January 28, 2025 • 14 mins
This episode reflects on the fragility of life in the face of unexpected disasters, specifically a recent house fire in the neighborhood, unveiling insights about community resilience and personal loss. How grateful are we all for first responders who risk their lives to protect others?
• Personal account of witnessing a fire truck response
• Discussion about the immediate community impact after a fire
• Encounter with a man who lost his home but maintained a positive outlook
• Reflections on climate change and fire risks in California
• Importance of recognizing the dangers of smoke
• Expression of gratitude towards first responders and their dedication
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
(00:25):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
Today I'm going to talk about,well, fire again.
(00:47):
If you've been listening tosome of my recent episodes, you
know that that's been aprevalent, prominent topic with
the fires here in Los Angeles.
Friday night this past week Icame home from doing some stuff
out and I brought dinner homefor us and I caught out of the
(01:12):
corner of my eye.
I caught the flashing redlights of a fire truck whizzing
past our house, and so I went toinvestigate towards the front
of the house and I saw that andI heard that there were more
sirens and more fire trucksgoing past us, looking quite
(01:37):
rushed, and I looked at there'sa PulsePoint app that I have.
Now there are several apps thatwill tell you what is going on
with emergency vehicles, whatnot, in your neighborhood, but
PulsePoint is free.
(01:58):
There's the Citizen app Ibelieve that there's a fee for
that so PulsePoint tells youwhat the fire department is
doing, where they're going andwhat kind of a basic call it is.
If it's fire medical assist,what have you with the address
(02:20):
usually?
So I pulled that up usually.
So I pulled that up and I sawthat it was categorized as a
house fire and it was in thenext block from us and I should
say that I was already fairlytired.
It was about coming up to nineo'clock in the evening.
(02:45):
I'd had a very long day and interms of fires, we're already
pretty much on edge.
Everyone that I know is prettymuch on edge.
So, watching and hearing allthe sirens, all the trucks go by
and there were several andhearing all the sirens, all the
(03:07):
trucks go by, and there wereseveral.
Somebody the next day countedoff that there were five fire
engines, two ambulances andthree police cars.
I think there were closer tosix engines, but I'm not going
to split hairs.
Anyway, it was categorized as ahouse fire.
I found out the next day that itwas actually a fire that was
(03:30):
outside of the house.
Either way.
To add to the complexity, whenI came home.
The porch light blew out, andso I kept walking outside to see
what was going on.
It was freezing cold, which isit's been so odd to have all
(03:56):
these fires here when it's hot,but that's where we are.
And so I was going out in thepitch black of night to see what
was going on up the street, butthen the upper part of our
(04:20):
block was bathed in red lights,flashing red lights, and it
already looked like the blockwas on fire because it was so
red.
But it wasn't.
And then I really had to laugh,because people were rushing
around the corner in their cars.
A lot of people in ourneighborhood like to speed, lot
(04:45):
of people in our neighborhoodlike to speed and so they were
rushing around the corner to to,you know, speed up the hill,
and they were met with ablockade, of course, and they
thought they would circle backand try to go around the block
the other way.
They weren't going to be ableto get through, because that's
where the fire was.
They weren't going to letanybody through.
(05:05):
So what happened was is thatthe fire department?
Because they were so swift andthey hit it so hard, so fast.
I did also hear a helicopter,just in case, because we are in
a brush area, we're in a canyonand the brush has been really,
(05:29):
really dry.
So they hit it fast, they hitit hard and the fire was out
very quickly.
And we're all very gratefulbecause before everything
happened with the fires here, Iwould have said that, you know,
there's no way that anythingwould happen like houses would
(05:53):
burn down, and watchingeverything with Pacific
Palisades and Altadena now Iknow that that's very possible.
And thank goodness it wasn'twindy Friday night.
Luck was on our side andstarting on Saturday, the next
(06:18):
day, we did start to have somelight rain.
Today is Sunday and did havesome pretty good rain.
I'm not sure the status of thefires yet, but I know that
(06:40):
they're also worried aboutmudslides.
