Couple Watched Their L.A. Home Burn on TV. Now Real Estate Husband Is Trying to Help Others Relocate (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Sue and Anthony Marguleas (2)

Sue and Anthony Marguleas (2)

When Anthony and Sue Marguleas first settled in the Pacific Palisades in 1992, they were in it for the long haul. A condo and a “cute 1930s English cottage” later, the pair found the perfect place on Kagawa Street to call their forever home.

“We’re in an area called the ‘Alphabet Streets’ and everyone says it’s the safest area because there’s no way a fire can get to you — we’re not near the brush area so we always felt safe,” Anthony, 59, tells PEOPLE. Sue, 58, adds, “We always said, ‘They would never let it hit the Alphabet Streets.'”

But on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 7, Sue received an alert during a dentist appointment that a fire had broken out in the Palisades Highlands. “By the time I got in my car to drive home, the whole sky was just smoke,” she recalls. “When I turned onto Sunset Boulevard, you could see flames in the Santa Monica mountains. So I got home and I said to Anthony, ‘We should really pack up and get prepared to evacuate.’ ”

Still, the pair expected their evacuation to be brief.

“We’ve been here for 32 years and we have had to evacuate four or five times when there’s been a fire in Malibu or Brentwood,” Anthony says.

After packing important documents, family heirlooms and four days’ worth of clothes, Anthony and Sue spent a few hours in Santa Monica, watching the news. Not long after, they saw photos of the fire creeping into their area. “At 3:30 I said, ‘Let’s go back and get some more stuff,’ ” Anthony said. “But they wouldn’t let us back in.”

Sue and Anthony Marguleas’s home before the ongoing L.A. wildfires.Sue and Anthony Marguleas

Sue and Anthony Marguleas

By 8:00 p.m., their neighbor received an alert that his smoke detector had gone off, and Sue and Anthony realized their entire world was about to change.

“I’ve been on pure adrenaline, trying to make a list of what we need to do and dealing with the emotions of our kids because all of their childhood friends’ homes, all of the places they grew up going to are gone," she adds. “We’re heartbroken for them.”

The Marguleases home burnt down during the ongoing L.A. wildfires.Sue and Anthony Marguleas

As Anthony, a real estate agent, searches for a temporary residence —“It’s been five houses for us in roughly four days, we’re hoping to secure a rental” — he is also flooded with messages from people seeking refuge.

“In the last 36 hours I’ve had 580 text messages and 400 emails I’m behind on,” he says. “We also have people calling saying, ‘Hey, I want to buy these properties dirt cheap because they burned down’ right after we’ve told them we lost our home.”

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The fire’s impact isn’t limited to homeowners — it’s also affecting people who’ve invested their lives in businesses in the Pacific Palisades area.

“I feel horrible for the workers at Ralph’s, Gelson’s and all of the other places who don’t have the luxury of other sources of income,” Anthony tells PEOPLE. “Where do they go now? They no longer have jobs — that’s the saddest part.”

The family’s once-close-knit community is now scattered, and will be for quite some time. “Our close network of friends, our support group — we’re probably not going to be together for the next three to five years,” Sue says. Anthony adds, “Our role is just to put as much as we can into rebuilding it. We’re going to help with some cleanup tomorrow.”

Sue, Anna, Jack, Sam and Anthony Marguleas outside of their home in 2017.Sue and Anthony Marguleas

The road ahead is long and uncertain, but Sue and Anthony will do what it takes to restore their beloved community. “Right now we’re just peeling back the layers… it’s going to be a long process. While these tragedies can bring out the worst in people, they can also bring out the best in humanity. Everybody wants to help,” Sue says.

Click hereto learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.

source: people.com