Many within the Biola community are local to the Los Angeles and Pasadena area and suffered because of the fires ravaging the region over the past two weeks. Students affected shared their experiences, feelings and stories about the fires.
STUDENT STORIES
Hillary Ramirez, a junior cinema and media arts (CMA) major, described her experience when the fires began on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
“As someone who has lived here my whole life, I have never experienced anything like this, especially in January,” Ramirez said. “Tuesday night’s winds were terrifying. Houses shook, trees fell, and the sirens went off. On Tuesday night, we were driving home from getting my aunt, who was evacuated, when we passed by Sylmar and literally saw it going up in flames. So many of my family’s friends have been evacuated or lost their homes.”
She added her thoughts on the discourse around Los Angeles.
“People may have different opinions on LA, but it is still our home. Places that hold beloved memories are now ashes. It’s all so heartbreaking for everyone,” Ramirez said.
Amanda Arias, a junior business major from Duarte, evacuated from her house, which was close to the Eaton Fire, on Jan. 8.
She said that she and her family made the decision to evacuate despite not receiving evacuation orders even though the fire was close.
“I heard an announcement outside telling my area to evacuate,” said Arias. “My street was one street away from the evacuation line, so we were not ordered to evacuate. However, I figured we shouldn’t risk anything by waiting for someone to tell us to leave, and since we heard the announcement, we decided to leave along with the rest of the neighborhood.”
She described what she felt leading up to the moment of evacuation.
“My initial reaction was that I needed to get my family out to safety. My parents wanted to wait until we actually had to leave,” Arias said. “I stayed up all night Wednesday, listening in fear to the winds slamming against my already weak house. I absolutely could not sleep because I was filled with adrenaline and anxiety. I was pacing around my house, checking all the windows for any signs of fire.
Early in the morning, Arias saw the fire behind a hill near her house and did everything she could to quickly get her family evacuated.
“I ended up being awake about 40 hours straight before I could sleep, once we found safety in Brea,” Arias said. “I only brought two changes of clothing, toiletries, my favorite stuffed animal, my Bible and this semester’s Torrey books.”
Arias is a commuter and noted that the fires impact fellow commuters more directly than those living near or on campus.
“The one thing I ask of Biola is for prayer for the fires, especially for us commuters who will continue to deal with the effects during the school year. Some of us don’t know if we will have a house to commute from,” said Arias.
She stayed in Blackstone Hall for the first week of the semester and returned home on Jan. 17. Her house remained untouched by the fire but the air quality was poor and the wind blew ash all over the area.
Dexter Cornwell, a sophomore CMA major and Pasadena resident, relayed his experience seeing the response to the Eaton Fire.
“It’s insane right now, the National Guard just pulled up and there are soldiers everywhere,” Cornwell said on Jan. 10, three days after the fire began, “Looters are breaking into people’s houses and tons of people have been caught trying to start more fires — it’s crazy. There’s so much ash that it looks like snow in some places.”
He added that other residents in evacuation zones without electricity had to choose between evacuation or staying back for fear of looters breaking in. Cornwell also said that many residents preferred to protect their own homes from the fires.
“On the first night, many people were told to evacuate immediately, but some areas were only under warning …but some people refused and stayed at their homes with hoses to fight off the flying embers,” said Cornwell. “Our neighbors behind us evacuated except for the dad, who stayed on his roof with a hose all night and extinguished embers that landed in his backyard — we might not have our house right now if it wasn’t for him.”
Others, however, lost their homes to the fires. Cornwell described the weather conditions when he and his family evacuated.
“On the night we evacuated, it was so windy you could barely stand upright. Think of a blizzard with ash instead of snow and the sky was bright orange. We left before we were even ordered to because the smoke was so bad in our house we couldn’t stay,” said Cornwell, who evacuated to his cousin’s house on Jan. 7, the day the fires began said. “We are very lucky to still have a house, sadly a lot of our neighbors and friends lost their homes. Most of these areas (Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre) are houses with families, so it is really sad to see so much devastation come to these places in particular.”
He found comfort in God’s sovereignty, but also is still praying and asking others to pray for an end to the fires.
