‘It looks like a bomb hit our town’

Twenty-eight years of memories shared by Dr Cloda Jones and her family at their home in Altadena, Los Angeles, crumbled on January 8, devastating the Caribbean family who are among more than 40,000 people in the southern California suburb crushed by one of several raging wildfires.

Thirteen people have been confirmed dead so far in the state in two major wildfires – the Palisades and Eaton Canyon. The fires have been largely aided by strong winds, with the Eaton Canyon blaze gutting thousands of structures including more than 7,000 in Altadena.

Jones, a school psychologist and counsellor, told The Sunday Gleaner that although they had witnessed several fires in previous years, none came close to home.

She said this is why when she learnt that the Eaton Canyon fire, which ravaged her close-knit community, was 10 miles away, she, her husband Mark and their son Aaron were not overly concerned.

But Jones said worry crept in when the wind speed increased to 100 miles per hour.

This, and mini tornadoes that her neighbours were noticing, set off alarm bells.

She said around 8 p.m. on January 7, she began packing a bag, although the fire was still more than eight miles away.

All her neighbours, who were on the neighbourhood watch stream, except for one, said that there was no need to worry.

That one neighbour noted, Jones said, that things had become “very serious” with satellite imagery showing the fire’s rapid devastation.

“This concerned me, so I threw some photo albums in my back seat. I tossed my passport in my suitcase and had some clean laundry and didn’t even look at it and tossed it and folded it in my suitcase,” Jones recalled.

Two minutes into that scurry, the power went at her parents’ home approximately two miles away from hers.

Ten minutes later, she suffered a similar fate.

“My neighbour texted me and said, ‘prepare to go quickly’. I could smell the fire, and on my phone, I saw news coverage of the winds. My son and husband helped to throw the suitcase in the car. I saved my laptop and purse; took my emergency cash and threw it in a coat and left,” Jones told The Sunday Gleaner.

She went to a property she inherited from her parents two miles down the hill from her home, thinking, she said, that surely she would be safe.

This was not the case.

“We watched in horror as the fires came toward us down the hill realising that our family home was most likely gone. At this point, we started throwing clothes into the car for my husband and son. They got their toothbrushes. There was no time,” she said, indicating that a 3 a.m. evacuation alarm went off.

Travelling more than 80 miles

Jones said the family drove to a shelter, but even then, they remained in danger.

They decided to leave, travelling more than 80 miles away to a friend’s house.

She said the travel took hours on the freeway, where traffic came to a standstill for long periods.

“We found out that it was a combo of the wind, fast-flowing fire due to dry vegetation, and no water in the hydrants, which contributed to the loss of over 50,000 acres just in our area alone. It looks like a bomb hit our town. The supermarket, the bank, and the local food places, the sheriff station and the fire station all burned down,” Jones said, adding that four active fires in Los Angeles at the time resulted in the evacuation of 360,000 people. That number was expected to increase.

“Our jobs are on hold for now, but we are concerned because we are so far away. I am glad we ultimately didn’t go to the shelter because those people were displaced and some lost their cars. We are grateful to be alive, but devastated to lose belongings and memories. By no means did we save much. I cried when I realised I now own two pairs of pants and my husband didn’t even have another pair. There was no time. Yes, things can be replaced, but this is a lot to try and absorb. Our family is working hard to rebuild,” said Jones, who grew up in Grenada, though a significant number of her relatives are from Jamaica.

Friends of the family has since launched a GoFundMe campaign – https://gofund.me /f7ab158e – to assist with immediate needs, including food and clothing. The account is seeking to raise, in the short term, US$25,000.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com