By Mary Nguyen

Videography & Editing by Erkki Forster

This is what was  left of  Cynthia Choi’s Altadena house…piles of rubble, ash, and soot. 

The Eaton wildfires pummeled through Altadena- leaving behind  a row of charred streets .

The co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate says the  wildfires came  without warning. 

 “I did not receive any alerts..  warning or  to evacuate,” she said.

 An orange haze in the distance. Could be seen in the Eaton Canyons.   

The fires seemed to be quite a distance away.

Concerned about her family and animals- an overnight bag was packed. 

“Did you get you passports or anything?” I asked.

“I’m  mean Mary we were packing thinking we were not able to come home,” Choi responded.

Choi, her daughter and pets got in the car and left. Her husband stayed behind. 

 “A lot of back and forth text that he should come, She was very upset, ‘you should come.’ ‘He said I’m staying,”’ Choi recalled.

At 3am – Choi’s husband warned other neighbors and tried to put   out embers  but law enforcement officers told him he needed to  leave now.

 “This house had special meaning for him. He loved that house, his first home, something that he could call his own, you know, working so hard,” she said.

When deputies told him to leave. That was the last time the family saw their home intact. 

 “This has been a traumatic event for me and my family. So we’ve been coping in a lot of different ways. I’ve been worried about my daughter.”

We contacted the Los Angeles County Emergency Operations Center to ask why the Choi’s never received an emergency alert warning or notice. We also asked if any deaths can be attributed to anyone not receiving an alert.  We are still waiting on a response. 

In the meantime Los Angeles County officials opened an investigation and issued this statement after 10 million California residents received  inaccurate information on their cell phones. 

‘Los Angeles County shares our residents’ anger and frustration about erroneous emergency alerts.

Details of these and other measures will be provided as soon as they become available, along with information about the root cause of this dangerously unacceptable breakdown in the system.”

Even at 3am when  a mandatory evacuation was in place-  Choi says her  husband still  did not get an emergency alert.  This is a situation between life and death.

Hopefully,  new procedures and technology  will be put into place. 

The public relies on information contained in emergency alerts  to stay safe. 

“We also need to think about prevention like how do we make sure this

doesn’t happen again. Was loss of life preventable, fires preventable?”

The fire ravaged through the Choi home and destroyed many things in its path, but one thing was left standing: this library, and inside— even the books are still there—

 “It was a hopeful sign and to me it has a lot of meaning. It was gift my daughters gave me during COVID. It was like the one way that I could connect with our neighbors.” 

The library and these Buddha statues are the only items that survived the fire. The next step will be to rebuild their home and their lives. 

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