A classic Rolex watch case in green leather. A painting by Alekos Fassianos. A hard drive filled with family photos. Phone chargers and laptops. Essential items like medications and passports, and a few pieces of clothing.
Most importantly, the pets.
How to live in ‘a town that doesn’t really exist’?
After evacuating her Pacific Palisades home this week, Tricia Consentino reflected on the escape.
“I just grabbed like the dumbest stuff and now I’m sitting here wondering why I didn’t take all the other stuff,” she told CNN on Thursday.
Many people barely managed to grab anything during the chaos. One person even picked up dog and cat food in their rush to escape, forgetting the cat’s medication in the process and reminding their son to take his own medication.
Expressing her devastation, one individual lamented the loss of not just material possessions but also the intangible: cherished memories, connections with others, and the sense of home. The emotional toll of losing everything you’ve built and experienced in a familiar place is profound and hard to grasp.
The fire destroyed the building that housed the Kumon Math and Reading Center of Pacific Palisades, an after school academic program run by Consentino.
“I lost the building of my business, but I am my business,” she said. “I’ve been on the phone with the parents that I work for. And so many of my students have lost their homes. They have lost their schools.”
Consentino and her family consider themselves fortunate. Their home remains standing.
“The question now will be, how do we live in a town that doesn’t really exist,” she said.
