A California father of two, who lost his home to wildfires on Jan. 8, calls for major changes in leadership that has “completely failed.” The state's population is in crisis.
“There's a deep part of me now that it wasn't just my home and my life's work that burned down. It was the trust in the leadership and the systems that completely let us down,” Blake Malin said. “…There's a part of me that feels frustrated, disappointed, angry, and that…I've been failed by leadership in a system that I've worked my whole life to do right to get to the point where everyone is supposed to get to.”
Malin, a 44-year-old businessman Lifelong resident of California, He made sure his wife and children, ages 6 and 9, evacuated safely before staying behind to try to save his home in Pacific Palisades when flames began to reach his neighborhood.
Malin spent Jan. 7 trying to get his family's sentimental items out of the house and prepare it as best he could for the impending fires.
“It is the trust in the leadership and the systems that have completely failed us.”
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He watches:
Blake Malin, a 44-year-old businessman and lifelong California resident, made sure his wife and children, ages six and nine, evacuated safely before staying behind to try to save his home in Pacific Palisades when the flames began to reach his neighborhood. (charity)
“We filled every sink, got all the towels, put them under the doors. We pulled out the hoses, we turned off the fire extinguishers,” Malin told Fox News Digital. “We did everything. We started getting all the… things that would be hard to replace.”
For hours that day, Malin and his neighbor, Alex, worked to douse hundreds of “hot spots” around their homes using backyard gardeners and buckets.
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Malin and his neighbor spent hours trying to douse the “hot spots” in their neighborhood themselves using garden hoses and buckets. (charity)
As night fell, the fires and winds intensified, and Malin watched them approaching his neighborhood in the darkness.
“Night came, and it began to head toward Armageddon.”
“Obviously everything went dark, which meant the fire looked like hell,” Malin recalls. “And I watched him go up the mountain and all the way up the valley and then he jumped into the valley.”
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As night fell, the fires and winds intensified, and Malin watched them approaching his neighborhood in the darkness. (charity)
With winds blowing strongly in every direction, the fires became “terrible,” Malin said.
“It was a firestorm,” he said.
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They eventually ran out of water in the early hours of Jan. 8, so they began filling buckets with neighbors' pool water to fight the falling embers and flames. There were no firefighters in the neighborhood at the time.
They eventually ran out of water in the early hours of Jan. 8, so they began filling buckets with neighbors' pool water to fight the falling embers and flames. There were no firefighters in the neighborhood at the time. (charity)
Malin began “running” away from his neighborhood in search of firefighters “out of desperation” and came across three fire trucks parked on the side of the road around 3 a.m. on January 8. He knocked on the trucks' windows, and when he caught the attention of a firefighter, the first responder told Malin that they, too, were out of the water.
“Firefighters and engines were sent to the scene ready to fight — like trained, heroic people, ready. They couldn't do anything,” Malin said, adding that it “wasn't their fault.”
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Malin returned to his neighborhood feeling defeated, but he and Alex continued trying to put out the flames with pond water.
Blake Malin poses with his wife and children on the beach. (charity)
The next morning, they thought the worst of it was over. Malin even phoned his family members to tell them he thought he had saved his house, but soon after while walking down his street, Malin noticed a house four doors down from the attic where he smoked — a telltale sign, Malin said: of the house that was About to burn.
Eventually, that attic smoke did what he expected, turning into an attic fire and then a building fire that moved to other nearby homes, including Malin's home.
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The 44-year-old eventually saw a fire truck driving down his street and “begged” the men inside to help him put out the flames that he was sure were about to engulf his home.
The 44-year-old eventually saw a fire truck driving down his street and “begged” the men inside to help him put out the flames that he was sure were about to engulf his home. (charity)
“I just begged them. I said, 'This is my house here. This house is burning here. We have to stop this fire because if this fire burns, my house will burn and the street will burn.' “I begged them and they listened,” Malin said.
Malin said that the firefighters who stopped to help him made a heroic effort, using half a tank of water in the engine they used to help him.
“They took the most inspiring and definitive stance. You can imagine a fire crew… like a movie scene. Heroism,” Malin said. “They pulled out the chainsaws. They cut the fence line with chainsaws between the houses to remove the fence. They literally started uprooting trees in preparation for the jump stop. They lined up fire and the giant cannon hose between them, waiting to protect the job.”
Malin said that the firefighters who stopped to help him made a heroic effort, using half a tank of water in the engine they used to help him. (charity)
But despite Malin's efforts and the brave work of firefighters trying to stop the fire in its tracks and extinguish the flames, the fire eventually reached his attic. There was nothing anyone could do to stop the fire from growing because there was not enough water.
Malin and his family lost their home of seven years, which was paid for in full.
“If this tap had water, my house could have been saved. If the trucks had water, the house and street would never have caught fire.”
“We were relying on limited rotating water. So…it wasn't like a constant stream. There was a water hydrant on the other side of my house, 20 feet away. If that hydrant had had water, my house could have been saved,” Malin said. . “If the trucks had had water, the house and the street would never have caught fire…The firefighters over there, that's all they were saying the whole time.”
Malin and his family lost their home of seven years, which was paid for in full. (charity)
State Farm dropped his coverage in September, Malin said. (charity)
Gov. Gavin Newsom's office shared a letter on January 10 addressing hydrants running out of water, noting that “although Southern California's overall water supply is not an issue, water movement in the initial response was an issue.”
“Continuing reports of loss of water pressure for some local fire hydrants during fires and reports of unavailable water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir are of deep concern to me and the community,” Newsom wrote. “We need answers to how this happened.”
The governor added that he has launched an investigation with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
To make matters worse, State Farm dropped Mallen from insurance coverage in September, he said.
“How could I be the story of the American dream – the businessman who did his best to get his family home, pay it off, have no debt and no mortgage… the dream we were all supposed to have… and I literally had no choice of protection and safety.” And the security of my family’s home and my business?” Malin said.
State Farm did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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A destroyed house in the Malin neighborhood. (charity)
He noted that Californians pay “an exorbitant amount of taxes” — taxes he's been paying for decades, as a lifelong Californian — and yet, “we can't even get water in our hoses to protect our homes,” Malin said. .
Malin said he is now speaking out to share his story, which he said represents thousands of other families who lost everything when they were displaced by the California wildfires. He said he wanted to “highlight a story that is ours but also represents thousands of others in similar situations in a way that brings about much-needed change.”
The Malin family's ruined backyard. (charity)
“The only thing stronger than a wildfire that just burned down thousands of homes and my home is a community coming together to rebuild,” he said.
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Malin family members have started a GoFundMe campaign called “Restart the Malin Family” to help Blake and his wife rebuild after the devastation.
As of Friday morning, Cal Fire It was reported that more than 40,600 acres were burned, and more than 12,300 buildings were destroyed in the fires. At least 27 people are confirmed dead in the fire, although that number may rise as dozens are still missing.
