A closer look: Bruin victims cope with loss

Wildfires have been ravaging Southern California, destroying
houses in neighborhoods that may seem distant to the UCLA
community.

But the devastating blazes have hit home for many students,
several of whom are just beginning to cope with their losses.

Jade Smith, first-year business economics student and El Cajon
resident, said she helped her family members and friends after they
were evacuated.

“When (my family) was helping transport some of (our
relatives’) belongings, the sky was orange and black,”
Smith said. “It seemed like a scene from
Armageddon.”

Smith’s relatives stayed with her family because the
hotels around the area were filled with other people who had to
evacuate, she said.

Smith said she had gone home due to a medical emergency and was
there when her relatives arrived after their evacuation.

Her residence was full when the family learned they were also in
danger of being evacuated, she said.

Her house was 10 minutes away from the rapidly moving
wildfires.

The family did not have to evacuate, however, and their guests
were able to remain housed until they could go back to their own
homes.

Smith said some of her relatives lost their homes and
possessions. Her family is currently helping them find a temporary
residence.

Though Smith said the ordeal was awkward and unusual, it was not
emotionally difficult for her.

“You just have to deal with what you have to deal
with,” she said.

For others, the emotions caused by the experience return every
time they visit the affected neighborhood.

“My area is so weird at night, and it’s just black
where there used to be houses on the hills,” said Heather
Hemingway, first-year political science student and El Cajon
resident.

“It’s just empty,” she added.

Hemingway and her family were evacuated Oct. 26 and could not
return for a day and a half.

Hemingway’s family hosed down their yard as the fire
approached their block, and a neighbor used a tractor to build a
dirt barricade around his house, she said.

Hemingway said her cousins who live in a nearby area also had to
evacuate; they rescued their horses by riding them down the
street.

“The moment was kind of depressing because you’re
sitting there, watching the houses burn … and there was no one
there to protect them,” Hemingway said.

Hemingway’s family stayed with a friend until they could
return to their residence, she said.

The fire subsided a block away from her house.

Many of the high school students in Hemingway’s area,
including her younger sister, volunteered at the local evacuation
center after being given the week off, Hemingway said.

Some evacuated residents returned to their homes after a few
days, but others lost their homes forever.

One student, who prefers to remain anonymous, lost her San Diego
home to the wildfires.

The student lived in the house and her neighborhood her entire
life, but when she returned after the fires abated only two houses
in her area remained standing, she said.

The family had five minutes to gather what they could before
being evacuated from their home.

The student said they managed to save their photos, cat and her
mother’s jewelry. Her family escaped the fires safely and
went to her grandfather’s residence for shelter.

Last weekend, she and a friend returned to her neighborhood and
drove to the the site where her house once stood.

“It would have been harder to see my house half gone.
It’s more like my stuff just disappeared,” she
said.

The student said that although losing her house has been
difficult, she is in “survival mode” and is able to
focus on dealing with her situation because she has no choice.

She added that it might be more difficult to deal with over the
holidays because her family will not be in a familiar setting.

Though she misses her home, the student said she is just glad
her family made it through without harm.

“Because my family didn’t lose anybody, (our
situation) is not devastating,” she said.

The student said her parents are currently filling out insurance
forms for their house, and that they were also not devastated by
their loss.

“What’s done is done, and they’re going to
rebuild from there,” she said.