Altadena and Pacific Palisades tennis communities hit, hurt and healing from devastating fires

The first part of this story provides an intimate look at the destruction, and heartbreak, caused by this January’s Southern California wildfires. The second part will explore the Altadena tennis community, and how the world looks now for Altadena and Pacific Palisades.

Altadena’s Night of 100 MPH Winds

The evening of Tuesday, January 7, Chris Boyer sat in his living room and watched his son Tristan compete in the second round of Australian Open qualifying. Ranked 136^th in the world, Tristan sought to reach the main draw of a major for the first time, accompanied in Melbourne by his mother, Shari.

The Boyer family lives in Altadena, a town of just over 40,000 people located 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Throughout his formative tennis years, Tristan’s base of operations had been the Altadena Town & Country Club, a cozy, seven-court facility built in 1911. Danny Jauregui, a pro at the club for 25 years, has vivid memories of Tristan as a 5-year-old, trotting around the courts with his racquet.

“All my kids grew up there,” said Chris, “playing tennis and swimming on the swim team, and we just loved it.”

While Tristan’s match continued, Chris heard the loud noise of helicopters. High winds that had been rolling through Los Angeles County all day now exceeded 100 MPH. Word came of what would be called the Eaton Fire. Soon, Chris evacuated and headed to a friend’s house in Pasadena.

A few miles west of the Boyer house, Selwyn Brereton, an Altadena resident and co-owner of Pasadena-based iTennis, an organization that runs public tennis facilities, watched TV and took in something that over the years he’d seen many times.

“[A typical fire] makes its way across the face of the mountains,” said Brereton, “and then, the fire department comes, they put it out, and everybody goes about their business. We’ve never really lost homes as a result of it.”

Fire Near the Pacific

That same night, roughly 35 miles west of Altadena, near the Pacific Ocean, the Palisades Fire had been raging for hours. Pacific Palisades is an L.A. neighborhood with a population of approximately 24,000 people, located in the western part of the Los Angeles Basin, just north of the city of Santa Monica. Along the Pacific Coast Highway that runs along the ocean, former ATP pro Chuck Adams, husband of former WTA pro Ashley Harkleroad, sought that evening to rescue his father, Chuck II, from their Pacific Palisades home.

Chuck II, known as tough and tenacious, opted to stay inside his home for the next two nights. As Chuck III sees it, what likely saved the house from catching on fire was that a while ago he’d cleared out the dry grass and installed a pool.

As Adams drove down from his parents’ home and reached the Pacific Coast Highway alongside the water, he found himself caught in an ember storm.

“It was like a tornado,” Adams said. “And I look to my right, and I see my beach house and I said, ‘Hopefully the beach will be OK, because it’s never burned . . . and my truck was filling up with smoke, and when we turned around we couldn’t see.”

Our neighborhood has a very small town feel to it. Tennis has been interwoven into this area for 60 years. Mike Tomas, Palisades Tennis Center

Adams’ beach house had once been his primary residence. But 10 years ago, he and his family had moved inland, to the Agoura Hills area, and evacuated earlier that Tuesday afternoon. Sadly, though, as Adams tried to make his way through the fire, “My beach house probably burned right in front of my eyes. And the whole highway was on fire, all the beach homes.”

Another Palisades evacuee was Bud Kling, the Palisades “Pali” High boys’ and girls’ tennis coach since 1979 and a homeowner in the area since 1982. Said Kling, “I just thought, ‘We’ve done this before.’ We leave for a day or two and we come back, and it never burns the house.”

Another tennis-playing evacuee, Wally Marks, a Palisades resident for 25 years, felt the same way.

Since Palisades High only has two tennis courts, its team also practiced and competed approximately one mile east at an eight-court facility located within Palisades Recreation Center. In large part, noted Marks and others, it was the epicenter of the Palisades, a perfect gathering spot for residents of this heavily family-oriented community.

“Our neighborhood has a very small town feel to it,” says Mike Tomas, who runs the Palisades Tennis Center. “Tennis has been interwoven into this area for 60 years.”

But that Tuesday night, Tomas received a video clip from an employee that showed the facility’s tennis shop on fire—“I never thought that would happen,” he said. But while the courts had survived, the shop hadn’t.

Imperiled Altadena

In Australia, following his victory, Tristan received a text message from Chris saying what had happened. The next day, Tristan earned his way into the main draw.

Back in Altadena that Tuesday evening, Craig Sloane, the club’s manager, monitored everything closely. He’d shut down the facility hours earlier, amid windstorms that had broken tables on the pool deck. By 4:00 p.m. that afternoon, the power had gone out. At 6:30 p.m., Sloane received an evacuation notice and went west to Pasadena. All night long, he remained in contact with Joe Hernandez, a club member, on the status of the fire.

As the flames raged, Sloane knew that dozens of homes in Altadena, including many owned by club members, were being destroyed. His had survived, perhaps due to its location in a small cul de sac. But what about the club?

Early Wednesday morning, Sloane headed there and saw a small fire in the back. Holding a small hose, his fellow staff member, Michael Meyers, attempted to put it out.

“And then,” said Sloane, “the water pressure disappeared.”

The fire soon made its way to the attic of the clubhouse.

By seven o’clock in the morning, we pretty much knew that we were going to lose the club. Craig Sloane, Altadena Town & Country Club

Sloane has worked at the club for 27 years, the last 20 in the general manager position.

