Harel Dor and Finn O’Brien were just finishing up dinner at a restaurant in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday evening, when a friend texted them about an evacuation warning. A severe windstorm had spread what became the Eaton fire to the hills behind their home.
“Driving back up the house it was already feeling apocalyptic, with downed trees and visibility getting worse,” Dor said. As the couple returned to the house to evacuate their two cats, they could see the flames in the distance. Dor, who works nearby at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says while some co-workers have lost their homes, they don’t know if their apartment has survived the blaze.
“The emotions haven’t arrived yet,” Dor said. “A lot of it is just numbness and shock at the events unfolding.”
The hills around Los Angeles have become an inferno. Days after forecasters warned of dangerous fire weather conditions, twin blazes — driven by 100 mph winds — began raging across some of Southern California’s most expensive neighborhoods, sending thousa... Read more