“This is a time of grief but it’s also a time of hope;, it gives us a chance to realize how much we need God,” Cornwell said. “Sadly the fires are still going so pray that God works a miracle to put them out fast.”
He also offered a verse from the Bible: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1 ESV)
ALUMNI STORIES
Austin Green, Pasadena resident, Biola alumnus and a former managing editor for The Chimes, described how the Eaton Fire is a tragic event personal to him.
“I live in Pasadena but grew up in Altadena. My parents still live there in my childhood home and they were evacuated. Our house barely survived. It was unimaginable, something I couldn’t imagine until this week,” Green said. “Altadena residents can’t go back in because the neighborhood is under lockdown to prevent looting. We know so many people personally that lost their homes.”
Many Los Angeles residents have claimed that they have never seen fires this destructive as the ones happening now. Green is no exception.
“It’s not just the worst fire in my lifetime — my parents have lived in LA for 35 years and by far this is the worst they have seen,” Green said. “Basically the sky is all smoke from where I am. I haven’t gone out all day and I can smell smoke from the inside. Air quality is horrible and probably will stay that way for a good while.”
Green reflected on the fires and his parents’ evacuation, revealing that many Altadena residents have lived in the area for a long time, but the fires have forced some to move.
“It was traumatic. My parents and I are some of the more fortunate ones where our homes are still standing and we know our friends and neighbors who have lost everything,” Green said. “Hit home for me, a lot of homeowners [in Altadena] are people that moved in a long time ago before property prices shot up, they’re older and maybe underinsured and maybe not have the means to rebuild and even the time. We have one 80-year-old neighbor with no family and all she has left is her home and community in Altadena. The Altadena I grew up in is gone after this week, some people are deciding to just pull out, take the insurance money and go somewhere else more affordable.”
Joseph Otoshi, a Biola alumnus and Pasadena resident, said that although his neighborhood was safe from the Eaton Fire, that was the closest he had ever seen flames get to his house.
“On the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 7, we had wind gusts sometimes exceeding 60 mph,” said Otoshi. “They were among some of the strongest winds I have ever seen at my house. Huge branches fell on our roof and near the walls of our house. It was very noisy, especially when large gusts shook the entire house and whistled through the power lines.”
He went on to describe the anxiety and fear the fires caused.
“Around 6:30 PM when my family and I were watching the winds from our windows, we noticed a large orange glow a few miles north, towards the hills. This was one of the few times I legitimately started to feel panic. Our family quickly thought about evacuating. We checked the news for most of the night, tracking the Eaton Fire’s progress. For me, it was nearly a sleepless night,” said Otoshi. “When I woke up late the next morning, I saw that our neighborhood and backyard was a disaster — it looked almost like a warzone, similar to a bad windstorm we got in 2011.”
Otoshi added that the strong winds caused trees to fall and the air was filled with so much smoke. He and his mother decided to join his father at a hotel an hour away. Although they were able to return home a few days later, Otoshi suffered from the effects of smoke inhalation.
Similar to many others, he felt survivor’s guilt because he, his family and house were safe from the fire.
“Of course, the nerves and panic went away when we left for the hotel, and I am very grateful that my house is safe, our family is safe, and all my neighbors and close friends in the area are safe too,” said Otoshi. “It’s a blessing to see how the Lord has protected us in His incredible mercy and goodness. But at the same time, I almost feel guilty for being a ‘survivor’ and being safe when I know that at least six different family friends from childhood completely lost everything. They are safe, but they have to start from ground zero after evacuating in only a few minute’s notice and then losing their homes and nearly all their belongings. It’s almost like I wish I could do something to show that I don’t deserve to be protected either. But I’m grateful at the same time that these families have also shown their gratitude for our own and their own safety too. So I have mixed feelings, even now.”
The fires caused a change in how Otoshi looked at life.
“The last takeaway I wanted to briefly mention is that I think this whole event has also given me a perspective shift on things as well, specifically, the finiteness of material things and life in general. Things can change in a blink of an eye, as demonstrated by these wind-driven fires. As a follower of Jesus, I can only be reminded that this earth is not my ultimate home, and so my hope should be set on eternal things and not my own possessions, including this house with which God has blessed me and my family these last 23 years,” Otoshi said.
