01/09/2025
I’ve pulled information from various places and put this in a central location. It’s not all that’s out there, but hopefully this will help some people.
I used to live in Los Angeles. I lived in Westchester, Bel Air - right at Sunset and the 405 - and finally Pasadena. Pasadena was by far my favorite place to live in L.A. In fact, I don’t always get homesick for Kansas. I find myself getting homesick for other places I lived, like Seattle and Pasadena. I also miss driving along Sunset into Pacific Palisades.
Seeing my friends and former coworkers posting about having to evacuate their homes or waiting for the fires to jump a specific area to evacuate is beyond heartbreaking. I was supposed to meet one of my friends/former coworkers later this month near her home in Malibu, and let my kids see the starfish. Now, we don’t even know if she has a home to go back to.
During my time in L.A. there were wildfires. It was in Pasadena, that I realized just how scary it is to live near a burning area. You could see the flames dancing across the crest of the hillside. One night, my now husband and I drove up the into the hills to watch the fires from a safe distance as they approached the homes. I kept waiting for one of those tiny embers to make its way into my part of Pasadena. But, I was told at that point the fires don’t go that far. They stick to the hills and canyons.
What we’re seeing now shows that the fires don’t care about our made up boundaries. The evacuation zones are within urban areas. The Palisades Fire evacuation zone now abuts Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica. The Pasadena evacuation zone is no longer reserved for the hills. The Sunset Fire evacuation zone is making its way into West Hollywood.
Never before have any of us seen fires like that, where so many people are having to leave their homes in such a widespread area.
My thoughts, prayers, and love go out to everyone dealing with this horrible tragedy.
