Layla Hawkins had less than 10 minutes to gather her valuables before a wildfire on January 7, 2025, claimed the home she had loved for four decades. All that remains is a prized basketball hoop that belonged to her late husband, Los Angeles sports star Tommy Hawkins; this was a motivation for the grieving homeowner to rebuild in his honor.
Layla Hawkins is one of thousands of people displaced by the Pacific Palisades fire, which ripped through a Los Angeles neighborhood and destroyed nearly 6,800 homes, businesses and structures in one of the largest and costliest disasters in California history. 12 people died in the fire.
Now, almost two years after the fires, Layla Hawkins is on track to fulfill her goal in memory of her late husband, thanks to the nonprofit Habitat for Humanity, where volunteers with the ReBUILD LA initiative are helping pick up the pieces. He tells TODAY.com he is “forever grateful.”
Seeing people come together to help her, Hawkins says, “is like having an army of relatives around you and giving you hope and love and generous hugs. It’s priceless.”
The Palisades fire was an eye-opening experience for Hawkins, in addition to the Eaton fire that burned simultaneously on the other side of Los Angeles, claiming the lives of 19 people and destroying 9,418 homes and other buildings. That day, she left home with her husband’s ashes and her dog, Shiloh. He says he can feel the heat of the fire.
“I lived in Malibu for 40 years. I’ve been through a lot of fires, and we were always ready to go back with everything ready,” says Hawkins. “That day was like something out of a movie script. We only had eight minutes to evacuate and leave.”
He said he hopes the evacuation will be similar to his past experiences where he will eventually return and see his home still standing. He wasn’t so lucky.
“I could see the fires burning wildly out of control. I said to myself and to my house, ‘I’ll see you in a few hours, just like any other time. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine,'” he recalls. “And when I stopped for some reason I suddenly looked back. A lump formed in my throat and I knew I would never see my house again.”
He remembers hesitating before getting out of his car when he returned to his property later. He says there is very little left of his home.
But she adds that a moment of optimism filled her heart after she saw the blue starfish bank where she and her husband shared their love notes with each other.
“I looked at that massive destruction and saw that little blue, dark blue starfish staring back at me,” he says. “I just got there and I remember kneeling down and saying, ‘Tommy’.”
Even more impressive, Hawkins says, was the discovery that her husband’s basketball hoop survived the fire. Tommy Hawkins had a 10-year NBA career, playing six seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and four seasons with the Cincinnati Royals. He also worked as vice president of communications for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I remember walking up there and giving him a big hug,” she says. “I hugged him so hard because I was hugging home. I was hugging Tommy.”
From then on, she promised her late husband that she would return and rebuild their home.
He says rebuilding efforts have been difficult, but he says he’s making progress in fulfilling that promise after receiving an email from Habitat for Humanity saying they would help rebuild. She says she was shocked and read the email over and over again to make sure it was real.
“It took me a few hours to get settled and write a letter to them. And from then on, they were with me every step of the way,” he says, adding that they helped with paperwork, permits and more.
Most recently, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles held a four-day Pacific Palisades Community Building workshop from September 23-26. Meanwhile, Hawkins saw hundreds of volunteers working on her own and others’ homes. He says the group’s wall-framing and landscaping efforts have brought a sense of community back to decimated lands.
“I feel like I’m going to put up the biggest Christmas tree in my house at Christmas time,” he says with a laugh, adding that Habitat’s help has made him smile once again.
The expected completion date for the Hawkins home is June 2027, weather dependent.