The deadly Palisades Fire is still raging in Los Angeles, but Chuck Hart and his construction crew are already several days into their self-appointed mission to clean up and rebuild their shattered community.
“We never left,” the local contractor said while taking a brief break from shouting directions to his army of workers as they shovel scorched debris from the roads and sidewalks into large pick-up trucks and trailers.
“We’re going to do everything we can to get this place back up and running as quickly as possible.”
At least eight people have died in the Palisades Fire, one of 25 burning across Los Angeles. It razed entire blocks of the upscale Pacific Palisades neighbourhood and left much more covered in a carnage of ash, mud and collapsed structures.
Hart and his team of employees are not being paid or contracted by officials to do this cleanup work.
In fact, they are not even meant to be there.
Due to roadblocks barring entry to Pacific Palisades, they cannot leave because they would not be able to re-enter, and they are “having to sneak in materials and supplies” to carry out their work.
“We’re staying at my house. We’re sleeping on the floors, on my jiujitsu mats, couches, beds, … no hot water, cold shower, 31 dudes – it’s gnarly,” he said.
When the fire broke out, Hart and his crew were working on a construction site in the neighbourhood.
Hearing that his mother’s house was close to encroaching flames, Hart told his team to “stop everything you’re doing” and rallied them to protect her property with hoses.
“We just rock-and-rolled,” he said.
“We were fighting fires, and then we went round all the houses … cleaning debris up out of the streets.
“We’ve just been doing that nonstop ever since.”
As far as Hart is aware, nobody else has begun clearing up Pacific Palisades.
So far, his team are not touching any private property, focusing on roads and sidewalks.
He appears to have the tacit approval of the police and fire officials who regularly circle the streets, checking for smouldering hotspots or looters. A local fire station even shared its meals with his workers.
“People in this community that know me really well, that know the higher-ups, have vouched for me 100 percent,” he said.
For the first few days, he paid his crew out of his own pocket, but he has now launched a GoFundMe appeal, which has so far raised $170,000.
Still, Hart said persuading his crew to stay was never an issue. He said many “are like family” and have worked for him for as long as 25 years.
“I stayed to protect the area where I work and also save the company because that’s where my employer’s house is,” Raul Lopez Acosta said.
While the affluent residents of the Palisades might “have the money” to rebuild, “there are many things besides the construction, many memories, feelings, people, who have been living here for two or three generations,” he said.
With no access to waste disposal sites to dump the mountains of debris, Hart and his team have “hijacked” a neighbour’s lot that had been wiped out by the fire.
He has not been able to make contact with the owner to ask permission but intends to haul out the rubble as soon as the roads are opened.
And in any case, he is confident the owner will understand, given the extraordinary circumstances.
“We’ll get it straightened out. It’s an emergency,” he said.
Hart is adamant that Pacific Palisades will rebuild. He believes that many of his fellow residents are itching to return and help but are currently being slowed down by bureaucracy.
Officials have warned of dangers that include fire reignition, downed power lines, no safe water and no electrical service.
Jackie Irwin, who represents the Palisades in the California State Assembly, said on Tuesday that the official debris cleanup would be “done as quickly as possible”.
But Hart does not want to wait, particularly with his construction company’s resources, from dump trucks and trailers to skid steers and grapple buckets, so readily at hand.
“I am uniquely positioned to be of maximum service to my community, and I’m going to do it,” he said. “I got all the trucks. I got all the equipment. I got the guys.”