Altadena Fire Victim Returns to Burned Down Home After L.A. Wildfires in Search of Family Heirloom | THR Video - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

After losing their home in the Eaton Fire, Altadena residents Jonathan Sims and Kyle Shire bring The Hollywood Reporter along to search through fire-ravaged rubble in the hopes of finding a family heirloom Sims' grandfather brought back from WW2.

Transcript

00:00All right, guys, everything is working. All right.

00:01Okay, let's go. Let's try it.

00:03Sure, that's right. That's right. That's right.

00:05So we live at the top of Altadena.

00:07So we're trying to get up to our property.

00:11I know it burned down.

00:30So what can it take for us to be there?

00:39We probably try to contact the station.

00:41Yeah.

00:41And that's probably your best bet.

00:43The Sheriff's Information Bureau cleared me to go in because we're press.

00:47So could we just go to, like, any of these guys who are on the sides and talk to them?

00:51Sure.

00:52Okay, great. Should we try and get closer?

00:54Yeah, we should just go.

00:55Okay.

00:57All right, good morning.

00:57Hey, we lived at the top of Altadena at McNally.

01:01You don't know where that is.

01:04Our house burned down.

01:05My grandfather was in World War II and was given a katana near Okinawa after the bombing.

01:12And it didn't make it out of the house.

01:14You're asking me, basically, if you can go in the house and get your katana.

01:16So, yeah, we tried to get in a few days ago and we're turned away.

01:20I've got ID here.

01:23So does Kyle.

01:24I'm going to call my sergeant and let him know what's going on.

01:27So, yeah, this is my grandfather.

01:29He was a Marine airman.

01:31It's right there.

01:33As you can see, that's, like, the real deal.

01:36You're the deputies, right?

01:37Yes.

01:37When would they tell you?

01:39They said we're cleared to go in.

01:40You can go there if you want to.

01:41Okay.

01:42Well, we'll have to find some Altadena sheriffs now.

01:46Yeah.

01:47Look at that.

01:48Oh, wow.

01:49How does that happen?

01:50That right there was in the middle of the road.

01:52It was right there when I came through.

01:55How many days ago was that?

01:56It was the morning of the fire.

01:58Oh, that's not good.

01:59Yeah, it was, I mean, it looked like something out of Children of Men.

02:02Like, it was, like, just unreal.

02:06Just unreal.

02:09Better it seemed that the entire town hasn't burned down.

02:11When I was here, there was so much smoke, it looked like everything was gone.

02:14We are here in Altadena right now, and we're told that we need to find an Altadena sheriff's

02:20deputy to escort us in.

02:23That's crazy right there.

02:24It was just a house.

02:24Okay, thank you so much.

02:26So they're asking dispatch for us if we can help.

02:30Oh, this is going to be sad.

02:35You know, I've already resigned myself to that everything's gone, so anything, anything.

02:42A shard of a teacup.

02:45I saw Eaton Canyon.

02:47I've never felt fear like that before in my entire life.

02:50It was, like, primeval, because it looked like a volcano had gone off in my neighborhood.

02:54It looked like hell had opened up.

03:01Do you need to get in right at this location?

03:04You could go over there.

03:05Oh, really?

03:05Okay.

03:06Yeah.

03:07I'm hoping if we have this escort, maybe they'll let us on.

03:12I'm happy that Altadena is still here.

03:16I thought it wasn't.

03:193528.

03:21Loma, Alta, and Fair Oaks, basically.

03:24All right.

03:25All right.

03:25You need to call you.

03:26All right.

03:26You come up.

03:27All right.

03:30We're in.

03:31Just stay behind him.

03:36Yep.

03:37She said stay right behind him.

03:39Stay right behind him.

03:40Okay.

03:40Oh, my fucking Christ.

03:46Jesus.

03:54This is where I would get my brakes checked.

03:56This is a really killer southern fried chicken.

04:01This was our jam right here.

04:03It's here.

04:05Oh, my God.

04:06Oh, my God.

04:07And the mural's still there.

04:09The mural, it's morbid now because it's sitting.

04:12I'm sorry, but this is, I'm ruining it.

04:13I'm going to see that grocery store.

04:14This grocery store.

04:16Oh, this is.

04:17What?

04:17John, we got to stay right behind him.

04:18I'm so sorry.

04:19We got to stay right behind him.

04:20All right.

04:20I'm so sorry.

04:21I'm so sorry.

