By David Fleet
Editor
It smells like hundreds of bonfires burning all at once.
That’s how Goodrich native and Southern California resident Chloe Slade describes the massive wildfires burning near her apartment in Culver City in the Los Angles area.
“I left work early and packed an evacuation bag,” said Slade, a 2009 Goodrich High School and 2013 Syracuse University graduate. “On the drive home via the (highway) 110 West, the sky was completely smoke filled. It smelled of fire everywhere and I had to turn my air conditioning off because it was filtering into my car. Traffic was awful due to the 405 Road closure.”
According to the National Weather Service, in early December strong Santa Ana winds pushed wildfires, including the massive Thomas Fire in Ventura County. As of Dec. 12 fires forced more than 212,000 people to evacuate, with the six largest fires burning over 257,000 acres and more than 1,000 structures in Southern California.

Slade moved to Southern California in 2013.
“It’s extremely dry here,” she said. “I can’t remember the last time it rained. It’s also still warm with temperatures in the 70s and 80s almost daily. Water use for lawns is limited to nighttime only.”
On Dec. 5, Slade was near the Santa Monica promenade about six miles from Culver City.
“I could smell smoke,” she said. “I walked near shoreline on the beach and the Santa Monica Pier and as the sun was setting you could see a thick layer of smoke on the horizon. It was very windy, which played a major role in these fires and how quick they spread. At that time I didn’t feel too threatened since the Ventura fire is pretty far from Culver City.”
Ventura, Ca. is about 60 miles north of Culver City, however, by Dec. 6 a fire had started in Belair about 10 miles from Slade. In addition, a section of highway 405 was closed due to the fires.
“The 405 is one of the busiest roads in America,” she said. “At that point I started searching for more information on the Skirball Fire and saw the apocalyptic videos of the fire taken by people driving on the 405 around 5:30 that morning—that’s when reality set in and I started getting nervous about the fire.”
Several cities, Bel Air, Brentwood, Westwood and West L.A are in between Slade’s apartment and the fire as of Monday, Dec. 11.
The spreading fires prompted Slade to put together an evacuation bag.
“Clothing, blankets— you are always asked what you’d bring if you had to pick only a few things?” she said. “Through this experience I learned that my go-to items include Teddy bear I’ve had since I was young, a gold locket my parents gave me in 2000 for Christmas, my Polaroid photos and my passport, wallet. These items I have in a backpack which I have now taken everywhere with me the last few days just to be prepared for the worst.”
Still the best of people can be found during a disaster, added Slade.
“There are a lot of shelters open and many people going to them,” she said. “(As of Dec. 11) Around 200,000 people had to be evacuated around me. I read through Tweets on Twitter and people were offering strangers who had to evacuate a place on their couch, that was nice to see. There were also many people who said animals were welcome at their home because they had enough property to house them during the evacuation. I really don’t feel like people were in a panic, rather just trying to stay informed.”