Louis-David Najar “has nothing left”. His house. His workshop. His motorcycles. His photography studio. The Los Angeles fires took everything from him. Living in Altadena since 2018, this Frenchman, born in New York to Colombian parents in 1983 and naturalized at the age of 25, is now fighting to rebuild himself with the help of a crowdfunding campaign on the GoFundMe site.
His house in Altadena destroyed by the Eaton Fire, Louis-David Nadjar restored it and set up his chain stitch embroidery workshop, an artisanal technique carried out with machines dating from 1870. Despite his distress, he
How did the fire happen? Did you receive an evacuation order?
It all happened last Monday. There were very strong winds and I could see damage in my garden. I spent the day without Internet, without electricity. But it didn’t start burning right away. At 7 p.m., my neighbor ran to my house to tell me that we absolutely had to leave as quickly as possible. I didn’t have an alert, I didn’t have a notification, I didn’t have a message, because I had no network, no Internet, no electricity.
There, I went up to my roof, I saw the line of fire. I saw him moving in my direction. And then I panicked, and I collected some things. I got in my car and left. The next day I tried to return home in the morning. And there was so much smoke that it wasn’t possible. And in the afternoon, I was finally able to return and I saw that there was nothing left.
How are you handling the situation today?
I live a bit day by day. In terms of accommodation, I rely on people I know here, who open their doors to me to give me either a piece of sofa, a bed or a spare room. In terms of work, I want to tell you that I have more, since I no longer have tools, no more workshop. I have nothing left. So for now, life is a bit on hold, with the desire to return home so I can maybe pick up some tools or some motorcycle parts.
-I’ve never really wondered what it feels like to experience a real disaster. Growing up in France, I saw people losing their homes in floods, in fires, people losing family members. But it’s me who finds myself today at the bottom of the wave, I’m a little stunned. I’m happy to be alive but I’m also very scared. I’m afraid of the future and I’m afraid of having lost everything, of having lost my investment. Somehow, I have the impression that time is frozen and that the future has become very uncertain.
What will be the next step for you?
I feel deep down that I only have two options. Option 1: I let myself die, I despair, I give up, I give up, I tell myself that life is over. Option 2: I imagine an even more pharaonic and even more incredible project and I give everything to achieve it, whether it means rebuilding myself, moving again, starting a new life elsewhere, perhaps returning to France to do a gastronomic project, I I don’t know anything about it.
Find our file on the fires in Los Angeles
Many people tell me that I will get back up, that I will, that I am courageous, but I want to tell you… Frankly, it’s not easy. Today, my brain is mostly busy surviving, breathing, drinking water, going back to running to relax a little. Unfortunately, the air quality is really bad.
