Homes burned in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 8, the day after the Palisades Fire. No one put them out.
Director Rob Montz grew up in Pacific Palisades before moving to the East Coast for College. His mom’s home in the Marquez Knolls area of Pacific Palisades burned in the January 7 Palisades Fire. His brother Rocky, who works at Palisades High School was also impacted. Rob, a documentary filmmaker came back to his hometown to help.
His film Paradise Abandoned: Inside the Pacific Palisades Fire tries to answer the questions that have either been ignored or unanswered. Montz asks, “How did a single spark in some dry brush two miles from my childhood home wind up incinerating the most desirable real estate in Los Angeles?”
Drawing on dozens of original interviews and previously unpublished video, truths start to emerge about the Pacific Palisades Fire.
It was not a fluke. It was not the inevitable result of the laws of nature. It was, in fact, a man-made disaster. And then the films shows the day no one saw: the second day of the fire. The day the Palisades was… abandoned to burn.
To watch this 30-minute documentary, which is available today, December 5, 2025 click here,