January 2025

Escape to San Diego

 This catastrophic event has left me and most of the people around me in a state of shock that I have never seen or felt before. I have lived through a number of major events of one kind or another. Before moving to California, I lived through Hurricane Harvey in Houston, where I determined that in a day and a half, 35 inches of rain fell on my roof. I experienced multiple hurricanes in Houston. Once, the eye of the hurricane passed directly over my house. My first son was born in Boston during the Blizzard of '78. I moved to New York just before the Blizzard of '68. None of these experiences has personally impacted me as much as this Eaton Canyon fire.

I am one of the fortunate people, suffering no direct physical loss from any of these experiences. But the losses suffered by my fellow Villagers, family and friends, elicits strong feelings of loss profoundly affecting my life. The first news of the fires came on Tuesday, January 7th morning. The first fire we heard about was the Pacific Palisades fire, but that fire was 25 to 30 miles away and, while serious, seemed to pose no imminent threat to me in Pasadena or to my son, David, in Highland Park, a northern neighborhood of Los Angeles. The second fire we heard about was in Eaton Canyon, which is a place that my son drives by every day. It is only 3.4 miles away from where I live. This fire was not only concerning, it was a direct threat.

The residential building I live in, Villa Gardens, was not in a yellow zone on Tuesday afternoon, but the indication was that it would very likely be in a yellow zone on Wednesday. Being labelled a yellow zone means you are instructed to be ready to pick up and evacuate within minutes. It is a pre-evacuation zone. David did not relish the idea of packing his two sons into his car and driving into a yellow zone to pick me, so he convinced me that I should come and spend the night at his place. Thinking that I would be there only overnight just to make him feel better, I threw a few things in a briefcase and went out to meet him. When I got to my building's lobby, it was filled with smoke, which was an indication that the problem was nearer than it had felt before. David picked me up. He'd brought his two sons because his wife, Oona, was traveling in Thailand at the moment. We went back to his house, which sits at the top of a hill in Highland Park. The wind coming up the hill was so fierce that it rattled the windows, and David said they had blown open several times before I had arrived. 

On Wednesday, we reviewed the situation, which had gotten worse that day, with both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Canyon fire expanding. My residence, Villa Gardens, was now in a yellow zone. Looking out the window, we could see ash flying around in the sky. Imagining being awakened in the middle of the night by an evacuation order to quickly leave with two young boys did not seem attractive, so David checked with our relatives in San Diego and we decided to evacuate Highland Park on Wednesday afternoon and head there.

We were very graciously received by our in-laws in San Diego. Shortly thereafter I realized that my go bag included my passport, all my electronic equipment and plugs to make it work, but not my laptop. I had some clothes to sleep in, but no change of clothing, no toiletries and no medication. This was a serious shortcoming in my preparation and my go bag is now packed and in the closet with three sets of clothes and all my toiletries. I am preparing a checklist that will include last minute items that will not go in the my go bag until I am ready to go because I am using them all the time, so if I have to pick it up and run again, I can. On Wednesday, we sat and listened to news of the two fires expanding, with no containment reported. There were also reports of many smaller fires, some of which were dealt with and extinguished. One other fire seemed to be presenting a problem, but it was farther east and not a direct threat to either of us. One of these fires, referred to as “smaller fires” burned 740 acres before it was controlled. So, a small fire is a relative term in this situation.

During the four days we were in San Diego, the winds had lessened but were still serious enough to cause problems, and another surge of Santa Ana winds was predicted for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, but with little indication of how strong they might be. Leo, my oldest grandson, got news that his school, which is in Duarte, a community just east of Pasadena, would be opening and holding classes on Monday. My younger grandson, Eamon, attended school in Altadena, which is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County just north of Pasadena. We learned that his school had burned and would not be reopening. At this point, the nearest place near where I reside that I know had burned is 3.2 miles away. We considered these facts and others involved in making a decision of what to do: the likelihood of the Santa Ana winds returning as the fires were still not contained, the effect on the air quality in the Los Angeles County area and the imposition we were creating on family members. We decided that it was appropriate for us to return to our homes, which we did on Sunday evening.

I am very active in the Pasadena Village community, which currently has about 230 members. In our membership, 17 homes burned to the ground, leaving 20 residents homeless. A number of other members of the village were evacuated from their homes by the decision of the fire officials. Some have been able to return home, but others have not. In a nearby residential community the entire building was evacuated. The neighborhood around the building was seriously damaged, but the building itself suffered no direct fire damage by all accounts. All the residents, however, are still prevented from visiting the building to pick up personal belongings. Some have cars in the garage which they are unable to retrieve so they are living from their go bags until the evacuated area can be cleaned up and water and power restored. The entire community is in a state of shock. Everywhere you go, everyone you speak to, knows someone who experienced the fire directly. In Villa Gardens, 11 of our staff lost their homes. I know there were a number of people living here whose nearby families lost their homes, but I have no count on that. 

Friends and family ask me if I'm safe and I hesitate to answer. I feel safe because the Eaton Canyon fire, while still burning, is moving to the north rather than the south and is reported to be 65% contained. While I have no official information saying so, I presume that the containment is all on the southern side of the fire which adds to some sense of security. The problem with the answer is that we have Santa Ana winds predicted for later in the week. A return of the Santa Ana winds while fires are still burning could threaten my or my son's home. There is also a new threat of any new fire starting near our homes with the winds, which makes that a considerable threat. So under the circumstances, I have to consider that we do have a risk. It seems farfetched that we would be under threat, but everything that happened on Tuesday and Wednesday seemed very farfetched on Monday. In addition, there's the question of the smoke danger. Since I have returned, we have not experienced visible smoke but the air quality index has fluctuated from 30 to 140 in either Highland Park or Pasadena. Even at 30, where the air seems fine, there are pollutants in the air that carry hazardous chemicals because of all the toxic material from the structures that burned. This ash is in the air all around us, everywhere we go. There's no escaping some impact from that. In my facility, the hallways and meeting rooms all have air scrubbers running 24 hours a day, so the air in the buildings is relatively clean. What that means is we are breathing fewer hazardous pollutants, not that we are breathing none.

With concern and compassion for our family, friends and neighbors who have suffered directly from the effects of the fire and with hope for the future, we await the coming days, weeks and months.