“I’d be safe and warm, if I was in LA.”
“California Dreamin” The Mamas & the Papas

It was January 7th and I was on a plane flying to the sunny city of Los Angeles. To say I was California Dreamin’ was an understatement. I could hardly wait to go back to the city where I had grown up. “Attention folks, we’re going to have to divert from the normal flight path due to high winds from the east. At this time please close your tray tables and turn off any large electronic devices as we are expecting turbulence ahead.” What happened next was worse than a little turbulence.

“Santa Ana winds blowing hot from the North.” – Randy Newman
“Forty acres burn in Palisades.” – Culver City Observer

That morning I had gotten a text from my dad about Santa Anas blowing strong in LA. I was hardly phased by the article. The Santa Anas were nothing new if you lived in LA, and in Albuquerque wind is a lifestyle. It wasn’t until we were on the way to the airport that my mom read out the article.
No structures had burned and firefighters were on the scene. It was nothing to worry about. The article continued to rattle around my brain and fear only increased when the pilot made his announcement, although the word fire was never mentioned. As I slowly looked out the window I saw a small line of smoke coming out of the Valley.

As we journeyed further into the city a small cloud of smoke started to make the view hazy. Suddenly we were flying over the ocean and there was nothing to see except the sea shimmering under the sun’s gaze. The plane slowly started to turn towards LAX, normally we’d go over the Palisades. There was no great turbulence due to high wind to explain the plane’s diversion of the flight path. You could hear the wind, but it wasn’t affecting the plane, and it was insignificant to what came next. The whole plane went silent as the Palisades came into view. It was as if doomsday had decided to come early. It looked like the Palisades were home to an active volcano that decided to start spewing.

As soon as we got off the plane the air quality hit our lungs– less than breathable. We got our rental car and made our way to where we were staying for the first night of our trip, our friend’s house in Playa Del Rey. The wind was starting to pick up, and when we got to our friend’s house on the beach, the whole house was shaking. Since the house had a gorgeous view of the beach, most of the walls were windows. As the wind picked up the windows started to shake, causing us to have to move away from them for fear of them breaking. We turned on the news to find that the 40 acre brush fire in the Palisades was now 5,000 acres and burning the Pacific Palisades to the ground. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, the Eaton Fire broke out in Altadena. The footage of people evacuating Altadena was not easy to watch. 

Day two of our trip to LA brought us a horrific view of the Palisades, smoke where a beautiful part of LA once stood. During the night, Brentwood, one of the areas where my mom and I were staying, was evacuated. “I guess we’ll just have to stay another night if that’s okay,” my mom said to our gracious hosts. We became the guests who would never leave. The third place we were supposed to stay in was hosting an evacuee of the Eaton Fire, and the fourth place we were going to stay was in the heart of the Palisades– Santa Monica Canyon. The Palisades Fire began to jump the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and was burning Malibu.

“I get so scared of what I can’t understand,”
“Malibu,” by Miley Cyrus

Nobody understood what was going on. Everybody was scared. There was lingo going around now for what to do when you’re asked to evacuate your location. The go-bag was mentioned in almost every household. Filled with your most prized possessions and a couple pieces of clothing. The city was still moving, though. My mom attended a book group in Westwood, but the one in the Palisades was cancelled later that day. The Camp Fire in 2018 had people evacuating their homes, but almost no structures burned. Residents of the Palisades had gotten evacuation alerts on and off for years and all thought they’d be back the next day.

The plans for our trip to LA were constantly changing. Nobody understood how the fire could have spread so quickly. However, as one of my mom’s friends, an evacuee from the Palisades staying in Beverly Hills, explained, the iconic LA palm trees were matches thrown by the Santa Anas on fire for at least two miles. While visiting with her in Beverly Hills, an alert went off on my phone: please evacuate from your area. There is a fire nearby. Areas like: Torrence, Santa Monica, Westwood, Long Beach, and Century City, were given this alarm. The alarm was almost immediate. My mom and I raced to the car and tried to beat the traffic that was already starting to pile up when the alert went off on my phone. The previous evacuation alert was false. Your area is safe to be in.

This made people begin the process of evacuating their homes. At this point it was the third day of our trip and the fires had spread. The Sunset Fire in Hollywood broke out. My godfather told us that cars were lined up bumper to bumper down Hollywood Boulevard, trying to evacuate. There was the Hurst fire, which had broken out just outside the city. In total, seven fires were burning up the metropolis of Los Angeles.

At the end of our second day in LA, a friend had invited my mom and I to her house with a couple other evacuees for dinner. We were already supposed to have dinner with them that night but the plans had fallen through as the third family we were going to eat with had cancelled. My mom had tutored both of their daughters. However, one of the families had left for Tennessee. They lived in Santa Monica but still had their house in the Palisades, which they were sure was gone. They just wanted to get out of dodge. The airport was mobbed from the moment the fires began. It was as if it was the day before Thanksgiving.

“We could live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind.”
“Santa Monica”- Everclear

We went over to Santa Monica where the little gathering was hosted and were shocked to see that everyone had the same app open on their phones. It was called Watch Duty, and you could enter your home’s address and watch as the fires moved closer or farther away. One million people downloaded the app in the course of one day in LA. It was the number one app for news. Everyone was comforted from being with friends. If there’s one good thing that came out of the fires, it was that the people of LA all helped the victims because everyone was affected in some way.

My mom and I had flown out on Tuesday. It was now Friday morning and all fires were still burning at 0% containment. I met an old school friend of mine at the Westchester YMCA, where we sorted through donations for people who had lost their houses. Standing in a room crammed with volunteers sorting tables filled with clothing, I was witness to true generosity.

We drove to Santa Monica where we met with my mom’s friend Shelly and her two dogs. Shelly evacuated from her house in the Palisades on Tuesday and has yet to return to living in her house. As we were sitting in the Urth Cafe, ash started to fall on our heads and table. It was almost as if it was snow–if snow was toxic waste. My mom and I had rented a white rental car and by the time we returned it, it was almost brown from the ash.

Shelly’s house was a block away from the burned area and while it would be fine, it was incredibly stressful waiting for news. Reports started coming in on Thursday of what was lost in the fires. The village school, Palisades Charter, Ralphs. Buildings people just assumed would always be there, gone. On Friday, aerial footage of the Palisades started coming in. Most people said it looked like a WWII bomb zone.

“Nothing comes close to the Golden Coast.”
“California Gurls”- Katy Perry

When Saturday morning rolled around it was time for my mom and I to head back to LAX. The fires had still yet to be put out or contained at all. LA was in a state of emotional turmoil.

One of my moms friends in the book group had lost her house, and on Friday night we visited her and her husband at their daughter’s house, bringing things my mom had taken from the YMCA. They were both still in shock but were looking for houses as landlords were jacking up prices. It was their home for more than 30 years.

There’s really nothing as surreal as watching houses and places where you spent your childhood going up in flames.

As of today the fires are out. People have rallied together to help rebuild. The Grammys helped raise funds for people affected by the fires. Life is still going. People who lived in Palisades or Altadena/Pasadena whose homes are still standing have yet to get access to water, power, or electricity. They are just grateful that they still have houses to go back to. People are still showing up for others, putting one foot in front of the other, helping those who lost everything.