After losing her family’s home in the Palisades Fire, she advocates for faster and more efficient rebuilding policies
Picture yourself enjoying the trip of a lifetime to the fascinating country of India and then receiving a telephone call from your neighbors informing you that a ferocious wildfire was fast approaching your neighborhood in Big Rock in Malibu.
Unfortunately, Malibuites Jyoti “Jo” and Colin Drummond had that harrowing experience during the Palisades Fire. Jo Drummond shared her story with The Malibu Times.
Feeling helpless after neighbors called them on Jan. 7 to warn them about the impending Palisades Fire, Jo and Colin made as many phone calls as they could from 9,000 miles away.
Celebrating saving a treasured heirloom
“While the brigade was at our home clearing our property — and even though I thought the fire would not come as far into our neighborhood as it did, I had the wherewithal to ask our neighbor to go inside our house and take a very important family heirloom off the dining room wall,” Drummond shared. “Colin’s great great grandmother was the first postmistress general in Rockford, Illinois, during the Civil War after her husband, Malankin Smith, who had been the postmaster, was killed at Vicksburg. So, Abraham Lincoln signed a certificate two times and crossed out all the “him’s,” and changed them to “her’s,” naming her as the Postmistress General. We had that certificate framed and it has been in the family for more than a century. Blake, our neighbor, saved it for us. We had a tearful reunion with Blake as he gave us the certificate back to my husband, Colin.”
Alas, like many other Palisades Fire victims, everything is a total loss — the home where the Drummonds raised their family and made many memories is decimated, except for some jewelry the couple miraculously retrieved after the fire from an underground security box that had been in the floor of their closet.
“Almost 75 percent of the homes in our densely populated neighborhood of Big Rock were destroyed, amounting to 170 homes out of 230,” Drummond lamented. “It’s like a war zone.”
The Drummonds’ home was devastated by the fire despite the family making every effort to protect it against wildfires.
“We had a composite roof and Vanguard vents,” Drummond noted. “The Brigade came by before the fire hit and put all the cushions in the garage, moved our ping pong table and made sure that there was nothing along the side of the house.”
So, why did their home burn, one wonders.
“Our neighbor’s SUV was running while they tried to retrieve things and unfortunately, it exploded, killing their sweet little cat named Penny as well,” Drummond recounted. “Pieces of the SUV hit our garage and caught it on fire — two homes next to ours did not burn — only four of the homes out of the 11 homes on our street burned, with Rosemarie and Thomas Idhe saving at least six homes.”
During the blaze, a Southern California Edison utility pole fell down, and first responders were concerned because it was unclear whether the fallen line was a live wire or a telecommunications line, Drummond explained. She noted that only the sheriff’s deputies and the community fire brigade were at Big Rock during the fire and that after the fire, the brigade stayed on site putting out spot fires to ensure the conflagration did not roar to life again.
Trying to go forward and deal with the daunting task of rebuilding
Despite the devastating loss of her family’s home, Drummond, who served on the City of Malibu’s Public Works Commission from March 2022 to January 2025, and who will begin serving on the Planning Commission at the beginning of August, is strenuously advocating for expeditious and efficient rebuilding of the approximately 700 homes in Malibu that were destroyed by the Palisades Fire. She brings her service as president of the Malibu Township Council and as the former president of the Big Rock Mesa Property Association to empower her advocacy efforts.
The EPA has just begun removing hazardous materials at Big Rock as of press time. Such EPA Cam 17 analytic testing determines whether “forever chemicals,” including asbestos and benzene, are present at a fire-savaged property. That governmental testing, which is conducted without cost to fire victims, is a precondition to conducting overall debris removal, Drummond noted, emphasizing that one cannot even apply for a debris removal permit until the EPA process is completed.
“We could expedite rebuilding if we can model our procedures allowing self-certifications by structural engineers and the geologists who conduct geotechnical assessments,” Drummond said. “Those procedures can hold up the rebuilding process by at least a full year. The City of LA allows for such self-certifications and applicants are processed through their building and safety departments within 30 days so long as they are not increasing the footprint of their home by more than 10 percent of what it was before it was destroyed.”
Drummond also advocates that the City Council mandate that the city’s Planning Department streamline rebuilding permits and that the provisions of the fire code be incorporated into a rebuilding code that is tailored for Palisades Fire rebuilds. She also thinks the rebuilding code should include requirements that plants be at least 10 feet away from homes and other structures on properties.
“If we had between four to five landscape templates that those who are rebuilding could adopt, and if we could thereby bypass the need for any biological reviews, we could also save a lot of time in rebuilding,” she added. “Tree heights should be limited to 6 feet and we hope to have a mandate that trees be spaced 10 feet apart. The city code only allows for a 42-inch wall or hedge and we are asking for that to be increased to 48 inches for fire protection. Notably, when the SUV exploded in the Palisades Fire, our neighbors’ wall stopped any of the flying SUV parts from hitting their home and therefore, their home did not burn.”
Finally, Drummond strongly advocates that the county reduce the amount of Malibuites’ property taxes that areallocated to the county. She suggests that if that happened, Malibuites could fund a larger fire brigade.
“If we had a community brigade that was 10 times the size of our current brigade, they could be deployed before a fire hits,” she noted. “We would be able to better defend ourselves against wildfires. Currently, between $300 [million] to $400 million of our tax property dollars are allocated to the county and 30 percent of our taxes go to the schools, whileonly 11 percent of our property taxes are allocated to our community. The remaining funds are used to pay for fire departments and the sheriff’s department.”
Drummond recognizes the herculean task that the city and those who need to rebuild must undertake. By collaborating together, she maintains, the task can be more streamlined and successful.
The Malibu Times will be sharing the stories of families who have lost their homes in the Franklin and Palisades fires.Stay tuned for more articles in upcoming editions. If you’ve lost your home and would like to be featured, please reach out to us at editorial@malibutimes.com.
