LA fires spared homeowners dealing with survivor's guilt. 'Can't allow myself to be happy'
LOS ANGELES – Days after evacuating from Pacific Palisades, Maria Alden said, she was watching a TV news report about the wildfires.
“They zoom into this house, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, that's my house,’ “ Alden, 67, told USA TODAY
The three-story home was the only one still standing on her block, and it became part of a curious phenomenon during the raging fires that consumed more than 12,000 buildings across Los Angeles: lone houses that survived while those around them burned to the ground.
“I'm living with this kind of survivor’s guilt, to tell you the truth,’’ said Alden, who evacuated Jan. 7 with thousands of other residents. “I can't even allow myself to be happy about it.’’
Lynn McIntyre, whose home was the only one to survive on a block about a 1/2 mile from Alden’s, said, “You don’t want to be that one person. I'm afraid of what reaction you get."
A chat group has been formed to help homeowners like Alden and McIntyre, according to Maryl Georgi, whose house stands amid a charred neighborhood about 1-1/2 miles from McIntyre’s.
Georgi, a 57-year-old interior designer, said she fell to her knees and cried upon learning her house still had survived.
“How do you even navigate that,’’ Georgi said, “to know that you have just felt the greatest sense of relief and gratitude ever and you're looking at someone who you care about and has been absolutely devastated.
“So people with homes that are still standing are communicating to figure out how best to support families that have lost their homes.’’
No easy answers
The lone-standing homes have prompted a lone-standing question amid the rubble.
Why?
Why did these homes survive when so many others were engulfed by the flames?
Los Angeles Fire Captain Jeff Brown considered the question this week outside of Fire Station No. 69 in Pacific Palisades.
Other common denominators: stucco roofs and no exposed wood.
And, Brown said, in some cases a fire engine just happened to be in position to save a single house.
Fire Captain Brett Klemme said the wind pattern protected some homes when fire was blown in another direction.
McIntyre, who said she lives with her 29-year-old daughter, cited “divine intervention" and Pellegrino water.
“A friend of mine talked his way in (to the Palisades) on Wednesday and watched the house behind me just go down in flames and my house was still standing," she said.
In her backyard, though, a utility pole was ablaze, the flames threatening to spread.
“The only thing he could find was Pellegrino water, and he used Pellegrino water to put out the fire.’’
Georgi speculated that her slate roof might have helped, and watering the lawn and hosing things down before she, her partner and one of her two grown sons left.
Alden pointed out her house is concrete. Still, she added, “It's mostly luck.’’
They have homes, but still challenges
Houses spared from destruction does not mean the owners were spared from challenges.
“I have no water and I have no electricity and I have no gas,’’ McIntyre said.
She also has no access to her house.
Official have yet to announce when residents will be able to return to their homes.
Alden says a FEMA employee told her it would take 16 to 18 months to clean up the affected area. For now, Alden said, she’s staying with her partner at his place in Santa Monica.
McIntyre said she and her daughter are staying in a hotel. And, during a phone interview with USA TODAY Thursday, McIntyre said she was shopping for clothes at Target. She's not sure about reimbursement. Or much of anything.
“I don't know if I'm getting that back,’’ she said. “I don't know what my insurance is going to cover. I don't know anything."
Alden said she was getting pushback from her insurance company. They told her she probably wouldn’t even meet her $28,000 deductible because her house is standing, according to Alden.
“I was like, you guys are idiots,’’ Alden said. “Do you even understand that this is a war zone in there? What are you going to do, put me back in my house and have me breathe all that stuff in?’’
Georgi lit up and seemed blissfully free of stress over any looming problems – at least for a moment, while talking about what was found behind her house.
Her two chickens were right where she left them when she evacuated with one of her two grown sons and her partner, according to Georgi.
“And they’re alive,’’ she said. “It’s like, how is that even possible?’’
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