All posts tagged: Los Angeles Wildfires

Secret to Home Rebuilding After Los Angeles Fires

Secret to Home Rebuilding After Los Angeles Fires

The fires that destroyed his family’s Pacific Palisades home were still burning when Ross Greenberg and his wife made up their minds: They were going to rebuild. Yes, there were permitting challenges and headaches to soothe along the way, but quick decision-making and a year-plus-long hustle has placed them near the finish line on Iliff Street. “People are shocked when I tell them that we’re almost done,” the TV producer and co-founder of toy and board game IP company Perfect Game says on a recent afternoon over Zoom. “They can’t believe it. We’re getting a lot of, ‘What do you mean you’re almost done? How?’ We’ve worked really hard.” “Hard” being the operative word. The work — done in collaboration with Lannen Construction and architect Kevin Oreck — placed an emphasis on sustainability, particularly the notion of “home hardening.” It’s a strategy of retrofitting or building a home using fire-resistant materials and construction techniques designed to protect properties from embers, heat or direct flames. “I’m one of the first homeowners nearly complete, so we’ve been faced with …

One Year After the L.A. Fires, Production Advocates Call for Action

One Year After the L.A. Fires, Production Advocates Call for Action

For years the challenges kept coming for Hollywood’s rank and file. First there was the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which interrupted production. Then the historic double strikes in 2023, which did the same. Not to mention an overall contraction in the entertainment business and, to cap it off, fires ripping across swaths of Los Angeles in 2025, destroying the homes of some in the business who were already facing a crushing downturn in work. But ever since the blazes, local production advocates have been fighting back. “The fires, I feel like, galvanized people,” said Only Murders in the Building co-executive producer Kristin Newman at a panel discussion on Wednesday. “Being kicked so many times was what made everyone feel like we finally needed a little help.” On the anniversary of the start of the Eaton and Palisades Fires, Newman and other L.A. production advocates gathered in West Hollywood to take stock of their progress on getting that help. In the wake of the disaster, a grassroots push to restore film and television production volume …