By Anna Griffin, Editor In Chief
On the morning of January 7th, 2025, as a rare and dangerously powerful Santa Ana windstorm swept through LA, fire quickly broke out in the affluent community of Pacific Palisades, forcing residents to flee in a chaotic escape. As the winds picked up, flames exploded spreading rapidly, and as people were forced to immediately evacuate, roads became blocked in a panicked rush of traffic, causing a gridlock with nowhere to go. As the flames quickly spread throughout the entire Palisades community, cars were abandoned in the street as people in immense panic fled on foot, taking their car keys with them.
The Palisades Fire (AP News)
Responding to the emergency, the Los Angeles Fire Department was unable to gain access forcing first responders to bring in a bulldozer, which ploughed through the sea of parked cars in an urgent mission to get to any remaining residents trapped in their homes. Tragically though, as first responders arrived to tackle the insurmountable fires, it was discovered that the fire hydrants had not been serviced and most had no water or water pressure to help prevent the wildfire’s rapid growth. Additionally, the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir was then determined to be empty, having been offline for repairs for nearly a year and due to the strength of the dangerously fierce Santa Ana winds, aerial services to combat the flames were deemed unsafe. All hope seemed lost. Burning more than 23,000 acres, destroying almost 15,000 structures, and killing at least 11 people throughout the Palisades, Malibu, and areas of the Santa Monica Mountains, all that remained of the once pretty LA community was a fiery mass of ruins and a toxic, hazardous scene of chaos.
The Palisades Fire (AP News)
While the Palisades ravaged on the evening of January 7th, another fire suddenly erupted, abruptly exploding into an apocalyptic nightmare in the historic area of Eaton Canyon. Fueled by now hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, the raging inferno rushed down the canyon and ripped through the foothills of Altadena and Pasadena, forcing residents to flee with literally the clothes on their backs, as not all received evacuation orders and the rapidly approaching and life-threatening flames forced them to run for their lives.
The Eaton Fire (AP News)
The Eaton Fire leveled 10,491 structures, charred 14,000 acres, and killed 17 people. In one tragic day from east to west, Los Angeles was forever changed, with more than 150,000 people displaced with most having lost everything, facing a long, arduous journey ahead trying to deal with their shock and grief, while contemplating how to rebuild their lives and their homes. Within a couple of days, the Palisades, Malibu, and Eaton fires were still not contained and with the Santa Ana’s still gusting, they were an existential threat to LA, Ventura, and San Bernardino Counties. Fires were popping up throughout Southern California as local firefighters joined by crews from other national fire departments, dealt with 24-hour days in what seemed like an unfightable battle. Displaced and desperate Angelenos were living in cots in evacuation centers, staying in hotels, or couch surfing with friends and family not knowing what their futures held.
A VW camper van sits among the charred ruins of Pacific Palisades (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Yet in the midst of the unimaginable devastation and darkness, an AP News photograph suddenly circulated online, quickly going viral. The photo was of a retro blue VW camper van sitting defiantly on a burned street in the Palisades surrounded by charred structures, but miraculously untouched by the relentless inferno that had engulfed everything around it.
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