'It's an apocalypse': Families return to homes reduced to ruins by LA fires
'It's an apocalypse': Families return to homes reduced to ruins by LA fires
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More than 20,000 people who evacuated the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday have watched on TV for three days as their neighbourhood has burned without respite. They have heard the statistics - about more than 50% of the buildings here being reduced to rubble. But it is not sufficient preparation for what they will see in real life.
"I've been telling everyone to brace themselves for this moment," says Rachel Darvish, a lawyer who has lived in Pacific Palisades her whole life. My team and I ride in a car with her as she returns for the first time since wildfire ripped through this community.
LA fires latest: Number of dead doubles as a blaze is investigated as possible arson. The first place we stop is her modest childhood home where she lived until she was nine. It's now a mound of dust and twisted metal, only a gate on to the pavement still standing.
"People think the Palisades are full of celebrities," she says. "But this is where hardworking families come so that the kids can be by the beach and have a good life.". She points across the road to another house which is now contorted by fire and covered in ash.
"That's where I would spend July 4th at my neighbour's," she says. "We would go round to use their pool. I have the best memories here.". As Rachel is talking she is interrupted by a deafening alarm from her phone. "It's another emergency evacuation order," she says. "This time for Malibu.".
