Opinion: Big Rock is rebuilding — and building back stronger

By By Colin Drummond, Big Rock resident, Malibu Brigade member  · Sun Sep 06 2026

The Palisades Fire devastated Big Rock, destroying 75% of our neighborhood and displacing families from homes, neighbors, and a community many had spent decades building. In a matter of hours, streets filled with memories were changed forever.

But almost immediately after the fire, Big Rock residents began asking two questions: Why did this happen — and what must we do differently, so it does not happen again?

Those questions carry particular weight here. Big Rock was hit hard by the 1993 Old Topanga Fire and again, catastrophically, by the 2025 Palisades Fire. We cannot simply rebuild the same neighborhood with the same vulnerabilities and hope for a different outcome.

Over the past year and a half, our community has been searching for answers. We have spoken with firefighters, fire ecologists, land-management experts, wildfire specialists, and public agencies, trying to better understand both how homes survive extreme wildfire conditions and what larger changes are necessary to protect an entire neighborhood.

That work has increasingly centered on three interconnected priorities: 1) fire-hardened homes and landscapes; 2) a more resilient and dependable water system; and 3) strategic, cooperative management of the enormous fuel loads on the public and privately owned lands surrounding our neighborhood.

Our recent Big Rock wildfire-defense seminar, held last Saturday in the multipurpose room at Malibu City Hall, focused on the first of those priorities: creating homes and landscapes that are far more capable of surviving an ember storm and the intense heat of a wildfire.

We were also pleased to have Gabe Etcheverry, one of the City of Malibu’s fire safety liaisons, attend and participate in the conversation.

One of the most important lessons of the seminar was that wildfire survival can come down to decisions that may seem surprisingly small.

Combustible material immediately next to a home can provide the bridge an ember needs to ignite a structure. Vulnerable vents and eaves can allow embers inside. Wood fences, gates, dense landscaping, and even a vehicle close to vegetation can carry fire directly to a house. Building materials, windows, decks and roofing all matter. So does the condition of the first five feet surrounding a home. Think of the match test — a lit match is like an ember — would that kindle a larger problem?

For families rebuilding after the Palisades Fire, this creates an extraordinary opportunity. Decisions being made now about construction materials, fencing, landscaping, and other design details will determine how a home performs during the next major fire.

For the homes that survived, there is also much that can be done today. Removing combustible materials, changing vulnerable vegetation, and fencing, improving ember protection, and addressing other weaknesses can materially improve a home’s chances.

We also discussed private wildfire-defense systems that may provide an added layer of protection after residents have safely evacuated. But if considering, the emphasis should be on proven systems, sound science, and your own thorough research, to ensure you are doing more than expensively buying hope and a false sense of security.

No homeowner can fix an inadequate water system alone. No individual resident can manage the enormous fuel loads surrounding Big Rock. And no one property can become truly resilient if the broader neighborhood remains vulnerable.

That is why Big Rock is committed not simply to rebuilding houses, but to pursuing meaningful infrastructure change: a stronger and more resilient water system, better wildfire preparedness, and coordinated fuel management involving the public agencies, conservancies, and private landowners whose properties surround our community.

We have already lost too much — twice.

This time, rebuilding must mean more than replacing what burned. It must mean learning from 1993 and 2025 and creating a safer, stronger and more resilient Big Rock for the generations that follow us.

Every Malibu homeowner can take a meaningful first step by scheduling a free Home Ignition Zone assessment through the Malibu Brigade at https://malibubrigade.org/hiz or through the City of Malibu’s fire safety liaisons.

We cannot prevent every wildfire. But if homeowners, neighborhoods, and public agencies all do their part, we can dramatically improve the odds that the next wildfire does not become another 1993 or 2025, not to mention a 2007 or 2018.