LA County Fire Victims Share Their Stories: Here's How to Help

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well at two point seven Kiss FM, we have been
talking to people who've got these go fund me pages. Actually,
this is a friend of Sisiny's. We wanted to start
with all kinds of calls from people we have never
met before as well to help you get your go
fund me information out there. But this is your friend, Bonnie.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah, yeah, that's right. She grew up with Michael, my husband.
She's a family friend, has spent Thanksgivings, every Thanksgiving, every
Christmas with us, every family function with us, and she
lost her home.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Hey Bonnie, good morning, thanks for coming on with us.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hi, good morning, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
So first of all, what's Sisney like in real life?

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Oh, she's so cool and she's actually like so sweet,
Like I mean, I don't know. I joked with her
all the time, and I think I pushed the bar
a little bit. But she's just an angel. She is remarkable.
She's the best mom, she's the best a wife, she's
the best sister, she's the best Auntie's Like, she's unreal.
I don't know if she does it all.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm glad to hear that because that's what we think
of her. So I would have been a real letdown
if it were opposite, you know, like I would have been
a bummer. Yeah. I know she's been a good friend
to you. But do anybody tell us what's happening? You
lost your home, Bonnie.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Yeah, I evacuated, like within hours of this.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
This fire got so out of hand. The winds were.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Eighty miles an hour, and like, if it wasn't for
like a couple of friends that called me to like
stee if I was okay, I had no idea I
had left the house, you know, and I didn't know,
And so the winds just moved so quickly that I
was looking at my timeline because I followed this watch
study app, And if it wasn't for those radio cult timelines,
I wouldn't have known. The fire that happened two weeks

(01:44):
prior was like a false alarm for me. But it
was definitely like a prep because I downloaded the app.
My friend told me to download this app, and I
brought down my sentimental boxes for my storage, you know,
to pack my car slowly. But this time it just
was really traumatic because I had to rush back home
from doing Aaron to just you know, beg the sheriff

(02:05):
to let me pass through. And you know, my mom
passed away ten years ago, and I had her box
with sentimentals and that's like all that's important to me.
So like to be able to go back home and
still have those things with like what you know, would
have felt like this would have been somewhat traumatic for me.
But gus, like, I don't know what else to say.
I lost all my things and I have the biggest

(02:26):
network of support that I didn't even I can't believe
the way people are showing up to me. Like Sisney
was relentless about not letting me do anything, Like she
was on the phone with me all day, like what
do you need this?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Do you need that?

Speaker 4 (02:38):
And I was scanning my room for my memory of
like what I had or didn't have, and I was
telling her and like you know, her and her family
and like so many other friends have just like shown up.
Everyone's offering me their home. I'm just one of the victims,
but I consider myself a lucky one because people are
driving out of their homes and their driveway, ditching their
cars of the of things that they they wanted to
bring with them. You know that they said this is

(02:59):
coming with me, and they couldn't because they're walking down
the fire. It just happened so quick, like within minutes.
I you know, when the power shut off. This is
what really kind of struck me that last time the
power company didn't turn off the power. They turned it
off like days before. It like a little bit too premature.
But this time they weren't doing it and they didn't

(03:19):
tr up the lights. So when I it was like
five six pm, and I was like, I need to
get out of here. And then the power set off
and I didn't have my phone or my keys, and
I was crying and I was panicking. I was praying,
and I said, God, just get me out of here.
And I was touching my counter and touching things to
find my keys, my.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Flashlight, my phone, and it was pitch black and.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
I and I, by the grace that God I didn't
trip and hit my head and get knocked out, you know.
And I was in my pj's and I was like
just crying, and I banged on my neighbor's door next
door because we were keeping in contact, and I was like,
I was like, seb, come come, we have to go.
And he was helping me pack my car with my
mom stuff, and I was like crying and like.

Speaker 3 (03:55):
With my phone.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
But thank god I had my phone and my keys
because I could see just a little bit of a thing.
But it was Armageddon times ten because the wind was
moving my jeep.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
I have a really heavy.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Jeep, and then the wind and then the rocks were
falling from the mountain and the degree and I was
seeing other people coming out of their homes and like
people were still there. It's just the power company didn't
turn off the power. And I get emails all the
time of like, you don't prepare for winds, prepare for winds,
nothing like these winds. Well, how come they didn't turn
it off during the day when it was like we

