As firefighters gain control of the massive wildfires in Los Angeles, residents are left to face the staggering reality of their losses. Homes, belongings, and memories are reduced to ash, leaving families to pick up the pieces and rebuild their lives.
Calmer winds enabled firefighters to start gaining some control of the biggest blazes in metropolitan LA on Friday before gusty weather returns over the weekend. But by Friday evening, new evacuations were ordered in an area that includes part of Interstate 405 after a flare up on the eastern side of the Palisades Fire. Bridget Berg, who was at work when she saw on TV her house in Altadena erupt in flames, came back for the first time with her family two days later “just to make it real.
”Her kids sifted through debris on the sidewalk, finding a clay pot and a few keepsakes as they searched for Japanese wood prints they hoped to recover. Her husband pulled his hand out of rubble near the still-standing fireplace, holding up a piece of petrified wood handed down by his grandmother. “It’s OK. It’s OK,” Berg said as much to herself as others as she took stock of the destruction, remembering the deck and pool from which her family watched fireworks. “It’s not like we just lost our house — everybody lost their house.” Since the fires first began popping up around a densely populated, 25-mile (40-kilometer) expanse north of downtown LA, they have burned more than 56 square miles (145 square kilometers). The government has not yet released figures on the cost of the damage, but private firms have estimated it will climb into the tens of billions. The Walt Disney Co. announced Friday it will donate $15 million to respond to the fires and help rebuild.like the Will Rogers’ Western Ranch House and a Queen Anne-style mansion in Altadena that dated back to 1887 and was commissioned for wealthy mapmaker Andrew McNally. Neighbors wandered around ruins Friday as they described now-vanished bedrooms, recently remodeled kitchens and outdoor living spaces. Some talked about the gorgeous views that drew them to their properties, their words contrasting sharply with the scene of soot and ash. In the coastal community of Pacific Palisades, Greg Benton surveyed where he lived for 31 years, hoping to find his great-grandmother’s wedding ring in the wreckage. “We just had just had Christmas morning right over here, right in front of that chimney. And this is what’s left,” he said, pointing to the blackened rubble that was once his living room. “It’s those small family heirlooms that are the ones that really hurt the most.” Elsewhere in the city, people at collection sites picked through cardboard boxes of donated items to restart their lives. Firefighters on Friday afternoon had made progress for the first time on the Eaton Fire north of Pasadena, which has burned more than 7,000 structures. Officials said Friday most evacuation orders for the area were lifted. Crews earlier Friday had been gaining ground on the Palisades Fire, which burned 5,300 structures and is the most destructive in LA's history. California National Guard troops arrived on the streets of Altadena before dawn to help protect property in the fire evacuation zone, and evening curfews were in effect to prevent looting after several earlier arrests. Anna Yeager said she and her husband agonized over going back to their beloved Altadena neighborhood near Pasadena after fleeing with their 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, their two dogs and some clothes. A neighbor told them their house was gone. Now she regrets not grabbing her children’s artwork, her husband’s treasured cookbooks, family photos, and jewelry from her mom, who died in 2012, and her husband’s grandmother, who survived Auschwitz.'Power lines everywhere. Fires still going everywhere” she said, adding that when they walked up to their home “it was just dust.” Charred grapefruits littered their yard around a blackened tree, a few still hanging from its branches.“You build a world for yourself and your family, and you feel safe in that world and things like this happen that you cannot control,” she said. “It’s devastatin
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES LOS ANGELES FIRE HOMES DESTROYED RESIDENT LOSSES FIRE RECOVERY
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