People living in Los Angeles have always had to live alongside impending disaster. Go-bags for events like earthquakes and fires are not only for the ultra-prepared, but everyday households who know that the threat is real. Most people living in the city will have asked themselves what they would save in a fire, and the likelihood that they will have to grab those items in an evacuation one day looms in their imagination.
But nobody could have been prepared for the fires that broke out in early January Eight months without rain along with the dry Santa Ana winds spurred wildfires at opposite ends of the city at the same time, in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities. These fires are the most destructive in Los Angeles history , leaving thousands of people displaced and without homes to return to.
While some had just enough time to snag valuables and hard drives, others went straight for childhood belongings and hand-me-downs. All of them wish they could have saved more. To her, as to many locals, it seemed like a typical brush fire.
That is, until 11 a. The only thing she could think of was her one-line-a-day journal, which she had been keeping religiously since her first child was just a day old in Images of them burning keep me up at night.
Growing up in the Palisades, real estate agent Laura was familiar with the threat of fire. However, while fires in the highlands were common, they rarely came off the hills.
