Even if you don’t know anyone in the Los Angeles area, the pictures and stories from the fire zone are hard to wrap your mind around — the kind of utter devastation to lives and property that is practically incomprehensible.
Sydney Rusch and Riley Buoen know the area well.
“We grew up in Pasadena. So yeah, my whole life I’ve lived there," Buoen said.
“I’m from South Pasadena, which is more south, but anyone from the area knows that South Pasadena, Pasadena, Altadena, I feel like we’re really just from one community," Rusch said.
One community that’s been devastated. Especially Altadena. Block after block of homes and businesses, reduced to ashes and rubble.
In the early hours of the fires, reliable information was hard to come by. Dread and worry filled the vacuum.
“We couldn’t get a hold of his (Buoen's) mom for several hours, and that was very concerning," Rusch said.
Fortunately, Buoen's mom was OK. But the other news that started coming in wasn’t.
“My grandparents’ house unfortunately burned to the ground," Buoen said.
His grandparents sent him a video showing only the chimney still standing. "The rest, it was all just leveled, and a majority of my friend’s houses burned down too," he said. "I think only one of my friends’ houses survived, and every one … all those that lived up there, there’s just nothing left."
Rusch added, “We were just there for Christmas and celebrating. It’s just unbelievable. Riley’s mom’s boyfriend also lost his home. He’s a single dad with a 9-year-old daughter."
But the news from up north wasn’t all bad.
“My grandpa lives right by the Rose Bowl so his home is still under warning. Fortunately, it’s OK," said Rusch.
Now, they are here in San Diego, trying to come to terms with what’s happened in L.A.
“It almost feels like unreal a little bit. Like the only things I’ve been able to see are through my phone really, a little screen, and descriptions from my family," Buoen said. "I think once things start to calm down, and I go up there and visit and help any way I can, it’ll start to hit me a lot more, just seeing the community ... and the businesses that we’d go up and enjoy all being gone."
Rusch and Buoen said when they make that trip, they’ll be taking everything they can think; supplies of all sorts.
But the most important thing will be just being there. Two San Diegans, exemplary of the ties that bind so many of us to our friends and family in the LA area, holding strong — and more important now than ever.
