Meanwhile, high winds were pushing the fire over the mountain and toward Encino Hills.
“Flash forward to Friday morning — my husband and I were working from home and we were in flight mode,” she said. “We had packed everything up and it was sitting by the door ready for us to load our vehicles if needed.”
England kept a close watch on the hills above her house and conversed with the firefighters stationed up there, who assured her that they were ready and in the process of creating a fire wall if the flames did reach that location. It was about 5 p.m. that day when a Level 2 evacuation order came. The orders follow the three-step Ready-Set-Go outline. At the “Set” level, the England family loaded the car and Melissa and the kids headed down the hill. They did not want to get stuck in a traffic jam as happened the first day in the Palisades when that fire occurred. Her husband stayed back and tried to further fire-proof the property before leaving. He put propane tanks in buckets of water, brought the patio furniture into house and filled the bathtub to the brim with water.
The evacuation order did follow and a full effort took place to save that community. “There were 19 airdrop operations that night on the top of our hill and they had ground crews working the fire roads and establishing a firebreak,” England said.
The fire did come to within nine-tenths of a mile of their property, but their house was spared. A week later, England’s family was allowed to move back home. They were among the lucky Wonderful Company employees.
“We have had six employees lose their homes and many more were displaced,” she said. “You’ve heard of six degrees of separation. Everyone here has one degree of separation. Everyone has a family member or friend that lost their home.”
During the week that England was living at her sister’s house in an unaffected part of Southern California, she continued to help with the Wonderful Company’s relief effort, delivering food and water to the firefighters. While most employees were working from home, others were in the cafeteria making sandwiches and boxing supplies or delivering the food to those who needed it.
of the Los Angeles Fire Department Air Operations team at their
hanger the day after they launched an all-night air assault on the
ridge above her home.
England, in fact, was able to meet the air operations team that saved her neighborhood and deliver pallets of FIJI Water and Wonderful Pistachios directly to them.
“To know that I had the support of The Wonderful Company the entire time was really special. They were really focused on making sure they were supporting their employees,” she said.
She also noted that Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the owners of the company, have pledged $10 million toward the relief effort. The first $1.5 million has been earmarked for the Los Angeles fire and police foundations, both of which help their members deal with damaged homes or critical financial needs.
England said the Resnicks have taken a “thoughtful approach” to the dissemination of those funds, realizing that some of the needs won’t be known for weeks or months. “We don’t know where the needs will be,” she said. “We realize this is a marathon and not a sprint.”
She said Wonderful has an amazing philanthropy team that will assess the needs and strategically allocate them for the benefit of the affected communities. She added that there are many public structures, such as libraries and schools, that may need a helping hand down the road.
As England was dealing with her situation, on the other side of the county JinJu Wilder, former Produce Marketing Association chairman and current vice president of marketing and business development at Vesta Foodservice was playing a similar Ready-Set-Go game with the Eaton Fire. “It was a surreal experience,” she said, a few days after she and her family were able to go back into their neighborhood and check the damage.
Their house in Sierra Madre, situated in the foothills above the 210 Freeway corridor, was spared. But one house across the street burned down as did another on the street behind their house. And several other houses on their block suffered fire damage. Wilder said their house appeared to be in good shape though they were planning to use a professional-size vacuum to clean it up the following day.
She admitted that initially she and her husband ignored the high wind warnings, up to 120 miles per hour, as they didn’t think their house was in danger. Though they have lived in the area for the past couple of decades, they had only been in the Sierra Madre house for six months. That first night of winds was an eye opener as they had two doors blown off their hinges. It was 6:30 Tuesday night (Jan. 7) when the situation became quite real for them.
“From our upstairs window we could see the flames of the Eaton Fire and estimated it was one to two miles away,” Wilder said. “We were keeping track of the fire on the Watch Duty app and it said it had burned 10 acres. We though we should probably pack a bag but we didn’t rush around. In fact, I cooked dinner. An hour later, it had grown to 400 acres and we started to worry.”
Surveying the situation, it seemed as if the prudent thing to do was leave. They packed up some important documents and with their two adult kids and a friend of their daughter's, they headed down to their old house in South Pasadena, which was on the market but had not sold yet.
“We camped out there and kept track on the Watch Duty app and my husband listened to the police scanner,” Wilder said. “The fire was growing so quickly.”
Those information sources did tell them that the neighborhood was in the fire zone but they did not know if their house survived. “On Friday, I came back to work but we still didn’t know the fate of our house,” she said.
Their neighborhood had a large police presence, including the National Guard, who were not allowing residents or anyone else in. “Finally, on Saturday night a neighbor was able to go in — through three checkpoints — and let us know our home was still there, though the one across the street was gone.”
Wilder met the news with mixed emotions. “Of course, I felt relief and joy and gratitude, but I also felt sad and guilt. There was no reason my house survived and my neighbor’s didn’t. It doesn’t make sense.”
For a couple of more days, they still couldn’t get into the neighborhood as there was no power or gas and the police still wouldn’t let them in. “Finally, we were able to put our eyes on the house on Tuesday morning,” she said.
Wilder said it was a mess and there was still a lot of particulate matter floating in their air, so she did not stay. Her husband began the cleanup work. A few days later, the power was restored and they were able to safely move back in. “At this point I feel an overwhelming gratitude to the community,” Wilder said. “Everyone is helping everybody out.”
She also added that she feels a bit awkward sharing her story as it is one with a happy ending when so many others have a much different situation.
In fact, in nearby Altadena where Wilder and her family lived for 10 years, she still has many friends in that town, which was the epicenter of the Eaton Fire. “The house we lived in did burn to the ground with only the fireplace remaining, and we have many friends who lost their house, including a neighbor who lost her life as well.”
Top photo: The Wonderful Company employee pictured with a Wonderful Pistachios and Wonderful Halos donation delivered to several members of the Los Angeles Fire Department at Fire Station 80
