‘No master plan’ in place to rebuild Pacific Palisades after wildfires, Zatulov says

LOS ANGELES—As someone who leads a company that is committed to the safety and security of its customers, Michael Zatulov is finding it extremely challenging as he spearheads efforts to rebuild the Pacific Palisades city and community devastated by the recent wildfires that have left thousands of families homeless.   

Zatulov, the president of Elite Interactive Solutions and a member of the Security Systems News 40 under 40 (Class of 2023), and his family are among those who lost their homes in the roaring wildfires.  

In fact, Zatulov lost a total of three homes as wildfires tore through the areas of the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu on Jan. 7, 2025. The destructive path of these wildfires led to the deaths of 29 people and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures before they were finally contained on Jan. 31.  

Zatulov is leading a coalition of more than 300 victims, including notable local city builders Steve Soboroff and Randy Johnson, as part of the community rebuilding efforts.  

“After the fire subsided, I started to work on the rebuild because I want to live in the Palisades,” he said. “We wanted to build our forever home and really focus in on what that takes. So, myself and a couple of my neighbors who are active in the community reached out to them and said we are here to help, we’re here to come up with a plan, a path or a blueprint of what this could look like.”  

However, as Zatulov explained, he has discovered clear signs of unpreparedness from state government leaders and local Los Angeles civic leaders on how to recover not just from these wildfires, but other devastating occurrences that could arise, such as earthquakes, floods, or acts of terrorism. 

His coalition requested the development of a master plan initiative that requires government support, but that did not happen due to a disagreement among all parties about how the rebuild process should proceed.  

As a result, local officials came very close to reopening the entire area and exposing residents, tourists and potential looters to the air contamination resulting from the fires, as well as no gas, power, or running water.  

“The civic leaders who were elected and the different heads of the departments are not seeing eye to eye on the rebuild process,” he noted. “What's even worse from an electronic security perspective is they were about to open the entire Palisades, contamination and all.”  

Zatulov noted the critical role that electronic security will ultimately play in the rebuild, with a collaborative effort needed as part of the master plan initiative, especially with Los Angeles hosting not only the FIFA World Cup next year, but also the 2028 Olympic Games.  

“The real question is that while there is a rebuild effort, how can we come up with an emergency response plan that incorporates the integrators, the manufacturers, the service providers, that can then be replicated and applied (to future events),” he stated. “Seriously, you're thinking about billions of dollars of infrastructure that's going to be installed.”  

Without a rebuilding plan in place, Zatulov remains pessimistic that Los Angeles will have enough time to rebuild and welcome back its residents, not to mention the two global events the city is hosting in the next three years.  

“Time is of the essence,” Zatulov stated. “Priority response is key. How are they going to do that without a plan, and they don't even have one. That is a fact.”