says. At times, he ran into houses to grab sentimental and valuable items for friends and clients. “There was one moment when I was literally running out of a house with a couple of heavy boxes, and the whole mountainside was on fire,” says Alexander. “Fire trucks blocked off PCH, and police were yelling at me to get out now.”
La Costa beach; PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIAN ALEXANDER
“There was one moment when I was literally running out of a house with a couple of heavy boxes, and the whole mountainside was on fire.”–JULIAN ALEXANDER
By 4 a.m., he arrived at a client’s beach house. “I was running on empty. My body was beginning to shut down,” he recalls. He took a cold shower, lay down for a couple of hours, and at sunrise, drove through the remains of Malibu. “It was a surreal moment. Even a month later, it still doesn’t feel real.”
Now, Alexander is focusing on helping others rebuild. “The Malibu and Palisades community is resilient,” he states. “There’s no doubt in my mind we will rebuild.” In the meantime, he is pouring his experience into a book: The Palisades Fire: Livelihoods in Jeopardy–A Memoir of Survival, Community, and Disaster.“I want to get this energy out of my system so I can move forward. We can’t stop Mother Nature, but we can be more prepared.”
Photography by: Courtesy of Julian Alexander
