FEB. 2025. Blues Vol 41 No.2

On Tuesday I heard that

On Tuesday I heard that a brush fire hadstarted in almost the exact same spot asthe New Year’s fire and was spreading downthe canyon. But no worries, that was milesaway.Tuesday evening my sinuses were killingme and I took some Benadryl and fellasleep on the couch. At 2am, I woke up tomy fire alarm going off, my cell phone alertblaring and someone pounding on my door.Instinctively, I reached in my bag, grabbedmy gun and opened the door. It was myneighbor Mark. “JJ, we gotta go, the fireis only a mile away and the neighborhoodbehind us in on fire. Get your shit, we got toget out of here.”I grabbed my keys, my bag I had packedand ran to my car. As I turned the cornerto the parking lot, I couldn’t believe what Iwas seeing. It was if I had suddenly wokeup in hell. The sky was on fire. Burningpieces of whatever were falling all aroundme. I could hear things exploding and peoplescreaming. As I threw my bag in theback seat, Mark pulled up behind me andsaid to follow him to the PCH and we’d tryand make it to I-10.There is just no way to describe what Iwas seeing. The fire was consuming everything.As we inched along Sunset, the buildingmy office was in was a totally engulfedin fire. It was above a Chase Bank and thefirst thing that came to my mind, was allthat money was just burning up. And theheat, the heat was so bad, I could see thepaint on my car melting away. Actually, itwas the clear bra that Mark’s friend Erichad just put on my new Range Rover thatwas melting. God, I loved that car. All mylife I had dreamed of owning a Range Roverand when I got my Christmas bonus in December,I finally had money enough to buyit. Now it was melting. WTF.The next hour was a blur. At some pointthe road was completely blocked by cars,and people were getting out of their carsand running down the highway. Mark wasseveral cars ahead and I could see himgetting out of his car and waving at meto do the same. I grabbed my bag and asI opened the door, the rush of hot air remindedme of the time I worked at PizzaHut in college when the oven door wasopen. The air burned my face and my eyes,and I could barely see. Pieces of burningshit were falling everywhere as I ran tocatch up to Mark. I just remember runningand running.We wound up in a parking lot with dozensof others and a man in a minivan offeredus a ride. We ended up at a coffeeshop on I-10 and it was at that point it suddenlydawned on me that I was now homeless.For years, I have cussed and MF’d thehomeless living in camps all over LA andnow for all practical purposes I was one ofthem. I was sure that my condo and everythingI owned was gone. My brand-new carwas probably burnt up too. Suddenly I justbroke down in tears and cried uncontrollablyon Mark’s shoulder.“What now Mark. What do we do now?”He turned me around to look at the TV onthe wall behind us and they were showinglive coverage of the fire. The street we wereon less than an hour ago was totally consumedby fire. Had we not run when we did,we would have been burned alive. It was atthat moment that I realized I was just likethose people in the Homestead movie. Myhome, my city, my work, all destroyed. Myexistence as I knew it was no more. Justlike the Nuke that destroyed LA in the movie,my life was forever changed.106 The BLUES -- JANUARY FEBRUARY ‘25 ‘25

CLICK TO WATCH"What our drive down the Pacific Coast Highway was like. As it turns out,the person that took this cell phone video was just ahead of Mark and I.The heat was so hot, it melted the protective coating on my SUV. I stillhave nightmares, reliving this terrifying drive over and over again." JJThe BLUES - FEBRUARY JANUARY ‘25 ‘25 107