Par
Grégory Maucorps
Published on
Jan 14, 2025 at 4:29 p.m.
“It’s harder than at the beginning, we’re starting to realize little by little. » Guillaume Patard-Legendre lost everything during the fires in California, at the beginning of January 2025. Originally from the urban area of Caen (Calvados), the 42-year-old man gradually becomes aware of nightmare that he and his family live.
They opened their bakery 5 months ago
Very young expatriate in the United StatesGuillaume arrived last summer in Los Angeles with his wife Darcy and their two daughters Léonie (3 years old) and Zoé (9 months). Setting up right next to his wife’s parents, in the small town of Altadenaat the foot of the mountains, in themetropolitan area of LA Last August, the couple created a laboratory and opened the “Pain Beurre” bakery in his garage. “We put all our energy and savings in this project. It was brand new, everything was going well, we had just spent the Christmas holidays,” says Guillaume, who met Darcy in Rouen.
“Half of the town of Altadena is in ashes”
On the night of Tuesday January 7 to Wednesday January 8, everything changed with the Eaton fire. “We knew there was a risk of forest fire in this region. A storm was forecast that evening. There were extremely violent winds, the authorities spoke of a hurricane equivalent. We could see the fire in the distance…”.
While the girls sleep, Guillaume and Darcy take turns throughout the night to see how the situation is developing and talk to their neighbors regularly. “Everyone decided to leave little by little. I spoke with a police officer around 3 a.m. who told us that there was no official evacuation order, but that it was going to happen. So we left around 3 a.m. in the family, a little further away, just by taking a few things and our passports. We thought we were going to come back. »
It was a day later that the couple and the two daughters finally migrated to San Francisco with Darcy’s family.
We lost everything, everything is in ruins, it was the apocalypse. It was burning everywhere. We’ve seen images and photos of our neighbors, it’s amazing. There are only one or two houses left standing in our neighborhood. Half of the town of Altadena is in ashes. The city will no longer be the same.
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“It’s brutal, but we are safe and sound”
A few days after the disappearance of their housethe Franco-American couple becomes aware of the harshness of events. “At the beginning, we were in a hurry, there was adrenaline. There, we realize that we have lost everything. We wonder what we are going to do. We are facing a blank pagewe have to rewrite everything, it’s complicated to live with“, concedes the native of Caen.
It’s brutal, but we’re not the only ones in this situation. Fortunately, we are all safe and sound, that’s the main thing. We don’t realize too much. The equipment is gone, I don’t care. The hardest part is that all our references and our project went up in smoke.
A week later, he now asks himself the question: “Are we going to settle back in Los Angeles, are we going to go to San Francisco or return to France?” It’s a total blur. It will take us a few weeks to make this choice and give stability to our daughters. »
A prize pool to help them
Since the tragedy, Guillaume and Darcy have received many messages of support of their customers. Darcy’s brother also launched an online donation pot on Gofundme to help them. In five days, 438 people participated, allowing the prize pool to reach more than $54,600 collected this Tuesday, January 14.
It warms my heart. We are really touched by this. We lost our house and our job, we had invested everything in it. This pot of significant amounts will allow us to rebuild something.
Guillaume and Darcy plan to come back to see their house in a few days. “There are still quite a few harmful fumes for girls in Los Angeles, but we’re going back. » Before concluding: “ Owe will obviously bounce back, but it will take time. »
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