A chef lost his dream home in the Palisades Fire. He keeps his spirits up by feeding others

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. (AP) — The Pacific Palisades home where chef Daniel Shemtob and his wife dreamed of raising a family is now nothing more than a cratered pit of twisted metal and rubble. Gone are the gourmet kitchen, the nursery with the baby giraffe and elephant wallpaper, the half-century-old olive trees in the yard.

But even as the Los Angeles-area wildfires continue to burn, Shemtob has been soothing his soul by dishing out free, foil-wrapped breakfast burritos and tacos from his award-winning food truck to first-responders and weary evacuees.

It would be easy for the two-time Food Network competition winner to dwell on the loss of the home, which he and his wife, Elyse, moved into about eight months ago, leasing with an option to buy. Yet he smiles, thinking about the people he has met through the food giveaways.

One man was so happy with his sweet and spicy steak taco that he declared it the first time he smiled since his home burned. Another person loved the simple cheese quesadilla the chef made for him so much, he came back for more and brought six family members.

Then there was the National Guardsman who lent a sympathetic ear one cold morning.

“He sat and wanted to hear my story while he ate his breakfast burrito,” said Shemtob, 36. “That was very cathartic.”

The Palisades and Eaton fires broke out Jan. 7 in Los Angeles County and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, killing at least 28 people and destroying nearly 16,000 structures. Wiping out entire neighborhoods, the two blazes rank among the most destructive in the state's history.

Shemtob never dreamed the Palisades Fire would reach his neighborhood. When he evacuated around noon on Jan. 7, he took only a laptop, to be able to work, and homemade meatballs and pasta, because he was hungry.

But that night a remote home sensor alerted the couple to smoke in the master bedroom. Then there was fire. Then window after window started shattering.

Two days later he sneaked back to the neighborhood by bicycle to see the ruins for himself.

“That was our garage. That’s our basement,” he said in a video, addressing his wife as he panned the camera across the scene, still hot with embers and rising smoke. “Everything is gone.”

He sank into a deep depression. Then he remembered he had something to give.

The Saturday after evacuating, Shemtob took The Lime Truck to a donation center in Pasadena.

He has always loved the intimacy of cooking from a food truck, so he volunteered with World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit founded by chef José Andrés that rushes to disaster sites with hot meals.

He was surprised to find celebrity chef Tyler Florence ready to make tacos by his side.

At the center, people were sad and stressed. But there were also signs of community: One woman brought a pot of homemade stew and bowls for anyone who wanted some.

“People were coming there with whatever they had to give,” Shemtob said.

Since then, thousands of people have gotten meals from his trucks.

At another donation site in Pasadena last week, Shemtob whooped as he handed out the final two foil-wrapped meals of the night. “Great job, team,” he said, pumping both fists in the air.

Shemtob estimated that they handed out 750 meals that night alone, along with 200 pairs of shoes from the nonslip shoe company he owns, Snibbs.

He shares the story of his own loss with others, when he thinks it can help.

The voracious Palisades Fire consumed clothes that Shemtob designed himself, kitchen tools he collected and culinary awards he won. Half his late mother’s photographs and other belongings, stored in his basement, were also destroyed; the other half went up in flames at his brother’s home nearby, which also burned.

The couple loved the house in part because it was close not only to his brother’s place but also to her brother and to a home that her parents were building to be near their grandchildren.

On Sunday, Shemtob returned to the neighborhood with an AP photographer, driving past lot after lot of flattened devastation before stopping at what used to be his home.

Among the spiky metal and charred rubble, he spotted a blackened muffin tin, a shard of an Hermès platter that was a wedding gift, the outline of an refrigerator and a piece of a car.

For now he and Elyse, who is expecting their first child in April, are staying at her aunt’s place. They did not have insurance.

But Shemtob has bounced back before: Just before the coronavirus pandemic, he purchased two businesses that wound up failing.

“And then I decided to take my food truck out and feed front-line workers,” he said, “and the moment I did that, I started feeling better again.”