So if it's not one thing, it'sanother other.
I was out today and I met a manwho was buying buckets and I
found out that he lived inAltadena and I asked him if he
(07:03):
was okay, because that's justwho I am, who I am, and he said
no, we lost our house, and hesaid it in a way that I really
had to give it to him.
(07:24):
He wasn't.
I'm sure he had some toughtimes, some tough days, but he
was, you know.
No, we lost our house, butwe're okay.
You know, we all got out thebaby and our dogs and cats, we
all got out, we're all okay.
But he was buying bucketsbecause they were going to start
(07:47):
going through the rubble ofwhat was left of their house to
look for their wedding rings.
And I'm not sure what happened,because a few hours later it
was pouring where we were.
It was a couple of towns over,but you know, rain is good but
(08:13):
rain makes a lot of mud.
So but he said you know, it'sokay, everything's covered by
insurance and you know, we'll,we'll, we'll manage, we'll get
by and the important thing isthat we're all, we're all okay.
And you know, I thought aboutit later.
I thought about it after heleft and I, I just wanted to sit
(08:34):
and cry.
But it's not even my house, Idon't even know him.
But wow, it's really hard tofathom the incredible amount of
loss, the incredible amount ofloss here in California,
(08:59):
especially Los Angeles.
We live in a desert and witheverything that's happened with
our climate, it's been drier.
That's not our fault.
There's been a lot of talkabout the fact that you know we
haven't let the water flow, thatthere's some sort of mysterious
(09:22):
spigot somewhere that we don'twant to turn on, that we're all,
I guess, hinting, that we'reall idiots and that we're led by
idiots.
But you know what?
That's just not the case.
We have done what we have to dohere.
(09:48):
That so many houses burned wassimply the fact that the fire
was combined with incredibleamount of wind, and they're just
it's spread so fast in so manydifferent directions, and people
(10:09):
will and you know, people thatdon't know any better will say
whatever they want to say, but,but those of us that live here
know the truth.
Um, so that's what I'm going tosay about that.
Uh, but, yes, we did get apretty good amount of rain today
(10:30):
.
I mean, pretty good for us isan inch.
I'm not sure that it's even aninch, but some places, yes, we
did get an inch of rain and and,um, I think we're all very
grateful for that, because wedon't have to be on edge anymore
that a fire is going to starthere or there.
(10:53):
We've all seen so many firesstart up from nothing, it seems.
I'm not sure if it's the powerpoles or arson, or what, but
there were so many fires thatstarted in such a short period
of time.
You have to question why thatis.
(11:15):
And no, it's not a politicalreason, it's just dry brush.
It's just what we were dealt,but the immense loss that we
have here is truly a disaster.
So with that I will say thatfire, if you've ever been around
(11:45):
a fire or you've been aroundsmoke from a fire, it can be
very deadly, very fast.
And when we were in theapartment the fire alarm went
off a lot in the building and itwas nothing Like somebody
tripped it, some kid tripped it,whatever, um, and there were a
(12:10):
lot of times when everybodyrushed out of the building, uh,
and you know, uh, there's a fire.
And we were very close to thefire department.
And so this one time I rememberthere really was a fire.
It was very small but there wasa fire and for whatever reason,
(12:32):
I thought I would.
I went down in the lobby, Iwent downstairs, we all went
downstairs and I thought I wouldjust go out into the garage,
which was on the street level,and get something out of my car,
and I opened the door and thesmoke from that fire was.
(12:53):
I didn't realize it was all inthat garage and there was
ventilation on all sides but forwhatever reason, it had
captured itself in that area andI walked a foot or two outside
the door and I realized there'snothing I could do.
(13:15):
So smoke can be just as deadlyas fire.
So you have to be respectful ofthat fact and I have to really
give it to firemen, firepersonnel, because they really
put everything they have intotheir jobs and they do such a
(13:35):
great, great job.
Thank you to all the firemenand the first responders because
they keep us safe.
So that's all I've got fortoday.
