LOS ANGELES — Six wildfires are burning out of control in Southern California destroying entire towns. The fires have claimed at least five lives so far.
Photos: Raging wildfires burn Southern California, force thousands to evacuate
More than 100,000 people are under mandatory evacuations.
The wildfires strike a nerve with a Ross Township woman. Krystle Grandy, 35, fears for her friends in the path of the deadly fires.
Grandy’s friend shot cell phone video showing flames inching dangerously close to her home in Los Angeles County moments before she and her family evacuated Wednesday morning.
“She shot it and was like, ‘Alright we got to get out of here,’” said Grandy.
Grandy said her friend, along with her friend’s husband, toddler and dog, frantically drove several miles from the so-called Eaton Fire just north of Pasadena just to find safety and a hotel.
“It’s definitely not been easy from what I’ve heard,” she said. “There’s just not a lot of availability.”
Grandy moved back to the Pittsburgh area after living and working in the film industry in LA for several years. Many of her friends, who she met on set, have had to escape the catastrophic and out-of-control wildfires burning home after home in the Los Angeles area.
“A lot of people in the industry, especially the film industry, haven’t been really working a ton in the past year, so their resources are limited,” Grandy said. “A lot of those people are really struggling to find places to go.”
Many are terrified of what they could come home to.
“It’s really scary to think that everything you own could just be gone in a second,” said Grandy.
The 35-year-old knows the feeling.
“I just think it’s really sad,” Grandy said.
About a decade ago, she had to quickly pack up and leave her LA apartment after threatening wildfires. Till this day, Grandy keeps a bag in her car ready to go with clothes, food and water.
“There’s ash, I remember, just kind of like raining down on everything, sort of like Silent Hill, the movie,” Grandy said.
Thankfully, she was one of the lucky ones.
“It’s just, it’s eerie because you think what do you even do?” said Grandy. “You can’t even comprehend what you’re going to do if you come home and everything’s gone.”
Grandy, who’s a big animal advocate, told Channel 11′s Antoinette DelBel she wants to help out even more and is now looking to volunteer with FEMA to rescue pets left behind in LA.
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