MSNBC host Katie Toole visited her childhood neighborhood in Pacific Palisades, Calif., for a heartbreaking segment Thursday in the aftermath of devastating wildfires.
Five wildfires have spread across Los Angeles, killing at least five people and forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes since the fires began. Mr. Toole, who grew up in the Pacific Palisades, visited his old neighborhood and local downtown, which had been destroyed by flames and high winds, almost completely wiped out.
“[The town] It’s completely gone,” Toole said. “So what I'm standing in front of now, I think, was a barbershop when I was growing up. To the left of here was a barbershop, a small jewelry store, a boutique clothing store. This history. All historical information about this very old town. The chamber of commerce that held it is completely gone…The elementary school I went to on the way there was over 100 years old and had been standing for over 100 years, but it has now been partially demolished. There was a photo of it in the Chamber of Commerce.
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Today, the entire downtown area is in ruins, with very few ruins remaining, so it is highly likely that many of the residents will not be able to return. The interior of the building, which was built in 1924 and housed one of the first Starbucks and a Bank of America, was completely destroyed by fire. (Related: Mayor Karen Bass remains silent when asked about wildfires at the airport after returning from Africa)
Many of Tour's childhood homes and the homes of her friends were destroyed by natural disasters, she said. The host said that not a single house where she and her childhood friends lived was destroyed by the fire, and that the neighborhood she once knew was now unrecognizable, reduced to ashes.
“Even if the house is still there, there's really nothing to go back to. There's no community left. The school was burnt down, many schools were burned down, the elementary school was badly damaged, and we don't know when we're going to come back.” But you can go back to high schools and private schools around here, but you can't go to the supermarket.''
Law enforcement officials are very concerned about looters and have made “several arrests” of trespassers and others who reportedly tried to “take advantage of the situation,” Toole said.
The fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the Palisades, and the same number of homes were destroyed in the Eaton Canyon fire. According to In the LA Times. Officials have recorded a total of five deaths as of Thursday, but say the death toll could be higher.
EATON FIRE: Today's additional video #California | #Altadena | #Californiawildfires pic.twitter.com/FNUBvJMkm0
— Hailey Grace Gomez (@haileyggomez) January 9, 2025
The fire started in Eaton Canyon and spread quickly with 110 mph winds, forcing residents to suddenly evacuate their homes as the flames moved closer to their homes. Residents told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday that they were ordered by authorities to evacuate their homes without warning and returned unexpectedly to find their homes completely burnt down.
Some neighborhoods were completely destroyed, with only chimneys remaining, and some residents and families lost all their possessions.
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