I can say, yeah, it was horrible and painful, but the insurance companies paid what they what the policies said they were going to pay."

The blaze began shortly after the start of a Santa Ana windstorm that the National Weather service warned could be the strongest to hit Southern California in more than a decade.

Though the Palisades Fire continues to rage, currently estimated to have consumed nearly 20,000 acres, destroyed over 5,000 structures and caused at least two deaths, residents are beginning to return to their fire-stricken neighborhoods.