The documentary filmmaker behind “Rebuilding Paradise'' is living the life he once documented after losing everything in the Palisades fire.
Tracy Doros Tragos found herself and her family having to quickly evacuate their home as Pacific Palisades burned to the ground on January 7th. After documenting the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire, Doros Tragos knew she would be stuck in traffic if she didn't evacuate. Don't move too fast. The family took nothing with them.
“Honestly, I thought this was a dry run, but I don't know why,” Doros Tragos said. hollywood reportr. “You really don't think it's going to happen to you, do you?”
Doros Tragos lost everything and has been staying in an Airbnb near her family in Santa Barbara ever since. “Entire communities have disappeared from the face of the earth,” she told the media. “And it's not just your house. It's your neighbor's house. It's the park where you used to walk and enjoy the shade. It's where you had coffee. It's where your kids go to school. Everything. is.”
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Tracy Doros Tragos lost her home in the Palisades fire. The filmmaker is known for his work documenting the aftermath of the 2018 Camp Fire. (Getty Images)
Doros Tragos is known for the documentary film “Rebuilding Paradise.'' The film, produced by Ron Howard, features footage from her time with residents affected by the Camp Fire in Butte County in 2018.
campfire The entire town of Paradise, California, was nearly destroyed, with 95% of the area burned to the ground. Since then, much of the town has been rebuilt and thousands of people have returned to the town.
The time the documentary filmmakers spent with residents who had lost everything gave them unique knowledge about what to grab during an emergency evacuation.
“My neighbors were saying, 'Why are you bringing toilet paper?'” Doros Tragos recalled. “And I said, 'Trust me, you could find yourself in a situation where you don't have a toilet, and you'll really wish you had toilet paper.'”
Air tanker descends on Palisades fire. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Los Angeles area residents need phone numbers and how to get help.
Doros Tragos lived in the Pacific Palisades, a coastal enclave inhabited by some of California's elite. However, the filmmaker emphasized that the rich and famous are not the only residents of this district.
“I know people think Pacific Palisades is flashy, but there are parts of it that aren't,” Doros Tragos tells THR. “It's multi-generational. This high school is a really great place for my kids to go to school and meet people from all over the world.”
A person walks through the destruction left by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades area on January 9. (AP/Jae C. Hong)
“But it's gone. The library is gone, the grocery store is gone. All the community connections are gone. The place for the quirky Fourth of July parade is gone.”
“There's a sign in a defunct barbershop that says if you're rich you live in Beverly Hills, if you're famous you live in Malibu, and if you're lucky you live in Pacific Palisades.”
Doros Tragos has been sharing thoughts and updates about his situation on his Instagram. Caption next to photo on whiteboard read partially“48 hours after I found out I lost my house, Chris, and my home office (my only office), I'm in survival mode. Things have slowly changed for us since the disaster.” “What now” mode. All your previous to-do lists suddenly became meaningless and replaced. I'm starting something completely new. ”
she too shared a photo I saw myself holding up a placard that read, “You never know what you have until it's gone. For example, toilet paper.''
In the caption, she wrote in part, “I don't know what to do with the waves of sadness that come over me. The mugs I'll never see again, the clothes I've spent a lifetime collecting for special events that will never be replaced.” is written in. This is my great-grandmother's watch. When I look at the pictures of our Christmas tree, it breaks my heart to think that everything is gone. ”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Droz Tragos for additional comment.
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On November 8, 2018, a house burned as the Camp Fire passed through Paradise, California. Fueled by high winds and low humidity, the Camp Fire spread quickly and tore through the town of Paradise, quickly scorching 18,000 acres and destroying dozens of homes. A matter of hours. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The 2018 Camp Fire, chronicled by Doros Tragos in Rebuilding Paradise, is revisited in Jamie Lee Curtis' The Lost Bus. Curtis' Comet Pictures and Jason Blum's Blumhouse have been working on a film based on Lizzie Johnson's book Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive America's Wildfires. .
The Camp Fire, known as the deadliest fire in California history, destroyed more than 18,000 homes and businesses and killed 85 people. “The Lost Bus'' tells the story of bus driver Kevin McKay and schoolteacher Mary Ludwig, who rescue 22 children from a school during a rapidly progressing wildfire.
Matthew McConaughey is reportedly in talks to star in the movie. Until the deadline. However, sources insist the deal is not yet finalized and the film still needs a green light from the studio.
FOX News Digital has reached out to McConaughey's representatives for comment.
Matthew McConaughey is reportedly in talks to star in Jamie Lee Curtis' The Lost Bus. (John Nasion/Getty Images)
Aerial view of the destruction of a neighborhood caused by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California on November 15, 2018. 95% of the town was destroyed by wildfire. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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The destruction in Los Angeles began on January 7 after the Palisades Fire began burning around 11 a.m. local time. By the end of the day, a total of three fires had broken out, leaving the area in a path of complete destruction. More fires followed, causing more evacuations across the region.
A helicopter drops water on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 9th. (Ethan Swope/Associated Press)
Multiple fires continued to burn for days, reducing 10,000 homes and businesses to ashes, forcing thousands to abandon the Los Angeles County area and killing 10 people.
As of Friday, the fires had burned a total of about 56 square miles (142 square kilometers), an area larger than San Francisco.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
