Hi,

My daughter Emmi and I lost our home with everything in it, our neighborhood, and our school in the fire that destroyed our beautiful Altadena. On Tuesday evening, we were preparing for the upcoming windstorm, the Santa Anas, that usually blow southward with speeds of up to 60 mph. Emmi spotted a fire up in the mountains several miles away from our home. We left that night because Emmi was frightened by the fire but did not expect what happened after.

Tuesday night, the strongest storm in a long time spread the wildfire, leading to almost every house in our neighborhood being gone. I was there for the larger part of Wednesday to help friends and save some things. I could recover my bike out of the garage minutes before it burned to the ground. I saw so many houses burning down simply because there were no firefighters around; it was just too much. Thousands of houses were burning that day.

These pictures were taken only a few days apart.

Any help is appreciated, thank you so much for your support.