The fires in Los Angeles destroyed countless villas in Malibu. When the smoke cleared, retired manager David Steiner’s $9 million property stood out like a beacon from the rubble of neighboring houses. The three-story building, which was vacant at the time of the fires, appeared to have suffered little damage from the fire.
An acquaintance contacted him when he saw footage on television of the house next door burning and collapsing. He said to Steiner: “It looks like your house is collapsing too.”
Later he suddenly received a lot of messages and photos: “Your house is all over the news.” When he read the headline “Last house standing,” he said, he had to laugh.
Steiner, an attorney and former head of a waste management company in Houston, said he believes his property’s extremely sturdy construction to protect it from earthquakes saved it from the fire. “It is made of stucco and stone and has a fireproof roof,” he told US media, adding that it also contains piles that go about 15 meters deep into the rock to keep it stable when powerful waves hit hitting the sea wall below.
-Although he is happy that the house is still standing, he would like to put his situation in perspective: all he could have lost was a building that he is not currently using. «It’s just material, I have no sentimental connection to it. It wasn’t my family’s home,” says Steiner. He and his wife bought the house when two of his three sons were going to school in Los Angeles and the family needed somewhere to stay so they could visit them regularly. Steiner says: “My sympathy goes out to those who lost their homes.”
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