Fire in California: “It’s hell, there’s nothing left,” says a Quebecer who had to flee her home in Los Angeles

After fleeing their house located in the heart of a burned neighborhood in Los Angeles, Quebecers live in the terrible anguish of knowing if their house was also destroyed by the flames.

“It’s hell. There’s nothing left. There is nothing left,” says Nathalie Benoit, a Quebecer whose house was in the middle of one of the biggest fires declared in Los Angeles since Tuesday.

With her partner and their two children, Ms. Benoit had lived in the Palisades for 21 years.

“There are no more schools, no more shops. There are no more friends. All our friends lost their homes. We lost our community,” saddens Ms. Benoît, whose acquaintances are all already planning to leave California.

At the time of writing, Ms. Benoit still did not know if her house was still standing.

Just in time

The latter was playing pétanque with friends on Tuesday morning when the fire broke out.

“One of my friends shouted to me: “Nathalie! Fire! » and I left to run home to get my son, put what I could in the car and leave,” she says.

“The fire started at 10:30 a.m., at 11:12 a.m. I was in my car trying to escape and at 12:09 p.m. the evacuation order was issued: it was a disaster,” she continues.

Because of the feeling of panic, Ms. Benoit and her son found themselves stuck on the only street allowing evacuation which was crowded.

“I counted, there were seven fire trucks that couldn’t get through. We had a light on the right and then we saw that another light was starting to the left of us,” she remembers.

Unthinkable

Since Tuesday, Ms. Benoît still has difficulty realizing that all this happened so quickly.

“It’s incomprehensible that everything is destroyed. We never thought that the fire would really destroy everything,” she says.

“On Wednesday, a friend sent me a photo of the house and it looks like it’s still there, but it certainly won’t be habitable,” explains the woman who stayed with Quebec friends living an hour from Los Angeles. .

With her family, she now fears returning to her neighborhood and finding only ashes around her.

“I think when we go back to the village, it will hit us. It has nothing to do with TV,” she says.