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the only child
(13:57):
diaries podcast on applepodcasts or other platforms you
might listen on and considerrating only child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
Visit my Instagram page OnlyChild Diaries or Facebook Only
(14:19):
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.
Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
I'm your host, tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
(00:25):
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.
Today I'm going to talk about,well, fire again.
(00:47):
If you've been listening tosome of my recent episodes, you
know that that's been aprevalent, prominent topic with
the fires here in Los Angeles.
Friday night this past week Icame home from doing some stuff
out and I brought dinner homefor us and I caught out of the
(01:12):
corner of my eye.
I caught the flashing redlights of a fire truck whizzing
past our house, and so I went toinvestigate towards the front
of the house and I saw that andI heard that there were more
sirens and more fire trucksgoing past us, looking quite
(01:37):
rushed, and I looked at there'sa PulsePoint app that I have.
Now there are several apps thatwill tell you what is going on
with emergency vehicles, whatnot, in your neighborhood, but
PulsePoint is free.
(01:58):
There's the Citizen app Ibelieve that there's a fee for
that so PulsePoint tells youwhat the fire department is
doing, where they're going andwhat kind of a basic call it is.
If it's fire medical assist,what have you with the address
(02:20):
usually?
So I pulled that up usually.
So I pulled that up and I sawthat it was categorized as a
house fire and it was in thenext block from us and I should
say that I was already fairlytired.
It was about coming up to nineo'clock in the evening.
(02:45):
I'd had a very long day and interms of fires, we're already
pretty much on edge.
Everyone that I know is prettymuch on edge.
So, watching and hearing allthe sirens, all the trucks go by
and there were several andhearing all the sirens, all the
(03:07):
trucks go by, and there wereseveral.
Somebody the next day countedoff that there were five fire
engines, two ambulances andthree police cars.
I think there were closer tosix engines, but I'm not going
to split hairs.
Anyway, it was categorized as ahouse fire.
I found out the next day that itwas actually a fire that was
(03:30):
outside of the house.
Either way.
To add to the complexity, whenI came home.
The porch light blew out, andso I kept walking outside to see
what was going on.
It was freezing cold, which isit's been so odd to have all
(03:56):
these fires here when it's hot,but that's where we are.
And so I was going out in thepitch black of night to see what
was going on up the street, butthen the upper part of our
(04:20):
block was bathed in red lights,flashing red lights, and it
already looked like the blockwas on fire because it was so
red.
But it wasn't.
And then I really had to laugh,because people were rushing
around the corner in their cars.
A lot of people in ourneighborhood like to speed, lot
(04:45):
of people in our neighborhoodlike to speed and so they were
rushing around the corner to to,you know, speed up the hill,
and they were met with ablockade, of course, and they
thought they would circle backand try to go around the block
the other way.
They weren't going to be ableto get through, because that's
where the fire was.
They weren't going to letanybody through.
(05:05):
So what happened was is thatthe fire department?
Because they were so swift andthey hit it so hard, so fast.
I did also hear a helicopter,just in case, because we are in
a brush area, we're in a canyonand the brush has been really,
(05:29):
really dry.
So they hit it fast, they hitit hard and the fire was out
very quickly.
And we're all very gratefulbecause before everything
happened with the fires here, Iwould have said that, you know,
there's no way that anythingwould happen like houses would
(05:53):
burn down, and watchingeverything with Pacific
Palisades and Altadena now Iknow that that's very possible.
And thank goodness it wasn'twindy Friday night.
Luck was on our side andstarting on Saturday, the next
(06:18):
day, we did start to have somelight rain.
Today is Sunday and did havesome pretty good rain.
I'm not sure the status of thefires yet, but I know that
(06:40):
they're also worried aboutmudslides.
So if it's not one thing, it'sanother other.
I was out today and I met a manwho was buying buckets and I
found out that he lived inAltadena and I asked him if he
(07:03):
was okay, because that's justwho I am, who I am, and he said
no, we lost our house, and hesaid it in a way that I really
had to give it to him.
