California wildfires: Amid Los Angeles evacuations, fears of looting take hold

I reached for a couple of old albums, just really old pictures, and then a couple of newer frames,

Zar said

I thought, well, maybe we’ll write, you know, as we go through the next few days, we’ll just kind of write what we’re going through,

said Zar, who’s now staying with her family in Redondo Beach

I was thinking about all the things that I didn’t get and that I could have gotten really quickly but didn’t because it was literally like, I thought the house was going to burn. I’ve never been in a situation like that,

said Auroux, his voice filled with emotion

Your life is at risk. You have to leave.’

Reynaga, a CPR instructor, recalled a firefighter telling her

All I heard was just – clack, clack, clack – the clatter of all of these red hot embers hitting my helmet and hitting my body and my face and my hands,

said Auroux, who’s staying with relatives on the Westside of Los Angeles

I just grabbed like the dumbest stuff and now I’m sitting here wondering why I didn’t take all the other stuff,

she told CNN Thursday

You’re just kind of on autopilot,

said Zar, former chair of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, who knew her hillside California neighborhood has long been vulnerable to wildfires

I’m wearing other people’s clothes right now,

she told CNN Thursday

We got nothing. I got no pictures… It is a really incomprehensible thing to imagine not only everything you own, everything you’ve worked for, everything you’ve created, but everyone you know, every memory you made in the town that you’ve lived In, that all of it is gone. I’m getting mad about it, you know, because it’s so much more than just the stuff.”

She added

I don’t care about stuff. Stuff is just stuff. But what I can’t get back are the family photos. What I can’t get back is the family heirlooms that my mother passed down… I can’t get back the pillows she made me. I can’t get back the little sewing and knitting kits she passed down from her mother to me.”

She added

The question now will be, how do we live in a town that doesn’t really exist,

she said

I ran and grabbed a hard drive that our family photos were on. I grabbed a couple of our family heirlooms,

he said

I lost the building of my business, but I am my business,

she said

I tried to save my house because that’s all I have,

she said

I am now called racist and that's fine, but just know I have absolutely. Nothing against people of color, quite the opposite,

the user posted

Kathryn Bargerlos Angeles County Supervisor

I promise you, you will be held accountable. Shame on those who are preying on our residents during this time of crisis."

Kathryn Barger, Los Angeles County Supervisor, during a press conference

They told us to leave and we got what we could,

the homeowner said

Robert Lunalos Angeles County Sheriff

We are up to 20 individuals who chose to go into our areas and deprive these poor people, who have been through so much, of their property,

Luna said in a press conference, adding