Unfortunately, many individuals perished either because they were unable to evacuate or chose to stay and protect their residences in Altadena, a neighborhood close to Pasadena primarily populated by working and middle-class families.
LOS ANGELES — At least 24 people have died and thousands of structures were burned as fierce wildfires raged in the Los Angeles area.
Among the casualties were four men and one woman who either could not flee in time or opted to defend their properties in Altadena, a community near Pasadena known for its working and middle-class demographics, including a significant number of Black families with deep roots in the area.
Anthony Mitchell and his son, Justin
Anthony Mitchell, a 68-year-old amputee, and his son, Justin, who has cerebral palsy, were waiting for an ambulance to come for them.
“They didn’t make it out,” said Mitchell’s daughter, Hajime White.
Reports indicate that Mitchell, one of the victims, was discovered beside his son’s bed in Altadena. According to The Washington Post, Mitchell’s family believes he was attempting to rescue his son, who is in his thirties.
“He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,” White said. White, who lives in Warren, Arkansas, and is Justin’s step-sister, said her father called her Wednesday morning and said they had to evacuate from approaching flames. “Then he said, ‘I’ve got to go — the fire’s in the yard,’” she recalled Thursday.
Another son, also in his 30s, lived with the pair but was in the hospital, and no caregivers were on hand, White said, adding “It’s very hard. It’s like a ton of bricks just fell on me.”
White didn’t respond to a Facebook message from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Victor Shaw
Victor Shaw stayed behind to try to fight the Eaton Fire and was found holding a garden hose in his hand after the blaze swept through his neighborhood.
Shari Shaw told news outlet KTLA she tried to get her 66-year-old brother to evacuate with her Tuesday night as the fire approached the home they shared. He told her he wanted to stay behind and try to fight the fire, she recalled.
“When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back, and I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm – I had to save myself,” she said. “And I looked behind me, and the house was starting to go up in flames, and I had to leave.”
A family friend, Al Tanner, told KTLA they found Victor’s charred body on the side of the road with the hose the next morning. Said Tanner, “It looks like he was trying to save the home that his parents had for almost 55 years.”
Rodney Nickerson
Rodney Nickerson, an 82-year-old Altadena resident, died in his bed after staying behind because he felt that he would be OK waiting it out at home, said his daughter, Kimiko Nickerson.
She spoke with KTLA while standing by the still smoldering remains of the family home.
She said her father had experienced his fair share of fires over the decades.
“He was gathering some things, packing up his car a bit, and he said that he was going to gather up his stuff, but he said he was going to stay here too … he said that he felt this was going to pass over and that he would be here,” she said.
Kimiko Nickerson said her father bought the home in 1968 with a $5 down payment and raised his family there.
Erliene Kelley
When the Eaton fire began spreading Tuesday night, 83-year-old Erliene Kelley did not want to evacuate because previous fires had never reached her Altadena home.
“She was adamant about staying,” her granddaughter Briana Navarro told the Los Angeles Times. “My husband kept asking her if she was sure, if she didn’t want to come with us.”
After moving from Monmouth, Ill., Kelley and her late husband, Howard, bought their house in the late 1960s and raised two kids there. Navarro said she and her husband and two kids moved in with her grandmother after their grandfather’s death. Her father, who lives 10 minutes away, also tried to get her grandmother to leave, but she refused.
Navarro and her family as well as her father evacuated the area after receiving orders to do so. She kept in constant contact with her grandmother over text, she said.
The service cut out at one point, but her grandmother sent one last text to her father in the middle of the night saying she would be evacuated.
When her father went to check on their home the next day, nothing was left of their home but rubble. Police confirmed Friday that her grandmother had passed away.
Navarro did not respond to calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
