Thank you to everyone who’s reached out in the past day and to my friends who have offered me a place to stay if needed.
At the moment (1pm on 1/08), there are 4 main fires blazing through parts of Los Angeles: Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades/Santa Monica/Topanga, Eaton Fire in Altadena/Pasadena, Hurst Fire in Sylmar, and Woodley Fire in the Sepulveda Basin/Encino. The winds are very strong and the landscape is so dry that fires are spreading extremely quickly. All of the photos I’ve seen on the news and social media are so horrific and saddening.
As you can see on the map, I’m closest to the Palisades Fire. This was the first fire that started yesterday morning, and you probably have seen it on the news, as it even jumped the Pacific Coast Highway and burned the beachside properties. The Pacific Palisades is a beautiful neighborhood on the way to Malibu that is up on a cliff and overlooks the beaches of Santa Monica. The evacuation zone includes part of Santa Monica, but that’s about 6 miles from where I live near Culver City. I don’t think a big fire has ever gotten down to West LA. I don’t know how, but the fires somehow don’t reach the lower part of the city.
I know a lot of people lost power last night. Our lights flickered a little last night, so my roommate and I packed evacuation bags, just out of an abundance of caution. I didn’t think much about it, just a couple changes of clothes, my laptop, camera, and my document folder that has my passport. It’s insane to think about how many people actually had to answer that question of “what would you save in a fire?”
Today, smoke blankets the whole city and there’s an orange tint to the sun. I’m just staying in my apartment, running my air purifier, and keeping tabs on the LA fire updates while I work from home. I’m thankful for all the firefighters and that Los Angeles is a place that gets a lot of national attention and resources. We all hope that everyone can stay safe and that the winds die down to get the fires contained as quickly as possible.
