As flames roared down a hill toward their home in Altadena, Vanessa Prata and her parents rushed to prepare their car. They focused on saving irreplaceable items, like family photos and a baby doll from Vanessa’s childhood.
But they didn’t leave.
Instead, the Pratas have remained in their family home of 27 years, which somehow still stands amid the widespread devastation caused by the Los Angeles wildfires, even as homes just a block away burn. As residents who fled are turned away by police or army checkpoints, Ms. Prata and her father took it upon themselves to check on their neighbours’ homes.
“They are sitting in these shelters. They are not sure whether their home has survived or not,” Ms. Prata said. “Once you know what the situation is, you have the ability to regroup and see what you are going to do moving forward.”
The fires burning around Los Angeles have consumed an area larger than San Francisco. Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. Since the fires first started Tuesday, they have burned more than 12,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and some vehicles, and killed at least 16 people. The White House said Saturday that the Defense Department is making its nearby bases available for emergency shelter, including more than 1,000 beds available.
Ms. Prata, a 25-year-old nursing student, stopped at a hardware store on her way home after dinner Tuesday night when she saw flames approaching the house where she lives with her parents, two cats and a dog. She called her father, then ran home while several other people headed in the other direction to evacuate.
At home, the Pratas were crowded frantically, in the dark as soon as the power went out. But Vanessa’s father, Aloisio Prata, who studies electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California, didn’t want to go. He didn’t think the fire would reach them, but if it did, he wanted to stay and help fight it.
They spent most of the night in a house down the street, carrying buckets of water, spraying the yard with a hose, and trampling embers before they scattered in strong gusts of wind.
As the toll of the bushfires became clear, Ms Prata saw many people doing what they could to help those who had lost their homes. They were donating food, clothing, household goods and pet supplies. Taco trucks from Los Angeles were offering free meals.
Ms. Prata stayed home, and her family sometimes ran a borrowed generator to check the news and keep the refrigerator cool. She wanted to help too. But there was little she could do from behind the barrier. If she left her neighborhood, she wouldn’t be allowed to return.
So, on Friday morning, Ms. Prata posted to the Altadena community group on Facebook, offering the only thing she could think of that might help.
“We are more than happy to walk around and take a photo for anyone who wants to see their house, or, God forbid, what’s left of their house,” she wrote.
Applications poured in — as many as 45 by Saturday morning. She and her father set out on Friday to check the addresses written in a small notebook. They slowly make their way through fallen trees, downed wires, and the husks of burning cars.
Of the more than two dozen homes they visited on Friday and Saturday, less than half were still standing. At the end of a dead end road, accessible only after getting out of the car and walking past fallen trees and electricity poles; The ruins of one of the houses were still burning. One person whose house burned sent her a photo of what it looked like before the fire.
“These things are devastating, when you get to the person’s house and they’re gone, and you know you’re the one who’s going to break the news,” she said. “You look at the cremated ashes and then they send out [a photo of] The house was so beautiful before. Which is that there are no, there are no words. You just say, you know, “I’m sorry.” I wish there was more I could do for you.
She added that her training as a nurse made her a good candidate for this job.
“I’m not new to people crying or dying in front of me,” she said. “I have the ability to handle it.”
She is happy to be part of the community effort. A large number of volunteers showed up to help at nearby donation centers on Saturday, leading to some turning away.
“Everyone is participating and doing what they can,” Ms. Prata said. “It’s very beautiful to see.”
This story was reported by the Associated Press.