AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A lot of people are still replaying exactly where they were last Tuesday, when the Palisades fire began roaring through the mountains here - like Barbara Tejada, who was speeding down the Pacific Coast Highway.
BARBARA TEJADA: I threw on the hazard lights, and we kind of upset a few people, probably, but we were driving on the shoulder of the road so that we could get here.
CHANG: Here, as in the historic ranch home of Will Rogers, the vaudeville performer and radio and movie star. He was known as America's cowboy philosopher. And last week, as smoke billowed in the hills just beyond his ranch, park officials like Tejada jumped into action.
TEJADA: We pulled up trucks right here where we're standing...
CHANG: Right here?
TEJADA: ...On the lawn.
CHANG: Uh-huh. You dashed into the house. What was your first room?
TEJADA: The main living room. We have a lot of Charles Russell bronze sculptures. There were some key things owned by Will, like his - you know, his boots, his typewriter. And people were packing. People were packing. We were moving things into trucks.
CHANG: And you keep spinning around and looking out the windows?
TEJADA: I kept - yes. And at one point, I came out, and I literally saw the smoke plume start to churn. And that was the clue. Like, I realized, OK, guys, whatever you have in your hands, that's it.
CHANG: We're running out of time.
TEJADA: We've got to go. Like, this is the last round of things. We've got to go.
CHANG: They hopped into their trucks. And before they left, Tejada took one last look at the house.
TEJADA: And something told me to take a picture 'cause this might be the last time we see it. So I did take a - I do have a photo from the truck.
CHANG: Oh, my God.
TEJADA: The glow - so the ranch house is right there.
CHANG: The sky is just lit orange, red...
TEJADA: Yes.
CHANG: ...Yellow, gray. It looks like a watercolor.
TEJADA: Yeah. If you didn't know how destructive it was, it would be beautiful.
CHANG: This ranch house is the centerpiece of the Will Rogers State Historic Park, a vast stretch of natural space in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's a treasure to Angelinos. People get married here. They picnic here, have kids' birthday parties on the great lawn. There's a huge network of trails that snake up into the hills, packed with hikers and bikers. The ranch house itself has survived a near miss with wildfire before, but this time it wasn't so lucky.
What went through your mind when you saw what we're staring at now - these charred remains, these lone chimneys sticking up into the sky with nothing around them?
TEJADA: I was taking deep breaths (laughter) to not have a panic attack. And I was just - it's gone. I can't believe it's gone.
CHANG: This house that has stood here for nearly a century is now a pile of rubble surrounded by yellow police tape.
TEJADA: Those stone steps - that was the entrance.
CHANG: Yeah.
TEJADA: So that right there is - you know, you see the bathtub. That was actually on the second story. Like, there's...
CHANG: The bathtub's now right behind the fireplace...
TEJADA: Yes.
CHANG: ...In the main room.
TEJADA: Exactly.
CHANG: Tejada then leads us across the great lawn - the only thing that's still green around here.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS IN GRASS)
TEJADA: There's little burn marks here and there from embers.
CHANG: And we go past the destroyed horse stables to meet Richard Fink, who helps manage the state parks in this area.
RICHARD FINK: So if you were to come here on weekend days, you're typically going to see a line of cars eager to get in.
CHANG: He guides us towards the Inspiration Loop Trail, which was one of the most popular hikes in this park. Now, it's completely empty.
FINK: It's very surreal - you know, probably never see anything like this again. And it's devastating.
CHANG: Oh, wow, Richard. I've hiked these trails many times, and this is just completely different. It's black.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND BLOWING)
CHANG: I mean, the only plant life are these blackened twigs jutting out of the ground - these skinny, skeletal tree trunks. It's kind of spooky.
FINK: It's spooky. And, you know, if you get up to the top of the Inspiration Loop, at Inspiration Point, every hillside that you look at from around the park here looks exactly the same.
CHANG: And yet, we suddenly noticed small traces of what used to be - a few singed pieces of paper poking up from the eucalyptus leaves.
I just found this page on the ground for Julian's (ph) Chili.
TEJADA: It was a Will Rogers cookbook. Here's the - a recipe from the governor of Oklahoma for carrot pineapple cake.
CHANG: Well, I'll give this to you, if you're going to assemble the recipe book again.
TEJADA: Whoops (laughter). Yeah.
CHANG: It does make you think what nature was thinking when it decided what to save and what to destroy.
TEJADA: Right.
CHANG: Still standing next to the ruins of the ranch house is a majestic oak tree where I meet Armando Quintero, the director of the California Department of Parks and Recreation. And I ask him what these fires have done to the relationship between Angelinos and all the nature that surrounds them.
ARMANDO QUINTERO: It's an answer full of emotion. You know, these places are - offer restoration for us as individuals, for families to gather. They're places of memory. And, I mean, this is literally a disaster of memory for so many.
CHANG: I mean, I'm also just thinking about people in Southern California who may not have a home with a big yard, who can flock to a big space like this and...
QUINTERO: Well...
CHANG: ...Feel for a moment that they live in a beautiful corner...
QUINTERO: Exactly
CHANG: ...Of Los Angeles.
QUINTERO: Exactly. This is the home of Angelinos. It's the home of Californians.
CHANG: Can you even begin to describe the psychic injury that has been inflicted on people who have used outdoor space as solace and are now looking at the charred remains of what used to be an incredibly beautiful park?
QUINTERO: I mean, you can see me. It's overwhelming grief. And (crying) being the director of a department with all these employees, and the public, and the responsibility is one of - how do we care? Literally, it's about caring. This work is caring for each other, caring for our homes and strengthening what makes us human. I'm heartbroken.
CHANG: But as painful as this time is, Quintero says, listen. You can hear the birds. They're back.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SINGING)
CHANG: And look, he says - the deer. They're wandering back, too.
TEJADA: Oh, there's a deer right now.
CHANG: Oh, yeah.
TEJADA: You can see it right there.
CHANG: I do. A lone deer just walking...
TEJADA: Couple of them - a couple of them.
CHANG: ...Tentatively into the stable. Oh, yeah, there's another.
TEJADA: (Laughter).
CHANG: We see them walking in the abandoned horse pasture.
TEJADA: Nature does...
CHANG: Come back.
TEJADA: ...Continue. Yeah (laughter).
CHANG: What does that feel like to you - to watch the deer come back?
TEJADA: Hopeful. (Crying) Life goes on.
CHANG: Things will return.
TEJADA: Yeah.
CHANG: A small reminder that nature ultimately is resilient and that this beautiful park will come back one day. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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