04:23No.

04:24This is true tragedy.

04:25No, this right here, the Fox, was an amazing place to get breakfast.

04:29And everybody who worked here was so sweet.

04:32Oh, this is the first liquor store we went to.

04:33I know.

04:34Oh, this really hurts.

04:37This was a wonderful pizza place called Side Pie.

04:40Yeah.

04:40It started during the pandemic.

04:42It started up here.

04:43It just was somebody's house.

04:44And it had a wonderful beer garden.

04:46And they started making pizza during the pandemic.

04:48Right here was the Bunny Museum.

04:50This was the Bunny Museum right here.

04:53Oh, God.

04:54No.

04:54It's.

04:55Oh, God.

04:58No.

04:59It's.

04:59Oh, God.

05:00I'm feeling really overwhelmed.

05:05It's like.

05:06It's like every landmark that made this.

05:10Like that old, that strip.

05:13So it's chilling because you go there.

05:15There was pictures of the place you were standing from 100 years ago, 20 years ago.

05:20And these mountains are covered in snow.

05:22Oh, my God.

05:24And I wonder if those pictures were there now.

05:26You know, it's awful because in your brain, at least mine, because I haven't been here,

05:31all of these spaces still exist.

05:33You know, even though conceptually, I know that they're, I knew that they were gone.

05:37It's like seeing it.

05:38There's, there's just a cold.

05:42Sinality to it.

05:44And seeing all that rush just twisted and black like that.

05:50To me, it's like a horror movie.

05:51It's just so surreal how selective the fire was.

05:54It's so weird.

05:56But that's what's fucked.

05:56It wasn't.

05:58But like what?

05:58Like it's just, it's.

06:00It took what it wanted.

06:01It took what it, it took what it took.

06:04I think the chimneys are.

06:06That's the, that's creepy.

06:07The chimneys.

06:08It's the fact that it's just the chimneys that are better up.

06:10It took me a while to realize after I was looking at them.

06:12Just look at this.

06:14Look at this.

06:15Just look at this.

06:16There's fucking nothing.

06:18There's nothing.

06:19Oh God, this is going to be hard.

06:21Here we go.

06:23That's it.

06:24No.

06:24That's it.

06:25No.

06:26That's it.

06:31Oh God, no.

06:34That was Greg and Scythius.

06:38And this was us.

06:41Oh my God.

06:43You have ID?

06:44Yeah.

06:45This is, this is our place.

06:47It doesn't make any sense.

06:52It doesn't make any sense.

06:54Those were, right?

07:01Those were my, that was my, that's where all my parents' notes were in.

07:05Dude, there's nothing.

07:09It's just ash.

07:11It's just ash.

07:20So, so, so the sword would be, see that?

07:26Please be careful.

07:28Please be careful.

07:30Tom, please be careful.

07:32Uh, fuck, man.

07:34Fuck.

07:35Fuck.

07:37Fuck.

07:38Fuck.

07:39Fuck.

07:40Fuck.

07:42Come on.

07:44Please, please, please.

07:48All right.

07:50Stairs were here.

07:57This is from it.

07:59Oh my gosh.

08:00Is that the hilt?

08:01It's far to scabbard.

08:02If that didn't melt, my desk was here.

08:12It was right here.

08:14God, if we should have brought the shovels, maybe we wouldn't have got in though.

08:20Oh, I need goggles.

08:21It's a scabbard.

08:22Oh, fuck.

08:23Oh, fuck.

08:24Oh, fuck.

08:25That's it.

08:26Wow.

08:27John, you found it?

08:28What's left of it?

08:29What's left of it, not the Arthurian ending I had hoped.

08:37Can it be forged anew?

08:38Is this Narsil?

08:39I was hoping that it would be, you know, fine.

08:43That's true, that's silly, right?

08:44I mean, I'm sad.

08:45I'm sad.

08:46But I came back for it.

08:47Maybe it can be a little bit for you.

08:48Maybe it can be a good, it could be a fearful thing.

08:49Maybe it can be a little bit.

08:50If this was a Oderian ending I had hoped.

08:53Can it be forged anew?

08:56Is this Narsil?

08:58I was hoping that it would be, you know, fine.

09:06It's true.

09:07That's silly, right?

09:09I mean, I'm sad.

09:10I'm sad.

09:12But I came back for it.

