In the past few weeks, the news has been filled with updates and stories on the devastating fires that were rapidly spreading through California. Countless people have been affected, either by experiencing the fires themselves or because a loved one has. Two people with a connection to Heritage High School witnessed the fires and shared their experiences. One was Matt Hertel, parent of a Heritage student, who has been living in California for six years and working for his company in Pasadena. The second was a past Mr. Heritage winner; Conner Christ graduated from Heritage High School in 2019 and moved to Los Angeles to study at USC. Following graduation he continued to live there and works in the music industry.
Christ said that before this, he had never been personally affected by the fires. “I was aware that they would happen,” Christ noted,”but the attitude in LA had always been pretty casual when discussing them in the past. I used to compare it to a tornado on the East Coast. They would pop up occasionally, but you were never really worried that your house would blow away.” Soon after the fires grew serious, Christ left California. He assured that he was never required to evacuate but did so anyway. “My roommates and I ended up leaving for Arizona because the air quality was so bad,” Christ explained,”and we were told by the city that our drinking water would be contaminated.” When Christ evacuated, the air quality at his house was 395 as measured by the U.S. Air Quality Index; Leesburg’s normal air quality is usually in the low 30’s and 40’s.
Because Christ was not required to evacuate, his current house and belongings in LA are secure. He noted that the closest fire to his house was five miles away. “The same can’t be said for some of my friends,” Christ said,” I know a handful of people that have lost their childhood home, school or even town.”
When asked about how it felt to evacuate, Christ described it as “that feeling of uncertainty that came with the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Waking up the morning after evacuating and realizing that I wouldn’t be going home for a while was certainly an eerie feeling. That combined with the warnings to stay inside and not to drink the water made for something out of an apocalypse movie.”
Hertel had never actually been affected by a wildfire before, but he noted that his “home is in the mountains of the Angeles National Forest [where] wildfire preparedness is a big priority and requires a lot of attention.”
Though Hertel did not need to evacuate, he mentioned that he nearly had to. He stated that “an arsonist set a fire in a wooded gully about ½ mile from my home twice. “Fortunately,” he added, “my neighbors and I spotted the fire and got it under control before fire teams arrived.” He also explained that”[his] home was between three significant fires, Hughes, Hurst and Lidia at one point. Fortunately, a massive and coordinated fire response was in place due to the catastrophic Eaton and Palisades Fires.” He recalled that first responders were able to contain the fires, so he was thankfully not required to evacuate.
Because of the work of the fire fighters and ground crews, Hertel’s home was not damaged by fires, but he remembered that the initial windstorm. “Around Jan 6-7, with 100 mph winds, caused damage to [his] home and other structures.” He did state that though he had not been affected, many employees of the company where he works had to evacuate; some of them even lost their homes to the fires. He did confirm that their headquarters remained undamaged and even served as a safe place for evacuated employees. Of the many people that Hertel saw and assisted in evacuation, he saw that many seemed “emotionally overwhelmed and a bit disconnected due to the extreme surreal-ness of the experience. I think many were in some state of shock.” Hertel noted that many other places for evacuated families were filled quickly. “It’s important that people plan for alternate places of refuge during these events,” he expressed.
Hertel and Christ had a very different experience with the fires, but yet, their experiences shared some emotional similarities. These wildfires affect so many, even ones that have a connection to The Pride.
