Deadly wildfires leave thousands with nothing as entire neighborhoods burn
PASADENA, Calif— Hundreds of homeowners in Los Angeles County are grappling with the loss of nearly everything but their essentials, with some telling the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday how the destructive fires have forever changed their lives.
Massive fires blazed throughout Southern California, covering thousands of acres in various cities and forcing hundreds to flee their homes. Warnings began earlier in the week for residents as the state’s infamous Santa Ana winds were expected to reach 60 mph to 70 mph, with mountaintop winds predicted to potentially top 100 mph.
In combination with the winds, the emergency quickly grew Tuesday after a coastal town in Los Angeles County, Pacific Palisades, caught fire. Videos posted online began to show residents in Pacific Palisades fleeing their homes as the mountainside could be seen on fire. However, by Tuesday evening around 6:30 p.m. PST, the wildfire reached the inland areas of Pasadena and Altadena, California, growing rapidly throughout the night.
Pasadena officials confirmed during a press conference that the fire had started in Eaton Canyon, growing rapidly with winds reaching 70 mph. While the fire began in the canyon, embers were traveling as far as two miles away, according to officials.
In video footage obtained by the DCNF, the high winds could be heard throughout the videos as one clip shows embers heavily blowing across the street.
EATON FIRE: Another shot from tonight obtained by @DailyCaller News Foundation. Being told winds are still pushing embers around making it incredibly hectic for officials to slow anything down. #Pasadena | #California pic.twitter.com/sqf1qlR3bl
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 8, 2025
EATON FIRE: Evacuations are still underway as the fire is spreading across over 400 acres. Video footage obtained by @DailyCaller News Foundation shows an insane scene#Pasadena | #California pic.twitter.com/x71JX0M4wP
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 8, 2025
With his home lost in the night, local resident Castey Fortich told DCNF that he and his family didn’t expect to not come back to their residence after evacuating around 11:00 p.m. PST.
“[At] about 6 p.m., there was no fear yet that fire would come all the way up to Altadena. We packed a little bit, but not thinking that we were not coming back to our home. So we just packed some necessities just to stay at a hotel or over here for the night,” Fortich said. “But then we delayed the evacuation until about 11 p.m., when the lights finally went out. We just left.”
Fortich said that his family had taken their “essential documents” and the “very minimum” as they headed out of their home, not realizing it would be the last time.
“There was no warning,” Fortich said.
By 6:00 a.m. PST Wednesday morning, the local resident told the DCNF that he went back up to his house to find it burned to the ground.
“I still don’t know how to consume this. I don’t know how to process it yet, what to do next after this,” Fortich added.
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 9, 2025
Another Altadena resident, Suzanah Oscar, told the DCNF about how she did not expect to lose her home, describing that the warning to evacuate was sudden.
“We basically went from ready to go. So when it was go time I really thought most of these things I can replace. So I don’t really care to grab too much and I really thought that they were just being overly precautious and telling us to get out, but not because our house was in imminent danger,” Oscar said. “I really thought I was coming [back] home.”
Oscar said her husband had refused to leave the house on Tuesday evening, hosing the area down to keep embers from lighting up the residence. However, by early Wednesday morning Oscar said that due to the embers rapidly coming down, there was nothing more the homeowners could do.
By 5:44 a.m. PST the couple was then told by local officers that their house had gone up in flames.
“My house was gone,” Oscar said.
Remains of Oscar’s house in Altadena, CA [Photo obtained by Daily Caller News Foundation]
Oscar told DCNF that while she is feeling “numb,” she is also “relieved” and at “peace” due to going back to the site to find a “kiss from God,” which was one remaining yellow rose in her garden that she described as her mother’s favorite flower.
Additional footage captured by the DCNF on Wednesday morning showed homes burning in the Altadena area, with some already burned to the ground, leaving just the brick chimneys. One Altadena resident, Mariela Muro, preparing to evacuate, told the DCNF that she was getting ready to leave due to the alerts she had received Tuesday evening and throughout Wednesday.
EATON FIRE: Just a complete war zone still @DailyCaller #Pasadena | #California pic.twitter.com/OnIjdgz5Qg
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 8, 2025
EATON FIRE: This is the current state for some homeowners right now who aren’t even that far up the mountain in #Altadena @DailyCaller #Pasadena | #California pic.twitter.com/4Il84D14JD
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 8, 2025
“Since the cell phone towers were down, a lot of the messages we didn’t get, but we kind of used our common sense and kind of seen like, ‘OK, the fire is coming, you gotta go,’” Muro told the DCNF.
A neighboring house to Muro could be seen on fire with firefighters attempting to put it out, as other nearby neighbors were also coming out of their homes with packed bags. The Altadena resident went on to tell the DCNF that while she felt worried, she was grateful to just be alive.
“I’m just grateful that we’re alive, you know?” All this other stuff we could buy again, but you know, human lives, that’s precious. You can’t get that back,” Muro said.
EATON FIRE: Additional footage from today #California | #Altadena | #CaliforniaWildfires pic.twitter.com/FNUBvJMkm0
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 9, 2025
Pasadena officials held a press conference Wednesday evening outside the city’s evacuation site, with Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin confirming the fire had already surpassed 10,000 acres with 0% containment. Augustin said that there were 60 strike teams in use from all over the state, some from as far as Arizona, as well as over 700 firefighters working on the destruction.
When asked about the city’s preparation for the incident, the Pasadena fire chief told the DCNF that while he couldn’t speak for L.A. County’s prep, the city’s firefighters had “twice-a-day briefings in the days leading up,” as well as receiving briefings from the National Weather Service due to knowledge of the incoming “hurricane-like winds.”
In addition to the briefings, Augustin said they had their Emergency Operations Center (EOC) staff “lined up for an entire week” of 12-hour shifts. However, the combination of the winds with the fire had overwhelmed the group, making it nearly impossible to contain Tuesday evening.
“It really is because of those winds. I mean, that really—we had a lot of resources, dozens of fire engines in the first hour,” Augustin told the DCNF.
“Because you had — of where that came in, you had both a Pasadena response and an L.A. County response. Then we got a second-alarm L.A. County response, which is like — I’ll be honest — a dozen fire engines, they throw a lot at it, along with our resources,” Augustin added. “But when you have 70-mile-an-hour winds, within the first hour, that fire had taken off. If we could have had 10 more fire engines, it wouldn’t have made a difference.”
Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has faced widespread criticism for attending a presidential inauguration in Ghana while the fires raged. Bass remained silent when confronted by a Sky News reporter upon her return to Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon.
Bass pushed for significant reductions to the fire department’s budget in the 2025 fiscal year, initially proposing a $23 million cut, with $17.6 million ultimately being approved.
Los Angeles County officials have also been criticized for allowing fire hydrants to run dry, with eight of the top ten highest paid officials in the county working for Los Angeles Department of Power and Water, the DCNF previously reported.
At least five people have reportedly died due to the Eaton Canyon fire, with officials confirmed the fire’s start is under investigation and remains ongoing.
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