Transcript of Family describe 'terrifying' moment they escaped wildfire in LA | BBC News

Indeed. What we're experiencing right now is mercilessly, well, thankfully, I should say, thankfully, the winds have died down for the time being. And so what this has allowed is people to come back and see what is left of their homes. And of course, what's very, very sadly has been destroyed. And we're joined now by one of those families here in Alta Dina. This is Daisy and Keith and Lucas and Henry. And we are so sorry for what you're going through right now and really, really thank you for taking the time to be with us. If you're able to, Daisy, just tell us what you experienced on Tuesday night. Thankfully, you're here together. You got out. Yeah.

Thank you. Tuesday was a regular, normal, peaceful day. We just had gotten back from Christmas holidays, and I was alerted that there was a fire through friends that were sending me text messages. So I all day packing, I mean, unpacking. And I look out the window and sure enough, I see a smoke. I'm like, well, yeah, there's a smoke. There's something happening here. I just thought it was just a fire on the mountains. Nothing that was going to really be that intense that it was going to affect anybody. But then as I kept watching the news and I kept going in social media, I saw that there was actually some houses burning down in Altadina. I'm drive. And we started looking at the window. We was just more worried about making sure that things weren't going to come and hit us. My husband didn't think nothing was going to come this far out. So we were still on alert around, I would say 10:00 PM was it that we lost power. That's when the power went off. My son Lucas, the youngest, he started crying. Henry was very brave, and he was helping us with flash light and helping us pack whatever we could as quick as we could.

I did one luggage just for all of us, thinking that we were going to be able to come the next day. Everybody went to sleep. I tell everybody, just make sure that you have your clothes ready because I'm seeing fire. There's really fire. It's no longer smoke. I can see a fire from the window. This just doesn't look good. My husband was very positive. If there's something that we need That we have to leave. We should be getting a text message. We should be getting some alert. The Sheriff Department will come with the- With the loudspeakers and everything? They would tell us, and I'm like, Well, I'm waiting for that. I'm waiting to get some urgency that we got to leave because it's getting more dangerous, but we didn't get anything. It was just my gut feeling that said, We have to go. It was 1:30 in the morning, and when I saw more flame going up, I said, We have to get out. I woke them up and I said, It's time to go.

That must have been petrifying for you all to take that decision just to go.

Yeah, it was absolutely terrifying to see that. I've lived through fires up in the foothills before that got really close but never got into the houses so much. But this one, it moved so quickly. It was on a distant ridge one minute, and then 10 minutes later, it was right on top of us. It was crazy how fast it moved with the winds blowing it and blowing it downhill, which is so unusual, too. So, yeah, I really We felt nothing's going to touch us. We're way down from the mountains, but it's just incredible, the devastation down here. It's just heartbreaking.

We are so sorry to see your home now. What was it like then to realize that the worst had happened, to come back here? I mean, for example, Henry, when you see your home, it must be really sad.

It was really terrifying when we got out, and My cousin was in an Uber and she said when she was at the plane, she saw people throwing up because everybody was seeing the fire down at it. I don't I remember that it was caught in fire. It was going really fast. We had to go to our hotel to go. That's where my mom's work is. Then The fire was getting really close here. At 5:00 AM, there was a French teacher. He woke up at 5:00 AM The fire woke him up. It was so close. So he ran out of the house, and then he went somewhere else. Then suddenly, then our house fired, and then it It's just burned and stuff. It's so sad.

I'm so sorry. You managed to find just one of your toys, didn't you? Can you show me?

What did you find here? I found this. My brother found this.

I'm so sorry.

That is all that remains. They had so many toys that were out here. That little trash can thing over there was overflowing with toys and everything's just gone. It's heartbreaking.

When we were leaving, they like, if I'm bringing their toys, I'm like, there's no space for a toy. We just got to go. So I grabbed pillows too, just in case we had to sleep in the car because I didn't know. And luckily my husband went and bought them a new toy and they happy about that. I did grab one toy for each of them, so at least they have a sense of comfort and some enjoyment. But right now, I don't think they understand the concept of their home no longer being there. They know we don't have a home, but I don't think they really understand what the loss is. They don't understand. Henry wanted to come and see the space. He wanted to see that he was really broken And Lucas wanted to see he can find any of his toy. Even walking to the back, they were happy just to see that those two items survived. But it's just heartbreaking because this is our four year anniversary this month. We moved here when a lot of the riots and a lot of the chaos was happening in downtown. We thought they were going to burn our home back then from all the protests because they pretty much lit the business downstairs.

So we ran from there and made a lot of sacrifice to buy this home to not be burned there. And then we come here and we get burned.

I'm so sorry to hear that you've already moved once and here to your dream home. I know it's a very difficult question right now, but how do you think about the future, particularly in an area where it just seems that it's getting warmer and warmer, the climate is exacerbating these weather events? How do you guys think about where you'll live, what you do next I don't know.

Honestly, I lived my entire life in a city. I grew up in New York. I'm more like a city growing. I saw those fires, and I saw climate changes, and I saw a lot of things that did affect the people that live close to nature. And I always wanted to avoid those things. But I thought California was very forward with those policies, and they took care of climate and making sure that everybody was safe. So I was very comfortable. But I don't think you can really secure yourself when it comes from nature and when it comes from God, you can't stop those act from God in nature. It's just what it is. And it's It's just going to happen. It doesn't matter what you are. I don't think we're untouchable.

We love this community. The community around here is just fabulous, or it was. I mean, who knows what it's going to be in the future. But there's people that have been up here 50, 60 years and other people that have been moving in recently. But everybody has been a great community, the school, especially. Henry is in a French Immersion program, and there's a lot of French people moving in, and it's just been a a great community. So we love, we want to come back here. But it's scary to think about it, too.

And Lucas, you were showing me earlier where you used to play in the backyard, right? You had a swing set.

I love that swing I wanted to play with it every day.

Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine. I mean, has LA ever seen anything like this? I mean, have you guys ever been through anything like this in LA?

Never. I I've never seen anything this bad. No.

I've been here since 1984, and I've seen a lot of fires that have destroyed homes, but nothing like what happened this last few days because there's been so many fires destroying homes in every, every part of every neighborhood of LA has just been hit. It's horrible. It's incredible.

Well, thank you all so very much for speaking to us. We wish you nothing but the best, and our thoughts are with you all. Thank you so very much to Daisy and to Henry and to Lucas, and to Keith. Thank you. Thank you. Karin, when you speak to a family like this one, of course, you have to keep in mind as well, so many places continue to be under evacuation order. The fires are by no means contained right now. And so very sadly, heartbreaking stories like this one are being replicated right across LA County right now. Helena, thank heartbreaking stuff. Just illustrating exactly what families, so many more families, must be going through as well. Helena Humphrey there in Altadena, which has been so terribly hit by that Eton fire.