'Surreal and apocalyptic’: LA family retreats to Transylvania after house burns down
Submitted photo
The Treger family, Sarah (left), Ben (right) and their two young sons, lost their home last in the Palisades fire.
After escaping the fires and destruction of their home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles last week, a young family has made a new home in the mountains of Transylvania County.
When Ben and Sarah Treger started their day on Jan. 7 in Los Angeles it was a normal day like any other. The couple spent their morning focused on New Year’s resolutions and healthy living, but by the end of the day they would suffer through the destruction of their home and all of their belongings.
“The last week has been just nothing but survival,” Sarah said.
The Palisades fire in Los Angeles started around 10 a.m. that morning and quickly took off, engulfing homes, businesses and schools in the neighborhood in flames.
After learning the fire was spreading, Sarah said she and her family only had about two hours to evacuate, but she was certain her house would still be standing.
By 6 p.m. that night they received word their home was a total loss.
Days later, Sarah and Ben donned with respirators, rode bikes through the police blockades and up the street of their former home to survey the damage.
“It was one of the most overwhelming feelings I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Sarah said. “It felt surreal and apocalyptic. It almost just didn’t feel real.”
Sarah said her family lost priceless family heirlooms and important documents in the fire along with the rest of their belongings, but despite the turmoil of the destruction in front of them, the couple still felt positivity.
“One thing that was really surprising for both of us is like when we got to our house and we were standing in the front yard — just kind of like looking at it and looking around and I said, ‘I actually feel hopeful,’” Sarah said.
Sarah believes the Palisades community they loved so much would come back and rebuild better than ever. The couple has now relocated with their two young children to their second home in Pisgah Forest as they retreat from the devastation they faced following the fire that took their primary residence.
Sarah, originally from Maryland, is a Brevard College alumna after graduating in 2010 and moved to Los Angeles a few years later. She fell in love with Ben, who is from Santa Monica, and settled down in the Pacific Palisades, an affluent neighborhood that lies between the Santa Monica hills and the Pacific coastline.
Sarah works as an online business consultant and Ben is an employment attorney. Sarah said she loved the neighborhood and they had just moved into their home in Palisades a year prior so that they could raise their two sons, one 22 months old and the other 7 months old.
“We loved the Palisades with all out hearts,” Sarah said. “We knew all of our neighbors’ names, something I didn’t know I’d get to experience living so close to LA. We finally found home and told each other that literally every single day.”
The Tregers have kept a second residence in Pisgah Forest as a means to get away from time to time from the rigors of living in a big city. Sarah said she has always felt a strong connection to the area and often dreamed of raising her children here. Now the second home serves as their only as they work to rebuild their lives. The family has deep roots with many who live year-round in the Transylvania County community and they even came to the area in early October after Helene’s destruction to help their friends who lost their own homes.
Now, Sarah said she feels that support reciprocated back on her own family.
“We just feel really, really supported and surrounded by people who not only like care about us, but also like really get it because they just went through it,” she said. “It was the right call to come here.”
Sarah said she and her family are now focusing on settling down to get their lives sorted again.
“We just need to regroup — get out of fight or flight,” she said. “We’ve both just been in such a state of panic. We’re just trying to give ourselves permission to take a deep breath — get what we can sorted — then figure it out bit by little bit.”