09:15maybe it can be reforged see this is what's wild that's that's fine it's just weird how some things

09:25I would have thought the sword would have been fine I don't know why I thought it'd be fine

09:30you know I guess it's just kind of denial now that I really look at it it's really just bends

09:35in one place also that's still sharp that's still sharp are we taking that with us are you

09:44kidding me I still don't understand because it still is like there's there's like a schema in

09:51your head for like what your house is supposed to be and what your home is supposed to be and

09:55right now this isn't it it feels like I'm somewhere else there's just nothing left

10:00what is that I have no idea oh Kyle look right there do you see anything look right there

10:14there was hanging next to earth because it probably collapsed when the ceiling collapsed

10:33it was hanging by the ceiling there's like layers to this shit like it this

10:39holy shit that's wild oh I'm sorry it's just everything in my car has been my only possessions

10:49for a week and I thought everything in here was gone I've done a 180 on this this is a project

10:56it's a project and it's not that fucked up it's just really been here

11:00so the filing cabinet I kept all the letters from my parents in

11:08my grandfather was a very you know he was just like a big old jolly man to me and the older I got

11:26the more I learned that he was like a war hero this pillar of his community you know um and there

11:33were all these stories I didn't even know about this when I was a kid because that's just the kind

11:37of guy he was like he didn't brag about this stuff and after he died um we're talking about you know who

11:46gets what of this of his stuff and uh my uncles and my dad started talking about this sword and I guess

11:52it just symbolizes that you know people go through phases in their life and they change

11:58and there's more to people than you really think you know but I was hoping that that we could come

12:04that I could leave with this thing and take something from it I'm just amazed it's still sharp

12:08it's still sharp we can fix this we can fix it

12:13this happened so quick

12:17I can't I can't tell you if it was seven days ago or seven minutes ago or seven years ago

12:26this happened so quick my life changed our life changed yeah it's still sinking like it doesn't

12:31it's not real I've lived in LA for 15 years you've been here for over 20 yeah and we had

12:39so much of our lives leading up to I mean my mom got me this bat when I moved here

12:45and it's exemplary of all of the things that I acquired my 15 years here and I struggled and

12:52I worked so hard and I wanted to go home so many times but I kept doing it again and now all that's

12:58just gone it it sucks but like you know I I have so much pain and John has so much pain and so much

13:05of us is gone but our neighbors Greg and Cynthia and so many other people around here who have

13:10generational attachments to this place lost so much more than just their worldly possessions they

13:16lost their whole community and what I'm feeling is so much pain they must be feeling it 20-fold

13:24these are wonderful amazing middle-class people that need help please if you can't help

13:29we can't start 2025 with one of the oldest communities where black people were allowed

13:36to own houses we can't start 2025 with that community going away I am heartbroken over my

13:43things I'm so much more heartbroken over what my neighbors have lost we're just one or two two people

13:50this is this is a zip code we're not thinking straight this is trauma I wanted to take something

13:58from this house something from my past so that this didn't get the last word that's what this was

14:03I didn't want to let this get the last word about what I have moving forward in my life and what I

14:09have to remember my family by I don't want this to get the last word about what this community is

14:15and what it can be and that needs to start with people seeing the devastation like it's the only this

14:20is the only thing I have left I want all these people's homes to be rebuilt we need to hold

14:24everybody's feet to the fire over this to make sure that this community gets built back as strong

14:28as it was before a thank you card to our home that we can leave and say thank thank our home for

14:37being ours and being so good to us we could maybe leave it in the plants because it's green because

14:46it used to green here so I wanted it to be I know the way it used to be I know I know let's do that

14:54let's do that repenting there's just too many good memories to it there's just too many good memories

15:01I'm sorry I didn't need to I'm sorry I didn't know to say goodbye

15:08you know when you um feel like when you move out of somewhere it's like you take a mental snapshot of

15:14it in your head when when you're leaving and that's something I always try to do when I know I'm

15:21going to be somewhere for the last time but that night that night I just assumed I was coming back

15:27so I didn't know

15:31it just wouldn't be sitting right there

15:35my couch was right there it just wouldn't be sitting right there for us not to be real

15:43let's go find a spot for it

15:46dear you see my through the McNally thank you for being our first home we always remember you

16:02hey this is our new house this is our new house we're walking in

16:09earth

16:12oh

16:16so

16:20you

16:22you

16:26you

16:28you

Altadena Fire Victim Returns to Burned Down Home After L.A. Wildfires in Search of Family Heirloom | THR Video

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