Sparked by strong winds and dry weather, raging wildfires have been devastating the Los Angeles area since Jan. 7, charring over 50,000 acres of land. While the death toll is still unknown, as of present, there have been 29 confirmed deaths and total economic losses could reach an estimated 250 billion dollars. Several Notre Dame students from the LA area shared their experiences witnessing the destruction during their winter breaks.
Matias Toro, a Morrissey freshman from Pasadena, recalled his experience during the disaster’s early hours.
“My parents were out shopping. They gave me a call that night,” Toro said. “I looked out at the mountain, and it was just like a firestorm, like, the whole [forest] just burst into flames.”
As the fire spread rapidly, an estimated 200,000 residents in threatened areas were put under evacuation orders. Alex Rweyemamu, a freshman in Siegfried from the Los Angeles area, found himself ordered to evacuate multiple times.
“I remember I was at my mom’s one night in Pasadena, and … we had to evacuate. So I [decided] to go to my dad’s house, which is fifty minutes west,” Rweyemamu said. “Then, the next day, around like four or five, the Hollywood fire happened … and I was again on evacuation watch. I would never expect that. To go from one place like, ‘Oh, I’ll be safer,’ and then [have to go] to another place.”
An estimated 10,000 homes have been destroyed by the fires. Los Angeles County, already suffering from a housing shortage, soon found rent costs skyrocketing in the aftermath of the destruction as displaced families sought places to stay.
“Before the fires, let’s say, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment was renting for about like three to four thousand [dollars] — it’s gonna be a lot more ... now it’s like six to seven thousand dollars [to rent], which is just crazy,” Rweyemamu said.
Both Toro’s and Rweyemamu’s homes went unharmed, but many families were not as fortunate.
Toro highlighted the extent of the damage. “Yeah, honestly, I got it lucky, I think 40% of the [families] from my middle school lost everything,” he said.
While luckily able to evacuate in time, Johnson Family Hall resident Keira Wood was among the thousands of LA inhabitants whose homes were lost.
“Pretty much our entire community is gone because of the fire,” Wood said. “My house, my whole neighborhood, the schools that my siblings go to, the summer camp that I work at, and the places where a lot of my family work in town … pretty much everything [is gone].”
She described the unexpected nature of the fire’s destruction. “I don’t really live in … what was thought of as a fire dangerous area ... I was just in a neighborhood, so I never really expected anything like this to happen.”
“I think when we evacuated, we just thought that we were gonna be at my grandma's house for, like, a few hours just hanging out there,” she continued.
Toro described the strong sense of camaraderie that emerged from the fire's devastation, noting that the local schools he attended organized donation drives.
“They had a bunch of families driving in to drop stuff off. They got overflowed the first two days. It was a really smooth operation. I was helping out … because, I mean, it was just really sad to see, you know, so many people, so many families that I’d known before, lose everything,” he said.
Wood emphasized the solidarity and shared purpose emerging from those in her community, recalling specifically those she knew from the summer camp she works at in the Palisades.
“A lot of the older kids were planning on not coming back,” she said. “But now everyone’s texting [that] we're all gonna come back and rebuild the Palisades together and try to have a camp.”
She shared that despite the sudden and severe personal loss, she’s grateful and optimistic for the community.
“It just seems like everyone’s very into sticking together. You definitely feel a bond with people in your community. I’ve had people reach out to me that I haven’t seen since preschool; just checking in and making sure everyone's okay. That’s kind of strong in a way,” she said.
