LA Wildfires: A woman from Lowestoft says her bags are ready if told to evacuate
Two large blazes and two smaller ones continue to burn - including the biggest in Pacific Palisades.
Last updated 16th Jan 2025
A woman from Lowestoft says she can see the LA fire from her home in the valley and has her bags ready to go if called to evacuate.
The wildfires in Los Angeles California began last week causing thousands of acres of land, homes and businesses to be destroyed.
Powerful winds and dry conditions have fueled the fire and officials believe at least 24 people have died and 88-thousand Californians are still under evacuation orders as a result.
Two large blazes and two smaller ones are continuing to burn - including the biggest in Pacific Palisades.
Kristin Crowley from the LA Fire Department says they're doing all they can to get it under control.
Authorities in Los Angeles are warning people that more 'life-threatening' and 'destructive' winds could fuel more wildfires to appear.
"We could see it over the hills like at night. It gets really spooky just seeing the glow of the fires"
We spoke to Charlotte Hawthorne. Originally from Lowestoft, she moved to LA two years ago.
She was in Suffolk for Christmas when she made the difficult decision to go back to her home in the valley.
"I said goodbye to Mum and bye to the family and gave them a big squeeze, but this one felt like a little extra tight squeeze and a bit of panic there...
"I just wanted to come and see what was going on and the extreme of it and just be here to lend a hand if I could. To hug my friends and offer them to come over (to my house) if they needed because a lot of my friends power went out and they had to leave their homes."
She told us she could smell the smoke from the fire as the plane landed.
"When I was driving back from the airport, you could see the haze in the sky, a big smoke cloud above the whole of LA.
"It feels really eerie.
"And when we were landing, going over the fire, it was really weird, there was a spooky feeling.
"I've never seen everyone on a plane before anxiously looking out the window, talking to each other, it was like an unspoken thing that everyone was just on edge and curious as to what was going to be the outcome of all of this.
"...We could see it over the hills like at night.(from her home) It gets really spooky just seeing the glow of the fires."
Although the fire has not reached Charlotte's neighbourhood, she tells us the effects of the fire are everywhere.
"The air outside the quality is terrible. People are wearing these masks again. It's like COVID all over again.
"They're worried what the long-term effects will be on everybody's lungs.
"We've been advised not to drink the tap water and not to cook with it.
"All of the chemicals that have been released in the areas is not great.
"I've been using a lot of eye drops every single night because my eyes are bloodshot and people are developing coughs and all these nasty things that are going to be the backlash of all of this too."
"I can't do much, but just knowing that can help a tiny bit by giving a helping hand"
Over the last few days, Charlotte has been helping out at her local church in Hollywood to help those in need.
"We've just been going through all the donations and creating packages for people that pull up in their cars, who have lost everything and given them all the essentials they need, a place to stay and have some food and give them a bag of clothes if they need.
"And that's been the most rewarding thing about coming back is I can't do much, but just knowing that can help a tiny bit by giving a helping hand."
She explained they try not to talk about what's happening an instead spread some positivity.
Charlotte also told us that she avoids looking at social media posts about the fire as she finds it "heartbreaking" to see what people have lost.
However, she did tell us that she is constantly on alert for any announcements about the fire.
"Going to sleep feels eerie because you can hear the helicopters going all through the night, your phone's lighting up and pinging.
"I'm with my housemate, and we'll wake each other up if anything happens and keep each other posted.
"It's an uncomfortable feeling because you never know what you're going to wake up to."
Charlotte revealed she does have an evacuation plan in place, but that doesn't stop her from worrying
"Knowing that everybody in your community could be running at some point.
"The freeway's started closing at one point.
"If the alert went off and we all had to get up and leave at the same time, the traffic and the congestion would just be chaos.
"So there was a panic too. Do we get out before the evacuation notice happened? So it's not like hell breaks loose on the roads too. it's very unsettling."
Overall Charlotte said she was okay and praying for it all to be over soon.