“It’s like losing your home,” he said. “It’s gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, a bit of a shock to see it all go up in flames,” he said.

The fire came one block from the Boyer home. Having spent one evening away from it, Chris opted to return. He plugged a small generator into his refrigerator and spent the next three days there.

Meanwhile, as Tuesday evening became Wednesday morning, the fire had gotten alarmingly closer to Brereton’s home. Though he’d yet to receive an evacuation notice, Brereton packed a bag with personal papers, jewelry and other important items, and left. At that point, mostly what he saw was a lot of smoke. Later, there came various embers.

By roughly 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, having returned, Brereton saw that a few parts of his house had caught on fire. Brereton concurrently tried to put it out and load more items into his car. As the fire came close to the vehicle, Brereton opted to drive away. Returning several hours later, he saw that the home was still standing.

But then, as Brereton stood in the bedroom, he saw a little brown spot in the ceiling—and instantly realized that the home was indeed on fire.

“I sort of went into warp speed,” Brereton said, gathering more possessions, tossing them on to his yard. Within minutes, the house he’d owned since 1987 had burst into flames.

Said Brereton, “At first I felt like, ‘What did I do to deserve my house not being burnt when I got there to, ‘Oh, crap, it didn’t survive,’ to ‘let me get whatever I can,’ to ‘I’ve really got to get out of here before I die.’”

Palisades, Mon Ami

On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 8, Kling and Marks learned that each of their homes had been destroyed.

“It’s surreal,” said Marks.

Said Kling, “If the fire had missed that last surge going across our neighborhood, I was home free.”

But it wasn’t to be. Kling and his wife, Cheryl, are now renting an apartment in the Marina del Rey, ten miles south of Palisades High. Marks and his wife, Carol, have leased an apartment in Culver City, roughly the same distance from Palisades.

I have a connection with the Palisades tennis community that goes back more than 50 years. Our family lived in Brentwood, adjacent to the Palisades. Immediately west of my middle school, Paul Revere, was the sign that said, “Pacific Palisades.” Beginning in 1974, from age 13 on, I’d frequently played there, from high school matches versus Pali High to time spent hitting on courts at the Palisades Highlands to various private courts, Riviera Country Club and, most often on those sun-soaked California mornings and afternoons, Palisades Tennis Center.

Kling and I have known one another for 50 years, back to the days when we ran park tournaments together. Wally is one of my closest friends. Since my return to Los Angeles in 2022, we have played tennis nearly every Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. on Court 5 of Palisades Tennis Center.

“It’s so lovely for me to have the proximity to those courts where I played, where I taught my son to play,” he said. “It’s a joy to play there.”

Such was the case for us on January 5, two days prior to the fire. That Sunday morning, Wally mentioned that he was making an order and asked if I wanted to add anything to it. I told him to order a case of Wilson heavy duty balls.

Back in 1997, I sat outside the pro shop and, for a Tennis Magazine story, interviewed an ambitious entrepreneur who was running Palisades Tennis Center. His name was Steve Bellamy. Around that time, Bellamy invented Live Ball, the fast-paced, aerobic-like tennis workout that has become incredibly popular—first in Los Angeles, now all over the world.

During his years at the Palisades Tennis Center, Bellamy created and staged oodles of events featuring many notable pros: everyone from Jimmy Connors and Patrick Rafter to Jan-Michael Gambill, Vince Spadea, John Lloyd and Derrick Rostagno. More recently, such stars as Novak Djokovic and Naomi Osaka have come to the courts.

Tomas, who took over the facility from Bellamy in 2008, has a vivid recollection of Djokovic strolling from the tennis center to the nearby Palisades village to buy sushi.

“So the top players were the ones that created the noise,” said Bellamy, “and it made everyone take notice of the tennis center, and that just meant everybody put their kids in, and people would say, ‘I need to lose 10 pounds, so I’ll call the tennis center and be more active.’ Or someone would say, ‘I used to be a tennis player 20 years ago. I wonder if I can use those skills to find a social group or get a little more fit.’”

But Bellamy’s biggest brainstorm while in the Palisades was the idea of a television network that would air tennis round-the-clock. Tennis Channel’s origin story took place in the Palisades, as Bellamy juggled community events and private lessons with his quest to launch the channel. Though Bellamy relocated from the Palisades several years ago, the 30 years he spent there were formative. Palisades was also the neighborhood where Ken Solomon, Tennis Channel’s CEO for two decades, lived for many years (he left the Palisades several months ago).

Palisades High’s teams have long been incredibly successful. Kling has led the school’s boys’ and girls’ teams to 52 Los Angeles City titles. In 1980, three Palisades High players—Scott Davis, John Davis, Howard Sands—were ranked in the top ten in the national 18-and-under rankings. All three went on to become college All-Americans and played pro tennis, Scott Davis rising to number one in the world in doubles.

Sands’ two sons, Jake and R.J., also played at Palisades High.

“[Palisades Tennis Center] is home and an integral part of not only the tennis community, but the community more broadly speaking,” he said. When the fire came, Sands evacuated. His home was spared, but every day, Sands hears of other houses that were either destroyed, or, if they remain standing, must sort through ash, rubble and toxicity; what one resident called “a smoking, stinking ecological disaster.”