Fire Rebuild Consulting · Southern California
Now I help Southern California homeowners do the same: permitting, construction, contractors, insurance, and holding the utility accountable. If you are starting over after a fire, you do not have to figure it out alone.
The fire is the first loss. What comes next can feel like a second one: debris removal, insurance adjusters, permit counters, soil reports, competing contractor bids, and a utility that does not return your calls. Most homeowners are doing this for the first time, under pressure, while grieving. I have been exactly where you are.
Permits, plans, inspections, and insurance documentation all move on their own timelines, and a missed step can cost you months.
Contractor quotes vary wildly. Without someone who knows construction, it is hard to know what is fair and what is a problem waiting to happen.
Insurers, contractors, and the utility each have their own incentives. You need someone in your corner who has sat on your side of the table.
My Story
I learned it the hard way so you don't have to.
Before the fire I was an aerospace engineer who had spent a year of nights renovating our family home in Malibu. The paint was barely dry when the Woolsey Fire took it. Like a lot of people reading this, I started with nothing but a slab and a long list of questions no one could answer for me.
So I learned it myself. I had plans drafted and approved by the City of Malibu, and when the bids came back, the general contracting fee alone ran into the hundreds of thousands. I had built homes with my father and brother to put myself through college, so I got my general contractor license and ran the rebuild on my own. I pulled the permits, managed the trades, and made the thousand decisions that turn a cleared lot back into a home. When the insurance process got complicated, I worked through it directly. And when it came to the utility responsible for the fire, I pursued my own claim against Southern California Edison rather than wait for someone to do it for me.
I also built the new house so I would never have to do this twice: no attic vents for embers to find, closed-cell foam insulation under a steel roof, stucco walls, and solar with battery backup so the house keeps its own power and communications when the grid shuts off. When the Franklin Fire came through Malibu six years later, I stayed.
That experience is the reason I started Rekindle Rebuild. I know where the delays hide, which corners cost you later, and how to keep a rebuild moving when every system around you is built to slow it down. I am not a salesperson with a brochure. I am someone who has stood on the same ground you are standing on now.
Talk Through Your SituationWhat I Do
I work as your advisor and advocate, not your contractor. I partner with licensed professionals where it counts, and I keep the whole project pointed at one outcome: getting you home.
I map out the full path from cleared lot to certificate of occupancy: debris removal, soil and survey requirements, plan sets, plan check, permits, and inspections. I help you sequence the work so you are not waiting on a step you could have started months earlier.
I help you read bids the way a builder does, check that a contractor is properly licensed and insured, and watch the work as it happens. With a GC's eye on the project, you find problems while they are still cheap to fix.
I help you organize and document your rebuild so your claim is supported, and I share what I learned navigating my own insurance process and my own claim against the utility. I am not an attorney or a public adjuster, and for those roles I connect you with licensed professionals I trust.
How It Works
We talk through your loss, your insurance situation, and where you are in the process. You leave the call knowing your next three moves.
I lay out the full rebuild roadmap for your property, flag the decisions that matter most, and identify where to bring in licensed professionals.
I stay involved through permitting and construction, reviewing bids, watching the work, and keeping the project on track.
We get you to final inspection and back into a finished home, with the documentation you need behind you.
Southern California homeowners rebuilding after wildfire. If you lost a home in the Palisades, Eaton, Woolsey, or any of the fires that keep reshaping our communities, and you are facing the rebuild ahead, this is exactly the situation I was built to help with.
Book a ConsultationQuestions
My role with Rekindle Rebuild is advisor and advocate, not the contractor on your job. I have acted as a general contractor on my own rebuild, and I use that experience to help you choose and oversee the right licensed professionals for your project.
No. I am not an attorney or a public adjuster. I share what I learned navigating my own insurance process and my own claim against the utility, and when you need licensed legal or claims help, I connect you with professionals I trust.
No. The earliest decisions, around debris removal, documentation, and your insurance process, are some of the most important. The sooner we talk, the more options you keep open.
Yes, and it should be. On my own rebuild I eliminated attic vents, put closed-cell foam insulation under a steel roof, finished the exterior in stucco, and added solar with battery backup so the house keeps power and communications during shutoffs. Hardening decisions cost the least when they are made at the planning stage, which is exactly when we would be working together.
Southern California, including the Los Angeles area and the communities most affected by recent fires. If you are not sure whether your location is a fit, reach out and ask.
I have lived this. I lost my home, rebuilt it as my own general contractor, navigated permitting, worked through the insurance process, and pursued my own claim against the utility. That is the perspective I bring to your rebuild.
Consultation
Tell me where you are in the process and what you are facing. I will get back to you to set up a time to talk it through.