Fewer than 20 minutes after the fire in Eaton Canyon was first reported, I got a surprising text from my 14-year-old niece: HEY WE HAVE TO COME TO UR HOUSE CUZ THERE IS A HUGE FIRE. WE NEED TO EVACUATEEEE. She lives in Altadena close to where the fire originated, and was driving away with her sisters and parents. They were headed to my house in Los Angeles, where I welcomed them as they nervously ate the chili my sister-in-law grabbed from the crockpot as she ran out. My 8-year-old niece had brought nothing. Somehow, the 14-year-old had found time to stuff a change of clothes into a bag and to grab some photos. They lamented all the things that had probably burned in their home from a fire that we could see on the news was sweeping rapidly through swaths of the area. "At least you're all safe," I said over and over. I stayed up that first night picturing the last time — just two days earlier — I was at their house and we watched "Bridget Jones's Diary." I tried to sear that warm final memory into my mind. The next morning, we scrolled through apps for any news. It arrived, from a friend who was driving by while the fire was still smoldering: Their home had survived. I took a video of the kids hugging and jumping up and down. We prepared for a quick return. Now, more than two weeks later, they (and their dog) are still here in my house, with their neighborhood still without basic necessities. One of their schools remains closed and is holding virtual classes. On Tuesday, the inspectors came to their house and said it would take some work to get rid of the smoke damage, but that the house was spared of any serious damage. For me, the time has been filled working long hours with colleagues to try to figure out how all this happened. But this experience hit home with a larger, more philosophical question that, even as a hardened investigative reporter always searching for deeper answers, I may not be able to uncover: Why were some homes spared and others not? As I was writing this, the 8-year-old interrupted. She was writing a school assignment and read a passage aloud. She called their synagogue that burned down "her whole heart." "Even though it burned down," she wrote, "it's still there."
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California Today: From Fires to Mudslides, Catastrophe Has Defined Newsom’s Tenure
January 24, 2025
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