Darrin Hurwitz began packing up the most sentimental belongings in his home, including a few family antiques, a handful of works of art, and his two daughters’ favorite stuffed animals, as smoke began to creep closer to his Pacific Palisades home in California on Tuesday morning.
Not much else could be grabbed in time. Hurwitz’s most prized possession—the lives of his family—was in danger when the neighboring Palisades Fire, one of several wind-whipped fires sweeping throughout Southern California, abruptly surged.
Within ten to twenty minutes, not a single fire was present. Hurwitz told Chris Jansing of MSNBC on Wednesday that there were several fires because embers were kind of crisscrossing the area. Because of the intensity of the fire, we determined that we had to leave our home as soon as possible.
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Many people were caught off guard by the fire’s explosive spread over vast areas of Pasadena, Altadena, Sylmar, and the Pacific Palisades, which forced emergency services to operate at full capacity and gave residents little notice to escape. Over 80,000 residents were suddenly compelled to leave, with some fleeing on foot after abandoning their vehicles on the Pacific Coast Highway.
Authorities say at least five people have been killed by the region’s three main flames, which are fueled by dry conditions and are at 0 percent containment as of Wednesday afternoon. With over 15,800 acres burned, the Palisades Fire is the largest fire, followed by the Eaton Fire, which has burned 10,600 acres. According to CAL FIRE’s website, 505 acres have been burned in the Hurst Fire.
Hurwitz was working from home on Tuesday morning when he began to notice smoke plumes from the Palisades Fire outside. He claimed that his kids, who were eleven and nine years old, were in school a mile and a half away, and it soon became apparent that he had to go pick them up.
Hurwitz packed up additional belongings, such as clothing, a laptop, and the family’s pets, Wolfy the hamster and Lily the rescue dog. Hurwitz became aware of how much he and his wife were leaving behind as they walked out of the house. However, he went on, “Our house and our belongings are one thing.” What was most important were our lives, the lives of our children, our pets, and ourselves. We also wanted to avoid taking any chances.
About 60 miles up the coast in Ventura, the family is lodging with relatives. Although they won’t be able to know the full extent of the devastation until they return, they are afraid that their home is among the roughly 1,000 buildings that were burned in the Palisades Fire.
As they escaped the flames, other evacuees had to make similar choices about what to bring. Mallory Sobel, a resident of the Pacific Palisades Highlands community, stated that she only brought her family’s passports and a bag of emergency supplies with her when she left. Before starting what ended up being a two and a half-hour drive to leave the neighborhood, where houses were covered in dense smoke, she was tempted to take pictures as well.
Naturally, I wanted to save a lot of stuff around the house, but Sobel claimed it was all too intense. I had to go.
Rabbi Mendy Piekarski hurried to evacuate a Chabad Lubavitch synagogue and cultural center in neighboring Topanga on Wednesday. After contacting the parents of 25 preschool-aged children there, he and his colleagues were able to get all of the children picked up and transported out of the evacuation area in less than an hour.
Piekarski claimed that before departing the premises, he and his spouse wrapped the bundles of parchment in tallit, a fringed fabric worn as a prayer shawl, and loaded the Chabad’s holy Torah scrolls into their car.
He remarked, “We made sure to bring them to a safe location outside Topanga because we cherish them very much and they are very valuable.” Although we were pressed for time, we would have loved to bring other sacred items, such as prayer books. The Torah scrolls and our family were the most valuable items to take.
He wished he had taken more.
However, he stated that safety comes first.
Hurwitz concurs.
We are not defined by our belongings. He asserted that our experiences and family ties define who we are. At the same time, we acknowledge that it’s simply a lot of disruption, particularly for our children.
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