This editor, who lived on Radcliffe, evacuated around 3 p.m. on January 7. Earlier in the day, my husband and I, from our rooftop, watched the fire race over a ridge above the Marquez Knolls/Bienveneda area and then saw it jump to Temescal.
By that time, we decided to leave, Temescal Canyon Road, one of three entrances/exits to the Palisades was gridlocked.
As we drove on the 10 east towards Hemet, our daughter who lives in Texas, kept us abreast of what was on television. At one point she said, “Our high school is on fire.”
I then went to the cell phone and managed to pull up a television station. A woman newscaster said she was on Radcliffe. She pointed behind her and said that there were a lot of houses on fire. “There are no fire engines anywhere on the street,” she said. A few minutes later, she said, “It’s getting dangerous, we have to get out of here.”
Our neighbor, who lives on Haverford, directly behind our house stayed. He told us later that:
“Your house was there for quite a long time. The bird of paradise in your neighbor’s yard caught fire, and the wind was blowing embers all over your house and yard.
“I was on the roof of our guest house with a hose trying to keep everything wet, but with the loss of water pressure I couldn’t do anything more,” he said. “The fence between our houses and the fence between my house and the neighbor ‘s house was on fire.”
He said that a firetruck pulled up and “the fireman used the 350 gallons they had on their truck trying to put it out.” Once the truck was empty, the firefighters rolled up their hoses, got into the truck and left.
“They told me they had to drive down to PCH where they had water tanker trucks to resupply the engine,” my neighbor said. “All the trucks were doing the same thing so it was probably an hour turnaround from when they rolled hoses up to when they could get back, if they even came back.” He captured the video of his home burning, as he drove down Haverford to safety. He left the area about 10 p.m.
From Radcliffe and Haverford, the fire raced up to Via de la Paz and then to the ocean destroying whole blocks of houses on streets by the bluffs. The fire continued over the cliffs and burned to Pacific Coast Highway.
My husband suspects the fire got inside our house around 8:30 p.m., when he got an alert from an alarm that the property had been breached.
The blowing embers were deadly. Although our house was “hardened against fire” with stucco, no attic, no eaves and an asphalt roof, one firefighter I spoke to, said, the large front window probably broke, allowing access for flames.
Interesting on the timing of your fire alarm. Mine, in the Upper Alphabets went off around 3:00 p.m.
Sue, you don’t know me but I have donated regularly for years because I so value your words, stories…..
I know that my comment falls in line with so, so many…..this did NOT need to happen this way. Your neighbor should NEVER have felt the need to defend his and his neighbor’s houses until he could not any longer. I cannot imagine what your family has lost. Again, this should NOT have happened!
…and still you continue to report.
What an amazing woman you are!
I am so sorry for your loss.
Each day I wake up from what feels like a really bad nightmare.
Two weeks later, still waiting to wake up.
Thank you Sue, for being you.