(04:26):
could have seen how to pack, you know. Yeah, And
so I was just praying to go through the canyon
that's not fall off that canyon because literally my jeep
was shaking, and I'm like going down malays A canyon
to the one on one from pH and thinking that,
you know, anyways, it's God. I could go on about this,
but I haven't been sleeping.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, this is this is this is Bonnie who was
talking about her story in the Palisades fire. How do
you even look at the next month.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
I have so many like people that I can go to,
but embarrassedly, I might even just get like an RV
at this point because rents are gougee. You know, I'm
applying for places they're giving it to me, and then
they're saying, sorry, we have an higher offer. People are
raising rent This is they're exploiting these victims. And I
consider myself lucky because I have loved ones.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
But this is wrong.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
It's so wrong. I'm like even looking to the most
solid thing for me right now, Ryan is an RV.
And I don't want to say people shopping online, well.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
No, you know you're watching people whose homes were first
sale raising the prices because they know people are desperate
to find a home. That's what you're seeing. Well, Bonnie, Well,
let me give out your go fundme page, so it's
you can search help Bonnie GoFundMe dot com. Uh, this
is started by Siciny here.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yeah, you'll see sco. She's like the second one and
it says my name right under it, so that's how
you know it's legit, and that's that's Bonnie, my Bonnie.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
We also are taking your calls if you want your
go fundme page to get some airtime. Please call me.
We don't have to have known each other or ever met,
but if you're here, we're here for you. Please call
me eight hundred five two one to two seven. Well, Bonnie,
thank you. I'm so happy that you're at least here
to talk about it, and thank you for coming on.
God bless you. We'll be thinking about you.

Speaker 4 (06:12):
Thank you, Ryan, thank you.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
And I love you, guys, love you. I mean, she's
got such a great spirit. You would hardly know all
that happened to her by the way she sounds well.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
And it's it's night and day from day one, because
she wasn't like that. I mean it was she was
an emotional wreck.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Vers run for your lives on that first day. Run
for your lives is what authority said. Leave your car,
run for your lives, that's what.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
And she was dodging rocks coming at her car, flames
and it was just like she said.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Like arm again and like leaving her house first. I
want to bring in from Alta Dina. Jeff and his
wife Austin. Jeff Booz and his wife Austin. They spent
the last three years rebuilding Austin his wife's childhood home
they're in Alta Dina. They finally moved into the house

(07:00):
just days before Christmas, and then three weeks later they
lost it all gone, just like there's so many people
in that area and on the West side of Los
Angeles as well. And Jeff and Austin are with us.
They've got two beautiful kids. I'm looking at their picture here.
How are you holding up? Gorgeous family?

Speaker 3 (07:18):
Oh, thank you so much. We're just taking it day
by day, literally hour by hours, and.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
So in shock to be honest.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, so where are you? Where did you find a
place to stay?

Speaker 3 (07:30):
Our dear friends let us stay in their house, their
mom's house. So we're just here for a little bit
recooping and just kind of getting the kids.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
In their own room and space, and.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, putting them relaxed and decompressed. So yeah, we're very
fortunate to have that option.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
How you have one young, very young child. How old
are your kids? My daughter is nine and our son
is four, and I guess the four year old doesn't
quite understand it, but the nine year old probably does.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, she was actually the one that so we went
upstairs to kind of pack some things, and she's the
one that saw the fire on the mountain and you
know that's when we were just like we have to
get out of there.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
And historical it was really hard to watch.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
So you just got into this home of yours and
you're excited to continue your life there and now all
of it gone. What did you did you grab the most? Like,
did you get anything, any memories? Did you take anything
with you?

Speaker 3 (08:34):
It was it was actually my childhood home, and we
grabbed the painting of my.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
That my daughter.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Painted. We grabbed clothes for our kids, but it was
the winds were so intense and there was no power.
We just we grabbed our dog and our cat and
the kids kind of left. By the time we were
driving down our street, the mountain was all red and
there was ash. So we just yeah, it just was paniced.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
What time? What time was this that? Oh? Yeah, and
as you said, everything's just unsettling at this point, you
just don't know what, I mean, what's next. You don't
know how to even how do you even deal with
something like this? What about the kids in school?

Speaker 3 (09:24):
Luckily, the community in Alpstina is so close knit and
everybody is just supporting each other and offering love, support, clothes,
you know anything. So we feel very blessed having the
community around us, as you know, in that way. But
we're just going to take it day by day and

(09:44):
try to figure out all the next steps, you know,
school and trying to rebuild. And yeah, we're just like
everybody else. So we're just trying to stay positive and grateful.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
I know you've set up a go Fundme page so
for people that want to reach out to Jeff and
Austin family of four. Here you can support the Booze
families b o o s support the Booze family on
go fund me if you want to reach out to them.
I will tell you, Jeff, you're a good looking dude. Bro,
you look good in this picture. Guys, I get it.

(10:19):
I got it. Catch brother. I said, they're a gorgeous family.
Are beautiful by the way, I mean, just well, you know,
hold that family close. God bless you all. Thank you

(10:41):
for listening to us, and we'll make sure we send
support the Booze family Go fund me.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Thank good luck, take.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
Care all right. I mean you can really hear it
in their voices, the defeat, that's.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
What you defeat.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Like they've just been knocked down. And how do you
get back up. So we just If you have a
go fund Me page two you want to get it
on the air, please call one eight hundred five two
I want to two seven. If you've been displaced, we're
here for you. Up next, I Gotta Smash from Sabrina.
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