A mother, devastated by the wildfires raging through Los Angeles, took her followers on a heartbreaking tour of the remains of her family home that was lost in the fires.
Sara Anderson and her husband Jimmy Wang from Altadena, California, lost their house yesterday in the Eaton fire.
The wildfires in Los Angeles have been spreading rapidly, fueled by strong winds that have made it difficult for firefighters to control the flames.
The family, consisting of a couple and their two young children, had to flee their historic home on Wednesday night. By the next morning, there was nothing left of their house.
Sara, who has nearly 79,000 followers on TikTok, tried to make light of the situation by posting a sarcastic video in which she showed viewers a tour of the remains of her destroyed home.
‘Hey guys , welcome to my crib’, she jokes, as she stands amid piles of rubble that would have once stood as her house.
‘Come over here’, she says, as she walks towards a damaged barbecue stove that has been strewn across the ground.
‘We can barbecue’, she says, and then walks toward an outdoor fire pit.
‘We could light a fire but I believe we already have one back here’, she says, as she points to a small flame burning in the background.
She proceeds to walk over to an orange tree and plucks off a piece off fruit. ‘Hungry?’, she tells the camera.
‘Grab an orange!’, she says, as she walks over toward a table and munches on the fruit.
‘And that’s my crib, thanks for coming’.
The clip also shows the devastation surrounding her house.
Mountains of debris can be seen in the background, as well as a vehicle that has been totally incinerated.
A GoFundMe has since been set up for Sara and her husband, who live with their two-year-old son, one-year-old daughter, and her mother-in-law – who is currently recovering from breast cancer.
The fundraiser, which was set up by Sara’s friend Samantha Perez, says that all the funds raised will directly go to the family.
The GoFundMe page explains how the family ‘only took the bare essentials’ when they evacuated their home and will now ‘need to start over in every way’.
‘The Wang family is always the first to help others and support those around them. Now it’s our turn.
‘Let’s come together and help the Wang family rebuild! Any donation amount is so appreciated and will go directly to relieving their stress over these coming months, the process of rebuilding and items they need for their family.’
The fundraiser has currently raised $8,471 of its $13,000 target.
It comes as rows of glitzy waterfront houses lay in charred ruins after the punishing blaze ripped through them.
For many, only the outlines of homes and their chimneys remained.
Paris Hilton, Anthony Hopkins, Tina Knowles, John Goodman, Candy Spelling, Milo Ventimiglia, and Miles Teller are among those whose homes were demolished.
The so-called Palisades Fire between Santa Monica and Malibu on LA’s western flank and the Eaton Fire in the east near Pasadena already rank as the most destructive in Los Angeles history, consuming more than 34,000 acres (13,750 hectares) – or some 53 square miles.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told a press conference late last night that he expected the death toll of 10 to grow rapidly.
‘It looks like an atomic bomb dropped in these areas. I don’t expect good news, and we’re not looking forward to those numbers,’ Luna said, as reports of horrific deaths endured by those trapped emerged.
The government has not yet released figures on the cost of the damage, but private forecaster AccuWeather estimated the economic loss at $135 billion to $150 billion, portending an arduous recovery and soaring homeowners’ insurance costs.
