Woman Paid Off Mortgage Just 1 Day Before L.A. Wildfire Burned Down Home: 'Not Sure What My Retirement Will Be Now'
“I’ve been working since I was 16 and my goal was to pay off the house and retire,” Totress Beasley said
A Pasadena, Calif., woman had finished paying off the mortgage of her home one day before it was destroyed during the Los Angeles-area wildfires last week.
“We’re in this circumstance with so many other people, victims of the fire,” Totress Beasley, 64, said in an interview with CW affiliate KTLA.
Beasley, who is nearing retirement, had been saving and paying off her three-bedroom home for years, AARP reported. The city employee made her final mortgage payment on Jan. 7.
The following day, Beasley’s home burned down by the Eaton fire, destroying her roof, floors and possessions; only a few melted walls survived.
“I’ve been working since I was 16 and my goal was to pay off the house and retire,” she told AARP. “I’m not sure what my retirement will be now.”
If losing her home wasn’t miserable enough, Beasley told KTLA that she experienced alleged price gouging on rental properties by landlords—even for small one-bedroom apartments.
“I’ve been quoted maybe $5,000 [a month],” Beasley said about a one-bedroom unit. “Some of my friends have talked to people and they said $6,000 plus and then one girl told somebody was charging $8,000.”
Related: From Our Editor-in-Chief: How PEOPLE Is Supporting Victims of the L.A. Wildfires
On Jan. 7, in response to the Palisades fire at the time, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert on price gouging, saying in a press release: “California’s price gouging law protects people impacted by an emergency from illegal price gouging on housing, gas, food, and other essential supplies. If you see price gouging — or if you've been the victim of it — I encourage you to immediately file a complaint with my office online at oag.ca.gov/report or contact your local police department or sheriff’s office.”
State law prevents “charging a price that exceeds, by more than 10%, the price a seller charged for an item before a state or local declaration of emergency,” according to the California Attorney General’s office.
At the moment, Beasley is staying at a hotel paid for by her church and is considering moving in with her son, who also resides in Pasadena. She told AARP that she hopes insurance will cover the damage — adding that she "wants to enjoy life and live without having to get up and go to work at 6:30 in the morning.”
She also expressed regret over not taking a framed picture of her late mother. “Before the fire, I was cleaning my walls and I said to myself, ‘If anything ever happens, I better take my mom’s picture off the wall,’ ” she told AARP. “And then I didn’t take it.”
The Eaton fire, which has been 55% contained as of Thursday, Jan. 16, has left 16 dead and burned over 14,000 acres, Cal Fire said.
PEOPLE reached out to Beasley on Jan. 16 for comment, but she did not immediately respond.
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