Soap Star Cameron Mathison's Heartbreaking Account of Losing Home in Fire

TMZ

"All My Children" star Cameron Mathison has shared harrowing visuals of where his Altadena home once stood -- and now he’s revealing the full story of losing it in the raging Eaton Fire.

Transcript

00:00I'm gonna ask you to tell us what happened here today.

00:03I know you've been to the hospital.

00:06Can you kind of walk us through how this happened with you,

00:10were you and your family at home, were you evacuated,

00:14were you then let back in?

00:16Kind of walk us through what happened here.

00:19So yes, these days I'm living in the house alone

00:22while my kids are in school in Europe,

00:24but they were back for the holidays.

00:25My son has returned to school, my daughter's still in town.

00:29I'm in Pasadena, and as I was driving, guys,

00:32it was like probably 6.20, I was driving,

00:34and in the distance on this one face

00:37of what we call the Eaton Canyon, there was a little glow.

00:42It was like literally I saw what was the beginning

00:44of this massive fire, and I went down to Pasadena.

00:47I noticed it, I was like, well, that's not good news,

00:48and I went to dinner, and then I look at my phone,

00:50and my phone's blowing up, and I go back to the house,

00:53and it's just total smoke and embers and ashes in the air.

00:58No houses at that time were burning in that area

01:02that I could see or that were being reported on,

01:05but it wasn't good, and so I knew

01:07that the evacuation order was in.

01:09We weren't in the mandatory evacuation area yet,

01:13but we were right on the border,

01:15so obviously I just grabbed some things

01:18and then came to Vanessa's apartment here,

01:21and we were watching on television,

01:23and the reports showing that it was getting worse,

01:25so I went back to the house to get things

01:27like passports and birth certificates and photo albums,

01:32although I forgot a few photo albums,

01:33which breaks my heart, and then came back,

01:36went to bed, 5 a.m., saw the news

01:39that literally watching our blocks and streets

01:42and houses I recognized burning

01:45and not knowing about my house

01:47and not knowing, like trying to see the camera angles,

01:49and was at our house and not knowing,

01:51it was just such a sickening feeling,

01:53so I had to get in the car,

01:55and I, against probably all logic,

01:59went up, and that's what the videos

02:01that you saw when I went and saw,

02:03and there was, as I'm getting closer and closer

02:05to our block, this block between Porter

02:07and Chernobyl on Braeburn, guys,

02:10I turned that corner, and it took my breath away

02:13because there was nothing.

02:16It was as if there was nothing ever built there.

02:20There was palm trees and nothing, flat, decimated.

02:25I think the emotion, Cameron,

02:27that people got from your post,

02:28there's the immediate destruction and the shock,

02:30as you mentioned, as you see this video,

02:33but then you start to realize the impact

02:35that this is gonna have on your life

02:37and in your case, your children's lives as well.

02:40Yeah, it's a good point, because you're right,

02:43like you're there, and you've lost it,

02:45and you just sort of think really

02:46kind of surface level at first,

02:47but this is a place, and I'm sure people at home

02:50can relate to this in their own experience.

02:51This is a place that we literally worked

02:55on every square inch of this.

02:57We did everything from HVAC system

03:00to insulation to the tiles and the floor

03:02and the molding and the color and the paint

03:04and the furniture.

03:05It's so kind of crazy to think about the love

03:11and the passion that it was for us to put into this house,

03:14and our kids, like you were alluding to,

03:17grew up there, and they wanted to raise

03:18their children there, and it's so much more

03:22than, oh, I just gotta find a new place to live,

03:25no big deal.

03:25Like, it's incredible, the sentiment,

03:29the attachment, the nostalgia,

03:32and there is like nothing left, zero.

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