Updated January 08, 2025 at 18:50 PM ET
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Tens of thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate their homes amid the three raging and uncontained wildfires in Southern California.
NPR member station LAist has been covering the destruction the fires have wrought, and on day two of the blazes, spoke to members of the community about how they have been affected.
Emily, a mother of two from Altadena — just north of Pasadena — was forced to evacuate her home on Tuesday night and flee to her parents' house as the Eaton Fire consumed 10,600 acres and killed at least five people.
On Wednesday, she told LAist's AirTalk she drove through the smoke-enveloped neighborhoods leading to her residence, after learning from a friend and neighbor that he had lost his home.
"My friend found out that his house is completely gone, and there's just nothing to see here. It is a giant black cloud of smoke. You can't get past Woodbury. It's completely shut down and there's no visual," she said.
Though barely able to see through the fog of smoke, Emily said that it seemed like the fire would burn one house, and spare the next, burn one house and spare the next.
"I'm pretty sure at this point, we have no house to go back to," she said.
The phenomenon of some houses being destroyed while neighboring homes were left unscathed is due to the effects of wind picking up embers from existing fires and carrying them — sometimes for miles at a time — and depositing them onto flammable surfaces like roofs or trees, experts say.
His family had to flee the fires — twice
Bruce Blair from Pasadena was also forced to flee — not once but twice in less than 24 hours.
"We were alarmed last night when our neighbor across the street posted a picture of our house with flames in the distance. We went outside and looked, and sure enough, the Eaton Canyon where we hike regularly was on fire," Blair shared with LAist's AirTalk Wednesday.
He and his family decided to leave their Pasadena home to stay with his stepdaughter in the Eagle Rock area. But facing evacuation warnings there on Wednesday morning, they once again packed up in retreat.
"We own a store in the Westchester/Inglewood area, a retail store, and have a friend that lives near there. So we're just going to go stay with our friend and be near our store," Blair said.
These highly destructive fires are being carried by massive wind surges, the likes of which have not been seen since 2011. These winds have made the infernos difficult to temper, as firefighters have been unable to get accurate angles to drop water and flame retardants.
She had to grab her dog and go
Pixie Indigo from Pasadena said she woke up Wednesday morning around 7 a.m. PT to an alarm on her phone warning her to flee.
"The sky is completely orange. It's raining ash. And I have a dog — an elderly dog. And I thought: I just got to go. Like, I can wear an N95 mask but he can't," she told LAist's AirTalk.
"I had packed all my stuff last night, and so I just wrapped up my dog and all his stuff, and I just kind of drove around at first," she said, noting that many of her friends were still asleep at the time because of the early hour.
Indigo and a friend eventually decided to try their hand at getting a hotel in Long Beach for the night before moving on to couch surfing with friends in Hollywood until it's safe to return home.
"The sky was full of ash"
Member station KCRW's promotions director Adria Kloke lives in the Pacific Palisades and is all too familiar with the devastating effects of fires. She had already lost two homes to fires in her life — an experience she said she would not wish on anyone — and was immediately on edge when the fire began picking up.
"The sky was full of ash almost immediately. The smoke plume was enormous overhead," Kloke told NPR's All Things Considered.
Kloke, whose voice was heavy with tears, said she began packing up sooner than many of her neighbors due to her past experience with fires and that she was able to take some of her most sentimental possessions. The items she wasn't able to take, she took the time to slowly and thoroughly document on video with her phone in order to make possible insurance claims.
"I would just say that if you have the ability to pack up and get out of wherever you are early, to do it.," Kloke said. "It's so true when they say nothing in your home is worth going back for. If you need to get out, just get out."
People desperate to evacuate large animals
Terry Salizar, who lives in the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park in Malibu, told KCRW's Press Play with Madeleine Brand she evacuated despite skepticism from neighbors.
"They're like, 'you're going?' 'Oh, it will never come here,' you know, like 'see the big planes with the water.' And you could see the planes coming with water dripping off the back of them." Salizar spoke to the parks managers as she evacuated, who were trying to alert older residents of the danger. "And I said, 'are you guys leaving?' and she said, 'we can't. We have to stay here to turn off the gas.'"
Once on the PCH highway, Salizar saw people trying to flee with larger animals however they could: "I saw Ford trucks with a guy driving the truck and in the back a woman ... holding too many horses. Like in the back of literally a pickup truck."
Resources to safely navigate dangerous situations
➡️ Wildfires are getting worse. What you need to know
➡️ Evacuation terms can be confusing. Here's what they mean and how to sign up for alerts
➡️ How to keep yourself safe from wildfire smoke
➡️ This is why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
➡️ What does 'containment' of a fire mean, exactly
➡️ What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
➡️ If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer
➡️ Trying to stay safe in a wildfire? There's an app that can help
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