They evacuated because that is what they do in California. It’s fall, and that is when the Santa Ana winds push dry air into the southern part of the state. Malibu is a surfer’s paradise home to celebrities — and prone to natural disasters. Gabe Kapler settled there after his playing career. He raised his boys there. He kept the house, less than a mile from the beach, even after relocating to Philadelphia to manage the Phillies.
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So, when the arid conditions concocted a blaze Friday that prompted the mandatory evacuation order, Kapler saw the alert. He sent text messages to his two sons and ex-wife, Lisa, who lives with the boys while Kapler is in Philadelphia. They were leaving Malibu, they said. They were fine. They found a place to crash for however long it took to extinguish the threat. Maybe a few days.
Then, the Woolsey fire jumped the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills. Firefighters could not contain it. The fire spread south from Thousand Oaks and took aim at Malibu.
“I think it’s coming right in our direction,” texted Chase, his oldest son.
On Saturday, a friend called Kapler. “The emotional toll of not knowing weighed on everyone,” Kapler said. But this friend had defied the evacuation notice and remained in Malibu to protect his own house and help others. The man had begun to survey the damage elsewhere. He found the Kapler property near Zuma Beach.
“I’m sorry, Gabe,” he said. “It’s gone.”
He sent Kapler some photos. The ground still smoldered. There were scorched trees and trees that looked healthy. The randomness struck Kapler and his family as they inspected the photos. One showed the last remaining piece of the house, a steel staircase that now led to nowhere, with an open flame below it. In the background, a neighbor’s house stood unaffected.
“It’s crazy to me,” Kapler said. “All of it.”
(Courtesy of Gabe Kapler)
In the last 48 hours, friends from across baseball have contacted Kapler. How can I help? What can I do? Please let me know. And Kapler wanted to make something clear. “Look, we’re going to be fine,” he said. “Our family is going to be fine. The love and support is incredible.” He had something larger in mind as the fires all over California continue to rage.
“Keep talking about it,” Kapler said in a phone conversation Monday morning as he drove to Citizens Bank Park for work. “When you’re out in your community, talk about it with other people. Use it as a way to come together. I sent this text message back to people: Talk about it. Shine light on it. Raise awareness. Feel it.
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“That’s my main point for other people. We’re good. Our family is good. There are a lot of other families who are not.”
The magnitude of it all, beyond the charred staircase, fixates Kapler. Malibu is a town of mansions and glitz — actor Gerard Butler posted a selfieof himself standing next to his destroyed home — but the Woolsey fire has covered some 85,000 acres in Southern California.
It chewed up ground that surrounded the Santa Monica Mountains. “There are lot of people from the San Fernando Valley who lost property,” Kapler said. “And the San Fernando Valley is not necessarily an affluent area, depending on where you are.” This does not even include the separate and deadlier Camp fire that ravaged Northern California and leveled a town named Paradise that is home to thousands of retirees and working-class people. It has killed 29 people in Butte County, officials told the Los Angeles Times.
In Southern California, more than 250,000 people were forced to flee their homes. The financial reality, for some, is bleak. It is expensive to live in the region. Insurance claims will be slow. Places like nearby Taft High School, where Kapler starred on the baseball team, are nothing but temporary shelters for more than 200 people at a time.
“This is not the new normal; this is the new abnormal,” Gov. Jerry Brown said Sunday, according to the Los Angeles Times. “And this new abnormal will continue certainly in the next 10 to 15 to 20 years. Unfortunately, the best science is telling us that dryness, warmth, drought, all those things, they’re going to intensify. We have a real challenge here threatening our whole way of life, so we’ve got to pull together.”
Many have lost everything in these fires, and even basic needs are going to be hard to meet. https://t.co/6wbdbClneI
— gabe kapler (@gabekapler) November 11, 2018
The inclination, Kapler said, is for some distant observers to lose focus because it’s happening in a different part of the country. A taut football game can provide a much-needed distraction one day, but winds can gust 40 mph the next day while less than 20 percent of fire is contained.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily about donations,” Kapler said. “I don’t think it’s about shining light on shelters, necessarily. I think what it’s about is talking about it nonstop. Making sure it’s on the minds of the United States. When natural disasters happen, we’re all responsible to raise awareness about various parts of the country.”
What happens when a voice through the phone tells you your house is gone? Kapler thought about where Dane, his youngest son, would go to school. The Kaplers lived three blocks from Malibu High School, where Dane just finished his junior season as the starting tailback. The school, Kapler said, is believed to still be standing. But a commute to Malibu from wherever the Kaplers settle will be difficult.
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Kapler thought about what was lost, specifically the family’s photo albums and the memories made in the house.
“Everything is replaceable,” Kapler said. “There’s nothing … it’s all just stuff. A home was stuff. To so many people, that home is their shelter and their safe haven. But everything we lost is replaceable.”
The scarier thought, Kapler said, was of a family that lacks the financial resources to endure a disaster like this. “Many have lost everything in these fires,” he tweeted Saturday night, “and even basic needs are going to be hard to meet.” It’s unclear how many homes have been destroyed by the Woolsey fire; damage-assessment teams have yet to enter most areas because they are still locked down by an evacuation order. The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that 370 homes and businesses were ruined, but another 57,000 structures remain threatened. The fires rage onward.
“We have a responsibility in these times to shed light on the people who are in really, really dire straits,” Kapler said. “And there are plenty of them.”
He does not consider his family among them. Everyone is safe. The house is gone. It will be replaced. He went to work Monday to think about baseball because he could.
“I’ll go back for Thanksgiving,” Kapler said. “We’ll all have a lot to be grateful for at that time.”
> How to help the people and communities affected by the California fires
(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.