(07:24):
He wasn't.
I'm sure he had some toughtimes, some tough days, but he
was, you know.
No, we lost our house, butwe're okay.
You know, we all got out thebaby and our dogs and cats, we
all got out, we're all okay.
But he was buying bucketsbecause they were going to start
(07:47):
going through the rubble ofwhat was left of their house to
look for their wedding rings.
And I'm not sure what happened,because a few hours later it
was pouring where we were.
It was a couple of towns over,but you know, rain is good but
(08:13):
rain makes a lot of mud.
So but he said you know, it'sokay, everything's covered by
insurance and you know, we'll,we'll, we'll manage, we'll get
by and the important thing isthat we're all, we're all okay.
And you know, I thought aboutit later.
I thought about it after heleft and I, I just wanted to sit
(08:34):
and cry.
But it's not even my house, Idon't even know him.
But wow, it's really hard tofathom the incredible amount of
loss, the incredible amount ofloss here in California,
(08:59):
especially Los Angeles.
We live in a desert and witheverything that's happened with
our climate, it's been drier.
That's not our fault.
There's been a lot of talkabout the fact that you know we
haven't let the water flow, thatthere's some sort of mysterious
(09:22):
spigot somewhere that we don'twant to turn on, that we're all,
I guess, hinting, that we'reall idiots and that we're led by
idiots.
But you know what?
That's just not the case.
We have done what we have to dohere.
(09:48):
That so many houses burned wassimply the fact that the fire
was combined with incredibleamount of wind, and they're just
it's spread so fast in so manydifferent directions, and people
(10:09):
will and you know, people thatdon't know any better will say
whatever they want to say, but,but those of us that live here
know the truth.
Um, so that's what I'm going tosay about that.
Uh, but, yes, we did get apretty good amount of rain today
(10:30):
.
I mean, pretty good for us isan inch.
I'm not sure that it's even aninch, but some places, yes, we
did get an inch of rain and and,um, I think we're all very
grateful for that, because wedon't have to be on edge anymore
that a fire is going to starthere or there.
(10:53):
We've all seen so many firesstart up from nothing, it seems.
I'm not sure if it's the powerpoles or arson, or what, but
there were so many fires thatstarted in such a short period
of time.
You have to question why thatis.
(11:15):
And no, it's not a politicalreason, it's just dry brush.
It's just what we were dealt,but the immense loss that we
have here is truly a disaster.
So with that I will say thatfire, if you've ever been around
(11:45):
a fire or you've been aroundsmoke from a fire, it can be
very deadly, very fast.
And when we were in theapartment the fire alarm went
off a lot in the building and itwas nothing Like somebody
tripped it, some kid tripped it,whatever, um, and there were a
(12:10):
lot of times when everybodyrushed out of the building, uh,
and you know, uh, there's a fire.
And we were very close to thefire department.
And so this one time I rememberthere really was a fire.
It was very small but there wasa fire and for whatever reason,
(12:32):
I thought I would.
I went down in the lobby, Iwent downstairs, we all went
downstairs and I thought I wouldjust go out into the garage,
which was on the street level,and get something out of my car,
and I opened the door and thesmoke from that fire was.
(12:53):
I didn't realize it was all inthat garage and there was
ventilation on all sides but forwhatever reason, it had
captured itself in that area andI walked a foot or two outside
the door and I realized there'snothing I could do.
(13:15):
So smoke can be just as deadlyas fire.
So you have to be respectful ofthat fact and I have to really
give it to firemen, firepersonnel, because they really
put everything they have intotheir jobs and they do such a
(13:35):
great, great job.
Thank you to all the firemenand the first responders because
they keep us safe.
So that's all I've got fortoday.
Next week we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode,please follow the only child
(13:57):
diaries podcast on applepodcasts or other platforms you
might listen on and considerrating only child Diaries and
writing a review.
It helps others to find us.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
Visit my Instagram page OnlyChild Diaries or Facebook Only
(14:19):
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.
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