A guide to rebuilding homes in Pacific Palisades

Valerie Chan is one of thousands who lost her home in the Palisades Fire. She lived on the bluff, with an ocean-view. She called it her "dream home."

“You just feel at peace. Well not now," but you know," she said, as she walked through ash and debris. while trying to rebuilding a fire-resilient home for the second time.

Chan moved into her Palisades home in 2018 and rebuilt in 2020 with expectations her home would survive a fire or at least withstand the worst of damage. She built with a steel frame, sprinkler systems and fire-safe windows. On Jan. 7, when she saw flames moving toward her home, she said she wasn’t too worried.

“The question was, ‘how bad could it get?’" Chan remembered asking herself. She said she was confident firefighters would put out the flames before they reached her neighborhood, thinking her home is ready ready.

She evacuated with very little.

When Chan returned to check on the status of her home, she saw it standing.

“I remember feeling a glimpse of excitement. I'm like, oh my gosh, my house is still there," she said.

But the frame was still there, nothing else.

“My house stood, the steel frame was still there after the fire, but because of the point of failure, the house burned from the inside out,” said Chan.

She explained, the windows were fire-safe, but there was an issue with how they were sealed – the fire made its way in through the windows. “It’s not just the windows, it’ the actual seals you have to worry about. The sprinkler system didn’t work because there was no water."

Chan can recycle and reuse a lot of the materials left behind, like steel and stone. And the foundation of her home is still intact. She has some new design ideas in mind for this rebuild.

“I’ll probably have concrete floors. Sprinkler systems, one on the roof of the home. I’m looking at roll bars and shutters,” Chan listed.

She’s working with licensed architect and owner of Archicraft Studios, Marija Volkman. She’s advising people to get their permits now before agencies become inundated.

“There are a lot of scams out there. There were a lot of scams before,” said Volkman. “People are grieving their homes; they are not ready. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know what they need, they need a surveyor, a soil engineer, a GC, architect, expediter, structural engineer, there’s a lot!”

That's why Volkman said she created a guide to rebuild.

“We’re trying to give out a manual so people can get all of the information in one place and see how much work this is and decide what they want to do,” Volkman explained. She’s offering the free guide to impacted homeowners. She said it’s her way of giving back and helping people navigate what can feel like a daunting journey.

Titled "A Practical Guide to Rebuilding Homes After 2025 Wildfires," Volkman said homeowners can access the guide by emailing rebuildLA@archicraft.co.

“We’re committed to keeping it up to date as we receive feedback from our partners and from our ongoing work in the field.”

Meanwhile, as Chan begins to rebuild, she is encouraging others to remain hopeful.

“The Palisades is a strong community and there are so many people who are coming back and have plans to come back and because of that, look to the future.”