San Fernando Valley Residents Reeling From Saddleridge Fire
Longtime Porter Ranch resident Ari Demiral, his wife Christine, and their three children left their Porter Ranch home just after midnight on Friday, Oct. 11, nearly three hours after the Saddleridge fire began blazing through the San Fernando Valley. Demiral witnessed the fire making its way up and over the mountains separating Sylmar from Porter Ranch.
“You would never think it would come here,” he said, speaking about the fire. “Of course we were ready, we prepared everything. But, we didn’t move out.”
Demiral covered his family’s valuables but refrained from waking up the house to evacuate at first, thinking the fire would be contained before reaching the home’s backyard. As flames traveled down the nearby hillside, however, Demiral and his family evacuated.
Ari and Christine Demiral examine the aftermath of the Oct. 2019 Saddleridge Fire behind thier home in Porter Ranch, Calif. on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
Approximately 100,000 people from Sylmar, Granada Hills and Porter Ranch were forced from their homes because of the Saddleridge fire, which destroyed twenty-three structures and damaged another 17 over the weekend.
The Demirals were able to move to Christine’s mother’s home in nearby Chatsworth before mandatory evacuations were handed down in Porter Ranch Friday morning. For other Valley residents, nearby evacuation shelters were the best option for a safe place to go.
Twelve shelters were opened during the mandatory evacuations, but closed as residents were instructed to return home. Upon making it back home, Ready For Wildfire, an online campaign by Cal Fire, warned homeowners to check that their water and power was working. The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) requested residents “drive slowly and remain cautious of emergency personnel operating in the area.”
Dawn and Jim Alger were among evacuees with pets in the care of shelter staff the second evening of the fire. Four of the 12 shelters were dedicated to housing animals. The couple and their family left their Porter Ranch home at 1:00 a.m. Friday morning to stay at the Granada Hills Recreation Center.
“Yesterday we had two dogs, a giant rabbit, and a cat,” said Dawn, sitting cross-legged on one of the green cots in the converted gym. “They’re all in boarding right now, because trying to comfort animals all night is not easy.”
The Algers realized they needed to evacuate when they started smelling smoke. Dawn recalled, “I walked out to my yard at about 11:30 at night, and saw the glow. So we started packing. And then, what, like a half an hour later we got a call from our security saying ‘leave’. So we drove.”
Porter Ranch resident Amelia Peters was joined by her small dog, Bambi, at the same evacuation center on the evening of Oct. 11. Peters and her husband heard news of the fire during a hospital visit the previous evening and found out about the mandatory evacuations through television coverage.
Peters stated, “Even on our way home, on the freeway, we could smell the smoke. And we could see the sky was red. The clouds were full of embers.”
Peters’ husband chose to remain at their home in an effort to postpone loading his collection of music gear into their car.
Peters remarked, “It was very scary, so when I saw that it was mandatory, I started packing my stuff. But my husband, he’s very hard-headed. He said, ‘I am not leaving the house.'..He said, ‘I’m going to watch and see if the fire gets really close, then I’ll put all the equipment I can in the car. But in the meantime, I’m not moving anything.'"
Those whose homes have been damaged by fire will receive extended care from Red Cross responders. Red Cross Public Information Officer Jeffery Stansfield affirmed, “When we close the shelter out, our job does not stop. We actually have a team of case workers that will follow up with all of our clients and work with them to help them start getting back to where they need to be.”
Stansfield added, “Even if their house is not destroyed, most likely the water and power’s been out. It takes a little time for that to get back, so we will help with city services, with connecting to insurance companies, guiding them in the process...We continue on until we get them back to a starting point, where they can start to recover.”
Back in Porter Ranch Friday morning, the Demirals watched the blaze from afar through security cameras surrounding their home until cables began melting, cutting out the feed entirely. But the Demiral’s installed “Ring” front door alarm system kept a visible image throughout the fire, allowing Ari and Christine to continue watching as flames surrounded their home.
“We were watching and watching, embers flying all over the place,” he said. “But, nothing (major) happened. I’m very lucky.”
The Demirals returned home by around 2 a.m. Friday morning to check for damages. Fire officials had stopped the blaze around Porter Ranch homes -- including the Demiral’s -- by that point. Only small embers still filled the air.
Ari recalls walking a small hose around the home’s concrete exterior and backyard to extinguish the embers, when he noticed damage to the roof of the home’s second story. A small ember had slipped past a crease in the roof and fallen into a ventilation area.
Ari Demiral’s daughter, Nicole’s, room is in dismay after a fire sparked in the attic above her room and the water used to extinguish it collapsed the roof above her room during the Saddleridge fire in Porter Ranch Calif. on Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
From there, the ember traveled into the home’s attic and set the room of Demiral’s 7-year-old daughter on fire. Firefighters later poked holes into the burnt ceiling and draped it shut with a blue tarp.
By the time the Demirals returned home as a family Friday morning, their next door neighbour’s home was almost completely burnt. The floor surrounding that home’s backyard was made completely of wood.
Rubble is all that’s left of Ari Demiral’s next-door neighbor’s home, in Porter Ranch, Calif. after the Oct. 2019 Saddleridge fire ripped through the structure. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
“Imagine if just one ember touches that,” Demiral said. “I’m sure there were hundreds of them here (just outside the windows of his home).”
The front of the Demiral household in Porter Ranch Calif. after the Saddleridge fire blazed through the community on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. (Joshua Nicoloro/The Corsair)
Demiral is convinced the concrete foundation of his home made all of the difference. Fire officials told Demiral his home is safe enough to enter and walk through, but won’t be livable for at least a year.
The Demirals packed their belongings and went to stay at a nearby hotel, but are hopeful to return to their home once it’s fully repaired and deemed livable by fire and safety officials.
“Tell me when I can come back,” Demiral said. “You just don’t know. I mean, how many times does this happen? Almost none. But guess what, it just happens to those few unlucky people.”