Woman opens up about losing ‘forever home’ in Eaton Fire while 7 months pregnant

A California woman who is 7 months pregnant is among thousands Residents of Los Angeles County As multiple wildfires continue to burn across Southern California, they are taking a beating.

Chloe Garcia and her partner Giovanni Figueroa lost their home and everything they owned in the Eaton Fire. Altadena, California.

Now in her last trimester of pregnancy, Garcia said she and Figueroa will have to rebuild their lives from scratch.

“I was in disbelief, and I looked at Gio, and I said, ‘That’s all we have,’ all the things we started collecting for the baby and all the memories we started,” the 36-year-old said. – he reminded the old man “Good Morning America” for seeing his house on fire.

Garcia, an occupational therapist at a children’s hospital, said she was at work on Jan. 7 when Figueroa called and told her that their home, which they share with Figueroa’s daughter and their two dogs, had lost power. At first, he didn’t think too much of it because it had happened in the past.

“Everyone is being very positive because we’ve all lost power before. We’ve had fires in the area, so it wasn’t something of immediate importance,” said Garcia.

Garcia and Figueroa decided to stay the night in nearby Glendale and packed enough for one night, thinking they could return to get supplies later.

But in the middle of the night, Garcia’s neighbor, who is her cousin Alex and whom she refers to as her “sister,” called and told her they had to evacuate.

by then Eaton fireWhat started on January 7, was overwhelming the homes and residents of Altadena. Since then, the fire has burned more than 14,100 acres and destroyed more than 7,100 structures, according to Cal Fire.

Garcia said he and Figueroa tried to go back home to get essentials like their passports and Figueroa’s daughter’s birth certificate, but it was too late.

“When we turned the corner, I saw flames going and I was like, that’s next to our house, if not our house,” Garcia recalled, and “where there were embers everywhere.”

“When we got to my house, the house next to us, the tree and the house behind us were on fire. And I said, ‘We can’t go in. We can’t go in. This is scary.'”

Garcia estimates that his house — nicknamed the “Dodger house” because it was painted white and blue like the colors of the Los Angeles Dodgers and what Garcia called his “forever home” — caught fire and was gone within six hours.

Garcia said seeing the ruins of her home, which had already begun to be filled with baby items and a crib for the baby’s arrival on March 28, was “surreal” and “like a movie.”

But Garcia said that the worst thing for him was seeing his family members, who have also lived in Altadena for generations, lose their houses and all their possessions.

“What’s been the biggest challenge for me is that it’s a multifaceted loss,” he continued, adding that it wasn’t just his house that was destroyed, but also his parents’ house, his cousin’s house and his uncle’s house. a community that is near and dear to his heart.

“Altadena is such a unique city. One of the most amazing things about Altadena is that it has multigenerational families…predominantly African-American families, Latinos, who own property, which is unheard of in Los Angeles,” Garcia said of her hometown. .

As Garcia and Figueroa begin to figure out what to do after the Eaton fire changes their lives, Garcia said he is currently living at a relative’s house in Marina Del Rey and has been trying to stay healthy in recent weeks. her pregnancy

“There’s just so much to process. I’ve found it helpful to list everything and anything so I know how to get through each day,” said the expectant mother. “When you’ve lost everything, all you can do is rebuild, and I keep laughing with people and my family, saying we’re going to have an incredible story to tell my baby.”