Katherine Turman
Amid the devastatingLos Angeles wildfires, there have been many harrowing stories of residents in the impacted areas evacuating to safety with nothing more than a few belongings and questions of whether their homes would be still standing when they return.
One of those evacuees is journalist and authorKatherine Turman, who only relocated back to her native California less than a year ago.
In this first-person account, told to PEOPLE’s David Chiu, Turman recalls spending time in the Pacific Palisades as a youth, the tense moments surrounding her evacuation during the Eaton fire and the scenes in her neighborhood upon her return days later.
I moved to the Pasadena/Altadena border, an area called East Washington Village, in May 2024 from Brooklyn, New York. My house is about 40 miles from Pacific Palisades.
I grew up in Brentwood, on L.A.’s Westside, near San Vicente and Barrington, and went to Paul Revere Middle School, which is at the base of Mandeville Canyon. Kids from Revere go either to Palisades High or University High. I went to Uni.
As a teen in the late ‘70s and ‘80s I was a polo groom and rode horses daily at Will Rogers State Park in the Palisades and spent tons of time in the Palisades at friends' houses, the Bay Theater, Will Rogers State Beach and Topanga Canyon.
We rode horses throughout the Santa Monica Mountains that later burned.
I was horrified watching the news of the Palisades fire on Tuesday, Jan. 7, as the crazy winds blew everything around me in Pasadena — umbrellas, lawn chairs and trash cans went flying. But the fire was so far away from me and blowing toward the beach, so I felt fine.
Katherine Turman on a horse named Buddy, at Will Rogers State Park in the late ’70s.Katherine Turman
Then I got a panicked late phone call from my friend, and landlady, Claire, who lives about a half mile from me. Her voice was shaking and she said, “There’s a fire near us. Can we evacuate to your place?!” It was about 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. I was shocked.
I ran outside. I could smell the fire and looked behind my house and could see the flames in the not-too-far distance. I took a photo and pounded on my neighbors’ door to alert them.
I started grabbing my stuff and my heart was racing. I ended up with jeans and some shirts I never wear; my medicine, laptop, chargers and passport; a few photos of my mother and of my late cat, along with an envelope of her fur; and a framed photo of my maternal grandparents.
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I put my cat, Matt Dillon, in a carrier and got very scratched up in the process; she felt my fear. I felt like I was just running around my house in a panic not knowing what to do.
I loaded into my car with three small grocery-style bags of stuff and my cat carrier — and went to the retirement home, where I helped get Claire’s parents, on walkers, into her car, and her whole family went to a hotel.
Then, perhaps inadvisably, I went back to my house to grab a few family heirlooms I’d thought about. The power had gone out in our neighborhood. and as I turned onto my block, a power line was down and a tree had fallen, blocking our street.
I pulled up my car to the tree, jumped out, and ran to my house down the block using my phone’s flashlight. I grabbed a few more family heirlooms dating back to the 1800s, including a silver box full of family birth and death announcements; black-and-white photos; and newspaper clippings, and ran back to my car.
As I was in traffic — all the stoplights were out — exiting Pasadena and headed to a friend in the west side of L.A., I got the evacuation alert on my phone. Tree limbs were falling and a few embers were overhead, and when I was outside the car, I understood the term “firestorm,” though we were at least a mile or more from the actual fire.
It was very scary, but I knew I would get out okay.
Facebook has been my lifeline to see how everyone is doing. I’m also on a text chain with my neighbors in Altadena/Pasadena and Claire’s family and friends in the neighborhood. Several music business people I know personally lost their homes in my general area. They posted videos of the wreckage, their cars just shells at the curb.
My childhood friend from the horse world lost his home; his entire mobile home park on the Palisades/Malibu border burnt to the ground.
He was trying to walk along the Pacific Coast Highway to see the damage but told me the smoke was too bad for him to continue even as he wore a mask. But he’d been sent pictures and lamented not grabbing a college keepsake from his late mother, who was also my friend.
Other childhood friends in the Palisades lost their childhood homes and all their photos.
A photo of Katherine Turman (R) and her mother Antonia at Will Rogers State Park in the late 1970s.Katherine Turman
I saw that the Will Rogers house [his historic ranch home] had burned to the ground. I spent so many formative years there, in the house, and horseback riding the grounds. In fact, in 1978, when I was 14 or 15, we rescued the horses from a fire at Will Rogers.
Our horses were in the “cheap stalls,” far up in the canyons. During that fire, our tack room burned to the ground, but the Will Rogers house and fancy “show horse” barn survived. This time they didn’t. Forty-seven years later, I still have a charred bridle bit I took from our burned tack room.
Two of my Altadena/Pasadena neighbors on my actual block went back Wednesday morning [Jan. 8] and took video — our block was safe. There have beenreports of lootingand apparently two of our neighbors are at their homes keeping an eye out. We have no power in our area, and there’s an advisory that tap water is not drinkable, even after boiling.
A scene from Altadena on Jan. 9 in the wake of the Eaton Canyon Fire.Katherine Turman
But within half a mile of my house, houses and businesses were burning.
I watched my Bank of America branch burn on the local news. A new foodie restaurant, Bernee, just opened that the area and people weresoexcited, and from what I can see, the entire block of longstanding and beloved local businesses is gone.
On Wednesday, we drove to the Santa Monica Pier to look at Malibu. It was surreal seeing zero cars on the Pacific Coast Highway, and the tourists taking photos, having no idea their California vacation would turn out like this.
From some places we drove in Palms, you could see flames on the hillsides in the Palisades in the distance. In the morning, the sky was yellow-orange and helicopters flew overhead in small groups making it feel like a war zone.
I was texting with friends on the East Coast as well as local friends who had lost homes.
The scene in Altadena amid the Eaton Canyon fire on Jan. 9, 2025.Katherine Turman
Trees were down, and power lines down, and a very light “ash rain” was coming down. Some neighbors were milling around.
I have places I can stay and my cat is safe, and so many have lost so much.
My friends in the San Gabriel Valley say people in markets, etc., seem like they’re in shock and walking around like zombies. I’m supposed to be working, but it’s impossible to focus. My heart is so heavy and sad for my Southern California birthplace.
It is beyond surreal, and I think everybody is in shock. Friends and I are now feeling “survivor’s guilt,” but we’ll channel that empathy into action to help out our community wherever possible in the coming days, weeks, months, and, I’m sure, unbelievably, years.
source: people.com
