Altadena family of 4 stays brave in face of devastating wildfires: ‘What I love is gone’

Despite ​​losing everything in the devastating and still raging Los Angeles County In the wake of this week’s wildfires, the family of Daisy-Suarez Giles returned to survey the wreckage of their burned-out home, where her two boys were delighted to find a couple of their toys among the rubble.

Suarez-Giles, a three-time business owner, said they ironically moved into their Altadena, Californiahome because during the COVID pandemic they lived above a pharmacy where someone tried to burn the building down in the middle of the night.

“Right after COVID, we left downtown Los Angeles when there were a lot of protests and riots going on. We left because the building we lived in had a Help Rite downstairs and people were trying to burn the Help Rite down, you know. So we ran down and put out the fire with a fire extinguisher because they were trying to burn the building,” Suarez-Giles said. “And I had my youngest, Lucas, who was only six months old, and I was like, ‘They’re going to burn us down here alive”, so we had to get out.

“I told my husband, ‘We’ve got to find a way to find money and get a new house because we just can’t stay here; they are going to burn us here with our children.’ And we ran from that to be here, and then we burned out of our house,” she added, fighting back tears.

Suarez-Giles said their home came about through hard work, determination and a desire to keep their family safe.

The family learned of the raging fires mid-afternoon on Tuesday, but although wary, they weren’t sure at first if they should evacuate, even as they saw neighbors leaving and moving horses and animals away from the affected area. Eaton Fire.

Eventually, Suarez-Giles said, around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, they decided it was best to wake up her boys, Henry and Lucas, grab a few essentials and sleep in the car just in case.

“We woke them up at 1:30, so technically we didn’t leave until 2, because it took us a little while to, you know, pack anything and get out, and three hours later the house was gone, – she said.

When Suarez-Giles woke her family to leave, she said that’s when the realization of what was happening upset the boys.

“Henry was really upset about it. He was really crying. Lucas was scared when the fire was coming. There was a lot of panic, especially with two young children. Lucas was crying,” she said. “He was very panicked when I woke him up. I said, ‘we’ve got to go baby, the fire’s coming.'”

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Henry, who was interviewed by a reporter while responding to the fire Thursday as he stood by his mother’s side, recounted the terrifying moments that led to the loss of his home, clutching the two only things he had left in this world.

“And then the power went out, yeah, and then we, and then we were going to pick up our dad, but he was walking. Then we got power, flashlights, they’re so good, and I went and they woke us Up, me and my brother and we left our house,” said Henry. “And then we had no idea that our house would burn like this. And many things we left in our house, and they burned down and we had a 3D printer and it was so special to me and it would make me a little sad but I don’t know why but that’s what happened to our house.

“And a lot of things that I love are gone. And now everything is broken, and everything has lost its color and so on. And that’s the only thing I have.”

Suarez-Giles said the power later went out, and that’s when the panic started. Her youngest son, Lucas, began to cry.

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“He started freaking out and then my husband went and got some flashlights and then Henry was very brave, he was helping us pack. I said, let’s get everything ready so we can go, and you know,” she said. “At about 11 we were still in the house and they said, ‘Oh, we’re tired, we want to sleep.’ They were tired and I said, “Okay guys, you can go to bed, I’m just not going to sleep.”

Suarez-Giles said her family wasn’t the only one in the house when the fire closed in. A teacher from her son’s school was renting a room in their house, and he didn’t leave until it was too late.

“The fire woke him up. My husband tried to, you know, tell him to go, but he was aware of everything that was going on because the school was in touch with all the teachers and stuff,” she said. “He didn’t think much of it and said he almost got burned because the fire was coming through the windows.”

For his part, brave Henry wanted to return to the site of his former home to confirm what had been broken and see what remained.

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“I wanted to check it and see if it was broken, and my father took a video (to show) that it was broken,” he said. “We went so we know what happened and it was our chimney where Santa comes and now he’s gone. Now we can no longer receive gifts here.’

The Eaton, Palisades, Kennett, Hearst Fire and Lydia fires have burned more than 35,000 acres, with the Eaton and Palisades fires claiming at least 11 lives, according to Los Angeles County officials.