Help Pika & Family Rebuild After Palisades Fire Home Loss

Nadia Skale is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

On Jan 8th, we lost our home. Our world was changed forever when we were no longer able to protect our house from the Palisades fire. A fire that ultimately burned our home and the entire community down. We tried to fight it with water hoses for longer than was recommended - Nadja stayed until 5:30 PM and Nicholas was still trying to save our and neighbors’ homes until 10:30 PM before just barely escaping. We absolutely adored our house. It was a piece of mid century art, our entire livelihood, and full of incredible memories.

Pika, our 9 week old foster puppy Oakley, and the two of us safely evacuated, but lost absolutely everything apart from our passports and a few pieces of clothing we grabbed in a hurry. The fire took all of our belongings, including all of Pika’s items, our bicycles, house equipment, shoes and clothes, new furniture, not to mention all of the irreplaceable items such as 50+ year old keepsakes from our grandparents, art, and our wedding memorabilia. Those who know us know we loved to host, and had a large collection of Japanese and Slovenian porcelain and crystal items. All gone. (Yes, the 100+ bottles of wine too)

Who we are: We came to the US from Slovenia and spent 20+ years (Nicholas) and 8 years (Nadja) working extremely hard in the to be able to purchase a dream home in the ‘perfect’ community of Pacific Palisades, and we spent the last two years investing our money and energy into a meticulous renovation that we just finished a few months ago. We haven’t even used our stovetop burner yet! We were finally able to invite our extended family to visit us in April 2025 - something we’ve been so excited about for months - and is now impossible. We fostered a puppy that we had to give up because of the logistical evacuation nightmares. (While Nicholas was trying to save the house from fire, Nadja first evacuated to a hotel in Santa Monica and as soon as the dogs were finally safe in the hotel room, Santa Monica received an evacuation order - so we had to leave and scramble to find another hotel further down south).

Yes - most of the items lost are material things, but they hold a huge amount of emotional value and attachment that we haven’t even been able to comprehend or process yet. Even with fire insurance we will never ever be able to rebuild anything even remotely similar to what we had.

We don’t know what the next weeks, months, or years hold, but we’ve received an outpouring of love from friends - online and offline - who offered support. After much thought, we decided to create this GoFundMe.

How the funds will be used:

Rebuilding our lives: Renting a place to live until we find a long-term solution, buying essential items like clothing, shoes, toiletries, basic supplies for the first few months.
Dog supplies: Pika also lost everything and she means everything to us. She doesn’t need much, but everything she had was lost in the fire.
Long-term recovery: Rebuilding our livelihoods, in whatever way possible. We’re both trying to go back to work asap but may need additional time off for a few weeks. The funds will be used for whatever FEMA, insurance or other agencies don’t cover. We have insurance but even in the best case scenario, we will be underinsured by hundreds of thousands of USD.

Every bit helps us move forward, and we’re so thankful for the kindness we’ve already received. If you can donate, it would mean so much. If not, please know that we are grateful and humbled by your every message of support. Feel free to share this page with others who might be able to help. If you prefer to donate to an animal shelter or rescue helping displaced animals, here are some that need help: