‘I’ll never forget that moment’: Los Angeles residents who lost their homes in the fires describe their week from hell

A refugee who came to the US for a better life and now has to start again. A son who spent his 30th birthday making a plan to help his mother rebuild. A family with a special needs son who are now homeless. A woman forced to evacuate hours after an IVF procedure. A nurse who was set to retire and volunteer in her neighborhood. Now, it’s all gone.

These are just a few of the countless victims who lost everything in the recent fires in the Los Angeles area, leveling neighborhoods and displacing residents.

But they all say there is something the fires will never be able to tear apart – and that’s the kindness of community.

More than 80,000 people are still under evacuation orders, the Associated Press reported, and many do not know what, if anything, is left of their houses, apartments and possessions.

Officials said this week that residents won’t be going home soon, as the search continues for human remains in the leveled neighborhoods. Properties also face new dangers with burned slopes at risk of landslides and the charred debris laden with asbestos and other toxins — but as they struggle with losing their homes, residents tell us about what they went through as they make steps to rebuild, or move on.

A refugee lost everything – twice. But she’s ready to rebuild

When Azmina Kanji and her family were forced out of Uganda and into a displaced camp in Austria, they had lost everything.

Eventually immigrating to the United States, they made their way to California in 1976.

Azmina became an air traffic controller and worked for years to provide a stable and loving home for her family. When Sasha was born, she quit her job and created a fashion line that combined Indian techniques with contemporary fashion.

Eventually settling in Topanga in 1987, she created not only a home, but a sacred place full of warmth and love to share with others.

“The door was always open, everybody here, they had the security code. People were always there, always,” she said.

To help launch her fashion line, she hosted parties at the house, where she would make her famous masala chai and local musicians would play on the deck overlooking the canyon.

Azmina, also hosted Buddist chanting meetings at the house, which became known as the Saddlepeak Buddha house because of the 20 buddha statues, including one on the mailbox.

“They get together – 40 to 50 of them – and they chant for world peace every week,” Sasha said.

In 40 years, Azmina had never had to evacuate previously. But after the wind picked up to speed, she knew she had to go.

“By this time, because I had been talking so much to everybody, and I was so concerned about them, I didn’t have time to pack,” she said. So she grabbed some pants and shirts from the dryer, her two dogs and blankets and led seven vehicles down the hill to safety.

Sasha, who worked remotely from his shared apartment in another part of LA, knew the fires were bad he saw a Thai restaurant they loved already gone at the base of the mountain.

“The amount of sheer destruction and chaos that would have to happen for it to travel uphill more than several miles,” he said. “It’s unbelievable that it did happen.”

A neighbor later confirmed that their house was gone, sending them video of the destruction. Only the door frame and two Buddha statues remained untouched. The pool was still full of water.

“For me, seeing just that door frame, when you want to see your home, it was… I’ll never forget that moment,” Sasha said.

When word spread that their house was destroyed in the fire, it was their community who lifted them up. A friend created a GoFundMe which was passed on to numerous group chats.

Sasha told The Independent of someone who recognized their house and helped before even knowing what happened to his own.

“He donated to our GoFundMe and then we found that he didn’t even know if his house was gone or not,” Sasha said. “My mom was able to call him and deliver the news that his house, in fact, was still standing.”

This is the family Azmina created. And she’s determined to go back and rebuild.

“My community is there,” she said. “I’m going to rebuild. I want to go back to my community. That’s where my life is.”

Both Azmina and Sasha say there are mementoes they lost, like jewelry that belonged to Azmina’s mother who passed away over a year ago.

“She left me her pieces of jewelry and I want to get my hands on it,” she said. “Only thing that matters to me. That is something I really need and want and I just want to go up there to see if I can find it.”

But it’s not just the “things” that they have lost, but parts of the house they built together that are now gone, like the stenciling on the walls that they created together as art projects. And the tiles they picked out in Mexico.

“There’s a running joke that I would walk downstairs and the kitchen would be painted a different color,” Sasha laughed. “She always wanted to make things colorful and fun.”

“One day we drove down to Tijiana and came back with a trunk full of tiles. Just bootstrapping to make our house beautiful.”

“It’s a space that represents my mom so much – we have to rebuild it, we will,” he told her, “and it will be a sign of our resilience.”

In two months, Sasha was supposed to move to Mexico City. But now he has taken over the task of dealing with the insurance companies.

“There are a lot of things that we can’t replace and, frankly, our insurance policy isn’t going to even pay out enough to replace what we’ve lost that is replaceable.”

But instead of feeling sorry for themselves, the mother and son have opted to look forward.

Sasha turned 30 on Saturday just days after they evacuated – but instead of going out and celebrating, his friends came over and they got to work.

“We ended up just sitting on the floor criss cross applesauce in a circle, we just drank some tequila and strategize ‘how do we get out of this, how do we get through this, how do we do something, we’re making lists, people are being given duties.”

“My friends aren’t saying when YOU rebuild, they’re saying ‘when WE rebuild,” he added.

Sasha said he hopes his story will show others that “it is possible to come back from this, and also to be a resource for others.”

“My mom has fought so many battles on her own, but this is one we can’t do on our own. So we’re beyond grateful for all the help and the love, it’s unreal.”

Nurse planned to retire and volunteer in her neighborhood. Now it’s all gone

Mary Reed, a 65-year-old nurse and native of California, had planned to retire this year.

