The Eaton Fire, fueled by Santa Ana winds, ravaged Altadena, destroying thousands of homes and claiming lives. This news story highlights the personal stories of those affected, the immense scale of the destruction, and the challenges faced by firefighters in battling the blaze.
The Eaton Fire erupted from the San Gabriel mountains above Altadena late Tuesday night. It has since consumed over 7,000 homes and structures in this close-knit, diverse community, making it one of the most devastating firestorms in Los Angeles County's history. The death toll is unfortunately climbing. Wildfires are a part of life here, but nothing prepared people for such widespread destruction.Rows of chimneys now stand like tombstones, and towering palm trees resemble charred matchsticks.
We encountered fire crews still battling the inferno and the Calvin family, dazed and sifting through the wreckage of their home and their lives.Zaire Calvin: This is unreal. Oh my god. (crying) My house. Zaire Calvin and his family have called Altadena home for three generations. Zaire Calvin: Just wondering if anything's left. (sniff) The--the t--rocking chair for the baby. (crying) I literally just built all of this. Calvin, a high school football coach, has lived on this block his entire life. He's witnessed numerous wildfires flare up in the foothills, but in his 47 years, nothing compared to the firestorm that swept down the mountain last Tuesday.Zaire Calvin: And outta nowhere, you see the fire appear across Lake Street. And you could see it going up the mountain on our side within an hour. For it to move that quickly and that rapidly, and for it to shift paths that fast was insane.His son, Jamire, told us the winds intensified, and power went out across the neighborhood. Jamire Calvin: It was like a hurricane, just fire, no water, like 80 miles an hour plus. It felt surreal. Bill Whitaker: Was the fire, like, racing down the hill at that point? Jamire Calvin: Yeah. Zaire Calvin: That's what's scary about this. It just was shooting… like … Bill Whitaker: Like a blowtorch? Zaire Calvin: Like a blowtorch. It was literally just shooting off of the mountain. It felt like you're being attacked by a storm. As the fire approached, Zaire gathered his wife, baby, and mother into the car. Jamire grabbed whatever he could.Jamire Calvin: I'm lucky to even have the little bag of clothes that I have left. But as far as trophies, memories, diplomas, everything else just went up in flames. Zaire Calvin: My mom just said to me, she's like, 'everything's gone? You mean the books that we have, like, nothing?' I'm just like 'Mom – it's all gone. All of it. Every memory, all those things are gone. We have whatever's left in our heads to rebuild with. All of it's gone.' This fire in Altadena was just one of eight destructive wildfires that besieged Los Angeles last week. With almost no rain for eight months, hillsides and backyards were bone dry, primed to burn. Investigators are still trying to determine how the fires started, but fueled by ferocious Santa Ana winds, those blazes roared down city streets and spread like a deadly virus. No place seemed immune. Neighborhoods not engulfed in flames were shrouded in smoke and ash. Wealth and status offered no protection. The affluent Pacific Palisades was among the first to fall. Thousands of structures were destroyed, and thousands of people were forced to flee.Chief Anthony Marrone: The conditions that night were unbearable. It was a devil wind that came out, you know, that extreme Santa Ana wind condition.Anthony Marrone is the chief of the L.A. County Fire Department, one of the officials overseeing the firefighting efforts. He told us the devil winds hurled embers far ahead of the fire – like snowfall from hell. Chief Anthony Marrone: Embers like this are transported in the smoke column and-- and pushed-- Bill Whitaker: Some of them as big as this-- Chief Anthony Marrone: --downwind-- or bigger. Bill Whitaker: So this is being blown by the winds way beyond Chief Anthony Marrone: Thousands and thousands of burning embers, this size and bigger, being transported by that wind and that smoke column.Chief Marrone says fires normally run uphill. Chief Anthony Marrone: But with these winds, it was pushed downhill into these neighborhoods. Bill Whitaker: And sending these embers (right) …blocks, if not miles ahead -- Chief Anthony Marrone: Right. And the embers were being generated not only by the brush on the hillsides but by the homes that are burning.When the life-threatening winds began building, Marrone told us he called up extra crews and engines. But the fires grew too big, too fast. Demand for water overwhelmed the system. Water pressure dropped, and fire hoses ran dry while the fires raged. Bill Whitaker: We hear that people were complaining that there wasn't enough water or wasn't enough water pressure. Was that a-- factor? Chief Anthony Marrone: Ye-- well, so the water system was stretched. Metropolitan water systems are not designed to sustain a fire fight like this. Your viewers can't expect a municipal water system to supply enough firefighting water to extinguish every one of these houses. That's unrealisti
WILDFIRES CALIFORNIA LOSANGELES SANTA ANA WINDS DESTRUCTION
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