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob looks at the rubble that was once the garage of his home destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The remains of Chef Daniel Shemtob and his wife Elyse's home that was destroyed by the Palisades Fire is seen in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Morning doves perch on a chared beam among what remains of Chef Daniel Shemtob's home destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Charred muffin tins poke out of the rubble of what remains of Chef Daniel Shemtob's home destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The remains of Chef Daniel Shemtob and his wife Elyse's home that was destroyed by the Palisades Fire is seen in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob, left, serves Eaton Fire first responders from his food truck, The Lime Truck, at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob, upper left, and Benton Atkisson, right, serve a member of the California National Guard from his food truck, The Lime Truck, as he hands out burritos to Eaton Fire first responders at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob and Benton Atkisson serve Eaton Fire first responders from Shemtob's food truck, The Lime Truck, at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob, center, and Benton Atkisson, right, serve Eaton Fire first responders from Shemtob's food truck, The Lime Truck, at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob talks with an Eaton Fire first responder as he serves burritos from his food truck, The Lime Truck, at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob hands a burrito to an Eaton Fire first responder as he works his food truck, The Lime Truck, at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob cooks meat for burritos in his food truck, The Lime Truck, for Eaton Fire first responders at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob cooks meat for burritos in his food truck, The Lime Truck, for Eaton Fire first responders at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob, right, and his team prepare burritos in his food truck, The Lime Truck, for Eaton Fire first responders at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob cooks meat for burritos in his food truck, The Lime Truck, for Eaton Fire first responders at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob walks through the rubble of what remains of his home and his neighbor's homes destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

What remains of Chef Daniel Shemtob's home destroyed by the Palisades Fire is seen, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob pauses as he walks through what remains of his home destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob looks out over what remains of his home destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob pauses as he walks through what remains of his home destroyed by the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

World Central Kitchen Chef Corp member Daniel Shemtob smiles as he looks out from the service window of his food truck, The Lime Truck, as he serves burritos to Eaton Fire first responders at the Rose Bowl Stadium, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Dry conditions, wind and trees downed by Hurricane Helene fueled wildfires in North Carolina and South Carolina, where evacuation orders were in effect Tuesday.

About 80 miles (129 kilometers) west of Charlotte, North Carolina, officials ordered mandatory evacuations for roughly 165 properties in rural Polk County. Three fires there have burned at least 9 square miles (23 square kilometers). The North Carolina Forest Service says two of the fires are uncontained as of Monday night.

The Black Cove Fire is one of the larger blazes. Officials said a downed power line sparked that fire, but the causes of the other two fires are under investigation.

Neighboring Henderson County issued voluntary evacuation orders and opened an emergency shelter. Volunteer fire departments were on standby, Henderson County spokesperson Mike Morgan told WLOS-TV.

“Especially near some of the homes where if the fire did jump, we can be there to help protect those homes,” Morgan said. “We’re here to monitor the situation very closely.”

Two fires were burning in the mountains of South Carolina. The fires in Table Rock State Park and nearby Persimmon Ridge have burned a combined 2.3 square miles (5.9 square kilometers), the South Carolina Forestry Commission said. Officials said both fires were ignited by human activity and neither were contained as of Monday night.

No injuries were reported, and no structures were imminently threatened as of Monday night, but voluntary evacuations were issued for about 100 homes over the weekend. On Tuesday morning, the forestry commission updated an earlier announcement to say no evacuations were planned near the Persimmon Ridge Fire, but residents were urged to be prepared to leave their homes if an evacuation is suggested in the future.

“The weather over the next few days remains concerning, as relative humidities are expected to remain very low, and the forecasted wind speeds will still be conducive to spreading the fire,” the forestry commission said.

Dry weather and millions of trees knocked down by Hurricane Helene last year are creating a long and active fire season in the Carolinas, according to North Carolina State University forestry and environmental resources professor Robert Scheller. Scheller predicted this busy fire season if the region saw dry weather after the hurricane.

“Helene just dropped tons of fuel on the ground,” Scheller said. “Then these flash droughts allow that fuel to dry out very fast.”

Despite recent rain, most of the Carolinas are abnormally dry or experiencing a moderate drought, according to federal monitors.

This story has been corrected to show that officials were not recommending evacuations near the Persimmon Ridge Fire, but residents should be prepared to leave their homes if one is suggested.

Firefighters prepare to fight the wildfires in Polk County, N.C., on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (WLOS-TV via AP)

Smoke from the wildfires fill the sky in Polk County, N.C., on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (WLOS-TV via AP)

Firefighters prepare to fight the wildfires in Polk County, N.C., on Saturday, March 22, 2025. (WLOS-TV via AP)

In this March 23, 2025, photo released by the U.S. National Guard shows a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the 1-111th General Support Aviation Battalion, 59th Aviation Troop Command, McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover executing its fire suppression mission in support of the South Carolina Forestry Commission at Persimmon Ridge Fire near Greenville, S.C. (Sgt. 1st Class Roberto Di Giovine/U.S. Army National Guard via AP)

In this March 23, 2025, photo released by the U.S. National Guard shows a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the 1-111th General Support Aviation Battalion, 59th Aviation Troop Command, McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover executing its fire suppression mission in support of the South Carolina Forestry Commission at Persimmon Ridge Fire near Greenville, S.C. (Sgt. 1st Class Roberto Di Giovine/U.S. Army National Guard via AP)