This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.
Before the Palisades Fire burned through their neighborhood in January, the Bridges family left with only a few belongings. Robert Bridges said he recalls driving with his son through embers the size of footballs, including chunks of burning roofing and tree branches. The blaze reduced the Bridges’ home — an architectural fixture of Pacific Palisades and one they designed and built themselves — to a skeleton of concrete and rebar. The land around it burned, too, laying waste to the area. All told, the Palisades Fire destroyed more than 6,000 structures and killed 12 people. On October 8, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Jonathan Rinderknecht, a man now living in Florida, with starting what eventually became the blaze.
Robert Bridges is an Emeritus Associate Professor of Clinical Finance and Business Economics at USC, a husband and father to three sons. He said that with their home gone, he and his wife want to move to Santa Barbara. For them, it’s a long-held dream of returning; they were married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse in 1981 and lived here as a young couple…