Her children are grown and scattered in different states. But Reed had found a community in Altadena, in a neighborhood she loved, and had no desire to leave, she told The Independent. Reed, who could be found walking her dog or playing tennis with her friends, had planned to volunteer at the local library when she retired.

But everything changed when the Eaton fire devastated the area. Reed had already evacuated, but wasn’t too worried about her house, and figured she’d be back in a few days. So other than her dog and a change of clothing, she took nothing.

“We’ve had fires before, but they’ve been contained,” she added. “So I left, but didn’t take anything. Never thinking how devastating it would be.”

Reed, who is staying with her brother in Ventura, said she doesn’t know what she’ll do now, but thinks the loss of her home has sped up her plan to retire. First, she has to get back to her house, when it’s safe enough to do so, she says, and while there she’d like to see if there is anything that she could save.

“There were ceramic tiles from Spain – and it’s meaningful because my mom and grandmother had created this picture of these tiles when they lived there,” she said, adding that she believes tiles, or pieces of them might have survived.

Meanwhile, her daughter has set up a GoFundMe to help raise money for anything she may need going forward, whether it be clothes, shoes or even cooking ware.

“My sister-in-law and I were cooking here last night and I said ‘oh, I have that pan,’ then I think, oh, no I don’t,” she chuckled half heartedly.

But it’s not the stuff she’s concerned about.

“It really was such a lovely community. It’s not the loss of things, really, it’s the loss of your life and the community and the things you did,” she said.

Family with special needs son loses home of 40 years

Deborah McGill and her family lost their home of 40 years in the Eaton fire last week. All that’s left is the doorway and chimney.

“My family did not get anything out of the house before it burned down,” she wrote in a GoFundMe.

“They were out of town and I was on the other side of LA for work when the fire started and stayed away the whole night due to the high winds that were throwing debris on the freeway as I began to drive back. Had no idea the fire would spread so west and so low in Altadena.”

“The house was especially important for my adult son with special needs who needs to remain based in the area for services. My husband and I are both over 65 years old and this house was supposed to provide a secure place for him in the future.”

“Like others, we lost our personal items like our clothes and furniture and also lost irreplaceable items connected with our past. Even though we were lucky that we have insurance, we are now also coming to grips with underinsurance, even for rental coverage in this tight market.”

“The loss of my travel diary from the seventies is especially painful. My mother saved every postcard I sent her, which was an interesting colorful chronicle of Europe before MTV, when it was very different from the US,” she said.

“She also saved my little diary and sketchbooks that contained a narrative of the year abroad including my marathon survey of art history while living on trains for 30 days. I had hoped my son and I could develop an animation project using the diary, postcards, and the sketch book.”

“I keep going over all the ifs…if only I had digitized these things and put them on a cloud, if only I did not have a meeting on the other side of town that night, if only I had gone home…would I have been able to retrieve these items in the dark and wind. Would I have recognized the seriousness of the situation and taken these things as I evacuated? I am not sure. In Altadena, we were used to the drill and we always came back with everything just as we left it.”

Los Angeles surf icon loses house, studio in fires

Jim Ganzer, a retired artist, has been an icon of Los Angeles surf culture since the 1960s, his daughter Sandy Ganzer wrote in a GoFundMe. She’s hoping to raise money for her father and stepmother Louise, who lost their Los Flores Canyon house and studio in the Palisades fire last week.

“With his sly charisma and humor, he endeared himself to many in the entertainment industry,” she said. “His friendship with screenwriter John Miliuis helped serve as an inspiration for the Cohen Brothers’ film The Big Lebowski.”

Ganzer has owned the house since the 1980s and it was also the home Sandy grew up in, and “the home I raised my own son in, and the source of countless formative memories,” she said.

But having suffered a stroke just last month, Ganzer is not able to work. Yet, they are still expected to pay a mortgage on a house no longer standing.

“It is hard to understate what they’ve lost. The house and work studio were both completely leveled, taking everything they owned with it,” Sandy said. “They left in such a hurry even essential items like Louise’s purse, the deed to the house, and their passports were left behind.”

The time and cost of replacing these items is immense, and on top of that they have to try to support themselves while trying to figure out a long term living situation.

Ganzer is known for his surf wear company Jimmy Z, and is an artist whose art has been shown all over the world.

A friend of Ganzer’s, who wrote about the surfer’s loss in a recent article in Beach Grit, recalled that when he spoke to Ganzer, “he did not talk about what insurance would cover, rebuilding, or his loss. Instead, he apologized for letting “Old Yeller,” my favorite Robbie Dick longboard that I kept at his house, burn.”

Hours after egg retrieval, woman forced to evacuate burning neighborhood

January 7, 2024, will be a day Kati Cattaneo says she will never forget.

The Los Angeles real estate agent shared on Instagram how she evacuated her home just hours after an IVF egg retrieval procedure.

“I was still loopy from the anesthesia and in pain from the surgery,” she wrote over a video that showed the woman in bed. “The doc told me to rest so I went to sleep.”

Just one hour later, she had five missed calls from her husband to tell her there was a fire one street away from their house and to “evacuate fast.”

Cattaneo wasn’t supposed to be driving after the procedure, but smoke could be seen billowing up across her street as she grabbed her cat and drove to her parents’ house in Santa Barbara.

Ring camera footage showed as the houses burned down around the couple’s first home together.

“We had to tell our neighbor that their house of 30 years was on fire,” she wrote. “It was the worst feeling in the world.”

They lost their house too.