Residents say owners have no plans to remove fire debris at Palisades mobile home park

PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Almost all the fire debris in Pacific Palisades has been cleared, but for a few hundred residents of a mobile home park on Pacific Coast Highway that was completely destroyed, not only does all the debris remain six months after the fire, but the entire situation is clouded in uncertainty.

"Talk about kicking somebody when they're down. I don't even know how to get help. It's just a ghost yard of rusted metal and ash and all of the dreams we lost that burned in the Palisades Fire," said Lisa Atkinson, a resident at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates.

"We're all held hostage in this situation. The people won't talk to us. We can't get anything done at all unless we get going with this," said resident Barry McManus.

Those who live at the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates across the street from the beach lease the land from the property owner, but own the physical structures that burned.

"This is a commercial property technically. Even though it sits along public beaches and there's residents that are living there, we don't have the authority to get it cleaned up ourselves," said resident Jon Brown.

According to the residents, those who have the authority to clean up the debris are fighting.

"There were inheritance issues. Somebody died in the ownership of the mobile home park. There was all this confusion and animosity between the owners, their grandchildren, their children -- there's all this chaos in the ownership. Hundreds of us are just waiting and hoping that they're going to sort this out," said Atkinson.

"We've had a hard time getting in contact with them. This should be an opportunity to make this a better place to live. Not an opportunity for those guys to just make more money. We want to all go home," said Brown.

Eyewitness News reached out to Biggs Asset Property Management, which owns Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates, but we have not heard back.

Eyewitness News spoke to Councilwoman Traci Parks' office, and they said they are disappointed that the mobile home park was not included in the FEMA and Army Corps debris removal program. So now, it's up to the owners to clear what's there.