In 1967, Robby Krieger, the guitarist for legendary L.A. band The Doors, wrote the hit single “Light My Fire” in the living room of his parents’ Pacific Palisades home. This week — nearly six decades later — the lyrics took on eerie, disturbing resonance as the structure where the music originated burned to the ground.
The home on Alma Real Drive has been owned for the last 24 years by Claudio and Kathleen Boltiansky. On Thursday, after each lugged a 60-pound electric bicycle up the locally-known Hillside Vance “secret staircase,” the couple were able to gain access to their street in the Huntington Palisades.
Two days prior, when the devastating wildfire first erupted, Claudio had set up a security camera in the backyard to monitor the blaze. By the time the power went out on Tuesday night, he could see that the homes neighboring his appeared to be engulfed in flames. Still, the Argentine immigrant, who owns a fine French antiques shop in West Adams, remained hopeful.
This was not only the home where the Doors famous song was written. It was where Claudio, 61, often hosted his buddies for their bi-monthly poker games with a $60 bucket. Where his son and daughter used to catch their school bus. The house with a mantle proudly displaying a vintage photograph of Kathleen’s grandparents on the day they got engaged.
Now it was gone. “It would be one thing to just lose our house, but the biggest loss we’re feeling is our whole community,” said Kathleen, 56 and an interior designer. “It’s never going to be the same.”
As they’ve struggled to absorb their new reality, the Boltianskys said they’ve been disappointed by the prevailing narrative that the Palisades as a solely affluent community.
“The misconception people have about the Palisades is that they think that everybody’s rich,” said Claudio. “People should know that this is not Beverly Hills, which has always been expensive. Before the 2000s, the Palisades was a very affordable neighborhood like any part of Los Angeles.”
“People that have been there for 20-to-30 years are people that are hard workers — plumbers, electricians, small business owners. Yes, rich people live there, but so do hardworking, real people who were fortunate to buy at the right time and rode it all the way up to Ben Affleck moving in nearby.”
On Monday, Claudio is organizing a lunch at Fogo de Chão to gather with 19 other men he met through his poker games, the majority of whom also lost their homes. Most of them became friends when their kids were in preschool. “We need community right now — not money. People need to know that others care and are suffering with them at the same time.”
In a few years, he hopes he’ll be able to start hosting low-stakes gambling gatherings at the home he rebuilds on Alma Real. He and Kathleen are unwavering about that — they will return.
“We’re going to rebuild it as our forever home,” she said. “But Pali Strong is about community, and community is not the houses or the shops. It’s the people. We pray that will come back.”
