At the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025, The Pepperdine community and its neighbors were deeply impacted and forever changed by a series of wildfires. About a year later, Pepperdine Libraries began this project to create a community archive that documents and preserves the shared experience of the Franklin (December, 2024) and Palisades (January, 2025) Fires. The aim is to ensure future generations can understand the scope and details of this experience, told from the communities' perspectives. The archive inludes written memories, oral history interviews, photographs, and videos related to the fires, their aftermath, and lasting effects. 

The project is ongoing and contributions are welcome anytime

Contribute to the Archive

We are accepting photographs or videos of the fire, damage, recovery, or community support efforts and screenshots or text of your social media posts, reflections, or discussions. 

 

We are also collecting written personal accounts of the fires. These could include memories of life during the fires such as the evacuation process and waiting for fire containment, reflections on the lasting impact of the fires on your family, community, and sense of normalcy, experiences with community aid and recovery, and observations about the rebuilding process. 

 

Materials will be included in the community archive and preserved. You retain copyright to your materials and can indicate on the form whether you would like your contribution published on this website and whether you would like to remain anonymous. 

 

If you have any questions or are interested in participating in an oral history interview, please contact specialcollections@pepperdine.edu

The Palisades Community Renewal Center (PCRC), a program of the Picerne Family Foundation, has opened in Santa Monica. PCRC is a welcoming space dedicated to healing, creativity, and connection for all those impacted by the January 2025 Palisades wildfires. PCRC offers 12 free individual, family, or group counseling sessions to community members. The Center also offers arts programs plus Saturday Family Workshops, yoga and other programming designed to inspire connection.

Staff are available to provide in-person mental health services (including counseling, support groups, crisis stabilization, and resource linkage) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, at two walk-in centers (Eaton Fire Collaborative: 540 W. Woodbury Road, Altadena 91001 and Palisades Fire Collaborative: 15247 La Cruz Drive, Los Angeles 90272), and through the LACDMH-run fire support line at (833) 659-0600

The Counseling Center provides free and confidential support to all enrolled Pepperdine undergraduate and graduate students. Staff are ready to support students with both individual and group appointments. Please call (310) 506-4210 or email at student.counseling.center@pepperdine.edu to schedule an appointment or learn more about services. 

The Palisades Long-Term Recovery Group (Pali LTRG) was formed after the Palisades Fire to help households in our community recover, especially those still facing unmet needs after exhausting other forms of assistance. They are local Palisades fire survivors who have been in the burn zone supporting their neighbors since the early days of the disaster. Pali LTRG facilitates Disaster Case Management: identifying disaster-affected individuals and households with the greatest unmet needs and connecting them to essential resources of Money, Manpower, and Material and conducts and coordinates wellness programs, recovery education, and events that reconnect the entire community.

Palisades Recovery Coalition coordinates rebuilding logistics, connects survivors with recovery resources, and brings neighbors, agencies, and partners together so Pacific Palisades can rebuild stronger and safer after the Palisades Fire.

The Palisadian Post was launched in 1928, six years after the Pacific Palisades was founded, by Telford Works as a source for local news. The paper was most recently purchased by Tim and Laura Schneider, long-time local residents and veterans of the publishing industry. The Schneiders believed the Post to be a vital part of the community’s civic infrastructure that, like much of the Palisades, needed to be rebuilt. They committed to relaunch the Palisadian-Post as a digital-first communications platform for Pacific Palisades on May 4, 2026, the 98th anniversary of the paper’s founding.