'Like the end of the world': Firsthand accounts from the Los Angeles wildfires

At least two people were reported dead in Los Angeles County on Wednesday as multiple life-threatening wildfires burned across the region, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate.

Here are some of their stories, compiled from news reports and original Yahoo News reporting:

Orly Israel, a Pacific Palisades resident who drove back through “thick and black” smoke to protect his family home before the growing fire finally forced him to evacuate:

“You could see it from the bedroom window. You could see the flames coming down the hill. … The embers were just flying through the sky. It wasn’t even safe being there at all. … I’m thinking about my family. I’m thinking that any future plans I had that are totally out the window. … It’s just, wait for the bad news that the house is completely gone, and then wait until they let us come pick through the rubble. And then, I don’t know. I have no idea. Do I move to another state where they don’t have fires? What happens to the city? Neighborhoods are going to be completely gone.”

Kelsey Trainor, who fled her Pacific Palisades neighborhood around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday only to get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic:

"It was all smoke around us, fire everywhere. People are just honking their horns. … Gridlock — nowhere to go. … What’s really scary is that it felt really unsafe for people who were doing what they’re supposed to be doing. … It felt really helpless.”

Mallory Sobel, who said it took her two-and-a-half hours to drive out of the Pacific Palisades:

“I can feel it in my lungs right now. My throat is sore. My car was full of soot as I was making this slow, slow climb down. I wore a mask because it was that potent. [But] Good Samaritans are everywhere on the street, helping people navigate down the hill and helping people with their cars.

David Rager, who left his home in the Canyon Crest area of Altadena Tuesday night to stay with family in Orange County:

"It's very strange and scary to be evacuated. The uncertainty. We're watching the next neighborhood over live on the news. Right now it's just a few houses burning; it's spotty, not all ablaze. But we don't know what's going to happen next — if it will grow and spread to where we live. We heard there's a brush fire in the lower part of our canyon.

We've been checking in on the parents' WhatsApp. A friend in a different part of Altadena has already lost her house, right near our daughter's school. A few minutes ago, someone shared a video of the school on fire. At a certain point it's like, what are you going back to if your whole town is gone?"

Michael, a longtime resident of the Oakridge Mobile Home Park in Sylmar who already “lost everything” during the devastating 2008 Sayre Fire:

“It was about 10 o’clock last night, the winds were fierce and the power lines arced together. They shorted out, there was a bright light, there was a slight boom and I looked down at the bottom of the standard and there was a small ball of flame. … Earlier in the evening, they were talking about cutting off the wire because of the impending windstorm. Apparently they didn’t.”

Muffie Alejandro, who has lived since 1989 near Eaton Canyon:

“This is my fourth fire and the only time we’ve ever left. [The fires this time are] the worst I’ve ever seen. … In five minutes, it burned probably a quarter of a mile across Eaton Canyon.”

Dorothy Clark, 88, who spent the night sheltering from the Eaton Fire at All Saints Church in Pasadena:

“It’s the strangest feeling. I’ve never ever had an experience that replicated in any way a wandering soul with no place to go. To go through this kind of experience was just a bit much more than I bargained for. You feel like your options are zero. It’s the most dismaying experience I think I’ve ever had.”

Altadena resident Carlos Herrera, who stayed behind to protect his home and help neighbors after his wife and son fled:

“Too much could go wrong; the winds are too strong. [Fire officials can deploy] as many trucks as you can put out here … you never know. I’m just keeping a safe distance and seeing what I can do.”

Venice resident Mike Kerns, who watched a smoke plume swallow a “whole mountain” in the 10 minutes after he left a doctor’s appointment in the Pacific Palisades Tuesday morning:

“It was like a movie. Like the end of the world.”