‘Vaporised’: Melbourne man loses home in LA firestorm
A Melbourne man has lost his home and everything he owns in the Pacific Palisades fire, as another couple told of their terrifying evacuation. See the video.
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Australian man Glen Whelan has told how he lost his home in the Los Angeles wildfires.
Mr Whelan, originally from Melbourne, has lived and worked in California for the past 10 years.
He lived in the Pacific Palisades, which has been wiped off the map in the devastating wildfires.
Standing on the ashes of where his home once stood after he returned to the scene where the fire ripped through the area, he uploaded a video to YouTube saying: “Everything’s been vaporised. I thought something would be salvageable but it’s all gone.”
His sister wrote on GoFundMe: “Glen and his partner have been left with nothing but the clothes on their back, and insurance will only cover half of what they have lost… that is if they pay out at all. They are on their own and currently staying in a hotel which is not sustainable and trying to find rental accommodation in a city where thousands are in the same predicament.”
The GoFundMe is currently at $5470 from its $9000 goal.
AUSSIE DAD AND KID FLED ON BIKE
An Aussie couple who lost their Pacific Palisades home in the devastating LA fires has told of their terrifying evacuation.
With just a pushbike, Joel House had 30 minutes to get his 17-month-old daughter, Avary, to safety.
“Oh, what a week! Six days ago we were having breakfast in our house, and 24 hours later everything was gone,” he posted to Instagram.
Mr House told how he and his wife, Maria, had no time to prepare as they saw “black smoke bellowing down the hill like a tsunami”.
As Maria rushed to collect their three year-old Alaya from preschool, she was caught in traffic on the way home.
“That left me, my bicycle, and our 17-month old Avary to gather all we could carry on the bike,” Mr House wrote.
“We got passports, paperwork, one of each girl’s favourite toys and one change of clothes each. “Everything else we owned. Gone! When I got out of danger a lady stopped me to show me the innocence of our daughter taking a nap, on the bike as we rode away from our old life and towards a new unknown!”
COUPLE LEFT WITH JUST A SUITCASE
Australian Vanessa Quinn and her American husband Devon, alongside two small children Remi, four, and Gigi, two, have lost their home to fire in the Pacific Palisades.
“We could see the smoke and flames from our backyard,” Vanessa told Seven’s Sunrise as she recalled how the family fled the Palisades blaze. “We immediately started packing and went to get our kids from the daycare centre and the school.”
Devon told Seven that they are now staying in Indio, adding that he was fortunate that he was working from home as when they saw the flames so that they could act fast.
He said the oncoming smoke was like a “dragon” as he recalled racing to get his child from the daycare.
Everything they owned was crammed into a suitcase and it took them two hours to get out due to a traffic gridlock.
“Thankfully Remy got away with a bag of stuff, Gigi has her favourite kookaburra,” Vanessa said. “We’ve been sheltering in the desert with Devon's ’s mum and the kids have been distracted. We are trying to get insurance together and find a place to stay. We are so happy we are all safe, it’s onwards and upwards.”
Vanessa works as a real estate agent in LA, with her bio saying she is from Sydney.
She moved the US to attend Temple University in Pennsylvania, for International Business, Risk Management, and Economics.
According to Vanessa and Devon’s GoFundMe page, which was set up by Vanessa’s sister Rebecca Hidalgo, the couple and their children returned to their home in Pacific Palisades to find “nothing but a pile of rubble after the horrific fires that have ravaged large parts of LA this week.”
“They evacuated with nothing but a bag of clothes and a few essentials. Everything is gone, and while they navigate the lengthy and overwhelming process of insurance claims, temporary housing, resettling the kids into school, and rebuilding their life, I’m sure any financial help would be appreciated,” Ms Hildalgo wrote on the GoFundMe page.
“Please donate if you can to help them resettle as soon as possible. Thank you so much for the support.”
The fires have killed 16 people and destroyed thousands of homes, including celebrity mansions.
The GoFundMe is https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-devon-vanessa-rebuild-after-the-palisades-fire-in-la
Originally published as ‘Vaporised’: Melbourne man loses home in LA firestorm
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