Over the past month, one of the most destructive American natural disasters in recent years has devastated Los Angeles. The Eaton and Palisades Fires are 100% contained; however, their damage was catastrophic, as the fires burned 37,400 acres of land and killed 29 people, according to the Los Angeles Times. Mandatory evacuation orders were administered to areas such as Malibu, the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Pasadena, but have since been lifted. Three Pinewood alumni, Karina Aronson, Robert Cui, and Lucia Diffenbaugh, who attend the University of California Los Angeles, live mere miles away from the area that the LA fires impacted and had a harrowing experience.

Aronson, a member of Pinewood’s graduating class of 2024 and freshman at UCLA, saw hills of red from her dormitory.

“I could see the flames from my dorm,” Aronson said. “I live on the ninth floor of my dorm, so it was pretty scary to be able to see a red inferno coming over the hillside.”

Aronson had to leave UCLA, but the school never formally evacuated students, so most students had left voluntarily by the time class was canceled.

Aronson and Cui, who is a sophomore at UCLA, said the Palisades Fire affected leisure spots among UCLA students. The palm fronds and lifeguard stations at Will Rogers Beach were on fire, Aronson said, while Cui noted that his favorite picnic spot in the Palisades burned down. Some of his friends were affected, Cui said.

“I have a couple mentors who are older UCLA alumni,” Cui said. “They live near Glendale, and the Eaton fire got to their house, so they had to evacuate for a couple days.”

Diffenbaugh, a junior at UCLA, has close relationships with people impacted by the LA fires.

“My friends living in my sorority house were evacuated, as well as family friends,” Diffenbaugh said. “My friends were evacuated to a hotel by LAX for one night, but that was more of a precaution than a required evacuation.”

Now that Los Angeles has reached the end of this disastrous period, its residents must look towards the future and rebuild what has been damaged. According to the Times, the estimated cost of the damage is more than $250 billion, making the past month’s events “one of the most costly natural disasters in U.S. history.” With so much of Southern California burned to the ground, the return to normalcy will take time. Aronson said that the fires have taken a mental toll on UCLA students.

“Since neither UCLA nor the immediate area around the campus were impacted by the fires, my day-to-day life wasn’t impacted,” Aronson said. “However, I know many people whose communities burned down – this has definitely affected the psyche of the student body.”

Despite the uphill battle that Los Angeles now faces, Diffenbaugh knows how important a sense of community will be in order to rebuild the city’s spirit.

“I am hopeful that the LA community’s support and strength will contribute to the massive rebuilding that needs to happen in the city,” Diffenbaugh said.