Mid-morning on Jan. 7, 2025, a day that started with a clear blue sky, Dawn Massey was doing something she has been doing with joy and proficiency for 30 years: helping patients improve and maintain their oral health through dental hygiene and education. She was with a patient in Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood when she received a call from her son who was at home with Massey’s husband and daughter in the Pacific Palisades. A fire had started in the hills, he told her, and it was getting bigger very quickly, aided by Southern California’s dry Santa Ana winds.
“Fifteen minutes later, he called back in a panic, telling me ‘Come home!’” Massey recalls. “It was now tremendously smoky outside.”
While Massey quickly packed her belongings to leave the dental office, her husband, son and daughter were turning on the sprinklers and spraying down the home’s metal roof with a hose, trying to saturate all the surfaces. They also turned off the gas.
“A minute after, my cell exploded with piercing emergency evacuation alerts,” Massey remembers. The messages came every five minutes and continued through the early evening.
Massey was also hearing from friends who were trying to get back to their homes in Pacific Palisades but were unable due to the police blockades. They suggested she stay where she was — some 20 minutes away.
‘20 minutes to fill two cars, collect our sweet dog Milo and go!’
With Massey’s daughter home from college for winter break, the two of them seized the opportunity to connect through a video call on their cell phones.
“Together we went room by room as she grabbed as many treasured keepsakes as possible … photos, wedding and family videos, childhood art. They had 20 minutes to fill two cars, collect our sweet dog Milo and go!”
The family evacuated their Palisades home for Santa Monica and reunited with Massey in two hours, inching along in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway.
“In the moment, I felt confident we would be OK because we lived on the flat bluffs far from the hills,” Massey reflects. “I assumed the fire department would hold the line at Sunset Boulevard and protect Palisades High School, an institution that nearly 3,000 students attended daily.”
But all of Massey’s assumptions were wrong. Wind gusts had reached 80-100 mph in some areas, limiting Los Angeles County’s fire-fighting aircraft response, and the fire had already nearly doubled in size. Two more wildfires, the Hurst and the Eaton — now the second most destructive wildfire in California’s history, followed by the Palisades Fire — were soon burning, consuming acres, structures and lives.
“Our home burnt down by 6:30 that evening,” Massey says. A satellite photo confirmed the devastation the next morning. “We were gutted. In shock.”
CDA Foundation disaster relief grant aids 90 dentists, dental professionals
Massey credits “the wonderful dentist Dr. Alan Rubenstein,” one of her employers, for telling her about the CDA Foundation’s Emergency Disaster Relief Program. The Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the California Dental Association, opened grant applications on Jan. 13 for all California dentists, dental professionals and dental office staff who were impacted by the wildfires that burned in Los Angeles County in January.
Massey applied for and received a grant, and her family used the funds for essential needs. “Both my kids used their grant funds to replace their lost laptop computers,” Massey says. “We are very grateful to have these funds to replace a total of three computers.”
The Foundation’s disaster relief grant remained open through April 7 and altogether awarded $300,000 in funds to 48 dentists and 42 dental team members whose lives were impacted by the wildfires. The disbursement nearly equaled the total amount raised, which included contributions from individuals, companies and numerous state dental associations. In past years, the Foundation’s disaster relief grant has aided California dentists and dental professionals affected by the Camp and Woolsey wildfires, in 2018, and the Thomas and Tubbs wildfires in 2017.
A return to work with support from dental community and patients
Today, Massey is back at work part time for three dentists in their Los Angeles County dental practices.
“Immediately after the fire, I took a week or so off, but I returned fairly soon because I needed a sense of normalcy and routine,” Massey says, acknowledging that her employers’ support and the support of the greater community did make the return a little easier.
“All three of my dentists went beyond measure,” Massey says. “They were very caring and compassionate through this loss and the healing process, giving me paid days off, care packages, new scrubs, a spa day, baskets of immediate daily essentials. I’ve received copious amounts of love and support from my dental community of beautiful patients.”
That support has extended far and wide throughout Los Angeles, Massey says. “This has been nothing short of extraordinary. Our family has so much to be grateful for!”
Massey’s daughter, Georgi, returned to college on the East Coast with the laptop she replaced with the grant funds and graduated in May. Her mom, dad and brother were able to be there.
“The pragmatic me would advise everyone to review their homeowner’s insurance policy to ensure they are properly and adequately insured for fire loss,” Massey says, noting they have friends who were underinsured.
But Massey also shares this: “Life can change in an instant. It’s truly humbling to lose everything that you own, so live fully and cherish your family and friendships. Our family is in the business of only looking for silver linings. We are hopeful to be able to rebuild.”
of their home before the Palisades Fire.
Photo by Robin Aronson Photography.
member placed panels from artist Ed Massey’s
Lifeguard Tower on the Masseys’ property.
Learn more about the CDA Foundation’s mission.
The CDA Foundation thanks these and the many other donors for their contributions to the Foundation’s Southern California Wildfires Emergency Disaster Relief Program:
Arizona Dental Association • California Dental Association • Colgate-Palmolive Company • Florida Dental Association • Hawaii Dental Association • Henry Schein, Inc. • Massachusetts Dental Association • Michigan Dental Association • Missouri Dental Association Foundation • Missouri Dental Association • New Jersey Dental Association • New York State Dental Association • North Carolina Dental Society • Oklahoma Dental Association • TDIC • TDIC Insurance Solutions • Washington State Dental Association