Smoldering beachfront homes. Charred vehicles. A Starbucks patio destroyed. A child’s playhouse in a burn-scarred backyard. A firefighter at work.
These are among the searing images captured on Jan. 10 in areas of Malibu and Pacific Palisades devasted by the wildfire storm that ignited on Jan. 7. The inferno has been fueled by Santa Ana winds of unprecedented strength. The pictures that follow underscore the enormity of the loss and the long road ahead to recovery.
Photographs by Variety contributor Michael Buckner. Reporting by Gene Maddaus, Variety‘s senior media writer.
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Bay Theater
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Netflix took over the five-screen Bay Theater in 2021.
The theater and most of the Palisades Village are still standing, though they are surrounded by devastation in all directions. A shop a few doors down from the theater was burned, and the mall was empty and eerily quiet, except for the ring of a security alarm in the distance.
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Air Tanker Above Pacific Coast Highway
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Days after the Palisades Fire left a trail of destruction along Pacific Coast Highway, air tankers continued to fight the flames a couple of ridgelines away.
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Child’s Play House
Image Credit: Michael Buckner A child’s play house is left standing at a home in the Palisades.
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Antioch Street
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Two men survey the damage in the pale light of Antioch Street, which was thick with ash and soot. Behind them, charred palm trees cast sticklike shadows on the wall.
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Jacob Soboroff in Pacific Palisades
Image Credit: Michael Buckner NBC News reporter Jacob Soboroff, who grew up in the Palisades, interviews Albino Fuentes outside Cafe Vida, where Fuentes worked for 15 years. “We’re going to bring this back,” Fuentes told the reporter.
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Carbon Beach
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Carbon Beach is one of the most desirable beachfronts in the world. Some of these homes have sold recently for around $20 million.
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Carbon Beach West View
Image Credit: Michael Buckner The famous Carbon Beach as seen from the west. One house still smolders while others have been torched to the ground.
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Carbon Beach Pool
Image Credit: Michael Buckner David Geffen sold his famous Carbon Beach estate for a record-setting $85 million in 2017 to Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, according to the Real Deal. This is what remains of the pool. The estate was once the focus of Geffen’s long-running battle over public beach access.
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Beach House on Fire
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Flame still crackled from the cellar of this beach house, two days after fire swept through Pacific Coast Highway. The Spanish-style home was gutted, though the home next door, which sold for $27 million in 2023, was still standing.
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Smoldering Beach House
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Another view of the Carbon Beach home
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Carbon Beach House in Ruins
Image Credit: Michael Buckner A few doors up from Geffen’s former estate, another beach house lies in ruins.
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Carbon Beach House on Sand
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Another Carbon Beach home burned down to the sand.
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Carbon Beach Beachfront Home
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Some homes on the ridge above Carbon Beach were still intact, while the beachfront homes below were completely destroyed.
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Charred Car
Image Credit: Michael Buckner A charred vehicle on the hill overlooking the Palisades.
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Charred Vehicles
Image Credit: Michael Buckner A view of the a home destroyed from the Palisades Fire on January 10, 2025 in Pacific Palisades, California.
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Beach House Chimney
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Chimneys dot the landscape in the Palisades and along Pacific Coast Highway, after the Palisades Fire reduced many homes to rubble. In other places, all that’s left between the road and the beach are spiral staircases.
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Tree Swing
Image Credit: Michael Buckner The fire torched trees, melted plastic and charred anything made of wood, including this child’s swing, along a sidewalk in the Palisades.
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Palisades Community Church
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Community United Methodist Church celebrated its 100th anniversary three years ago.
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Palisades Community Church
Image Credit: Gene Maddaus Community United Methodist Church celebrated its 100th anniversary three years ago. The church tower dates from 1929, and several additions have been built over the years. The church burned to the ground.
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Palisades Community Church Cross
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Pastor John Shaver of Community United Methodist Church told NBC4 that the church plans to rebuild. “My heart is breaking as I see it,” he told the station, though he took solace that this cross survived. “That’s been my focal point. When I start breaking down a little bit inside, I keep looking at the cross to know God is guiding me through this.”
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Palisades Flag
Image Credit: Michael Buckner The flag in front of Palisades Charter Elementary School was singed by the flames. Much of the school, which sits a few blocks from the entrance to Temescal Canyon, was destroyed, though the administration building is largely intact.
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Palisades Home
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Entire neighborhoods in the Pacific Palisades were destroyed. Here, a house has been reduced to charred walls and palm trees and some loose tile.
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Palisades Storefront
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Across the street from the Palisades Village, this commercial building was completely destroyed. The flag in the background stands on Sunset Boulevard, outside what used to be Casa Nostra Trattoria.
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Paliskates
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Paliskates, a skate shop in the Palisades Village, was gutted by fire while shops around it were unharmed.
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Rosenthal Wine Bar & Patio
Image Credit: Michael Buckner The oversized chairs and table are all that is left of Rosenthal Wine Bar & Patio on Pacific Coast Highway. The oak barrels out front have burned, leaving piles of metal hoops.
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Charred Road Sign
Image Credit: Michael Buckner What remains of the road sign at Rosenthal Wine Bar & Patio, on Pacific Coast Highway.
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Starbucks Village Green
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Starbucks patrons used to sit on this patio, which faces the Village Green, a triangular park across the street.
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Wylie’s Bait & Tackle
Image Credit: Michael Buckner A photograph of the Wylie’s Bait & Tackle along California’s Pacific Coast Highway that has been destroyed by the Palisades Fire in Malibu, California on January 10, 2025.
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Firefighter at Work
Image Credit: Michael Buckner Firefighters from across the state came to the Palisades to help. Here, a firefighter from San Ramon Valley, in the Bay Area, helps douse embers at a home that burned on Haverford Avenue.