As the deadly flames came closer and smoke billowed into her Los Angeles home, Zaharah Miham tried to wake her two young children peacefully in the middle of the night.
“We’ve got to go, baby. We’re going on a fun adventure,” she said in her sweet voice to 4-year-old Ethan, taking their 18-month-old baby in her arms and running away from their home in Altadena.
The neighborhood will soon be completely destroyed by hell. At least 17 people were killed in this community alone, and more bodies were discovered.
The trauma has been severe for everyone, but perhaps more acute among evacuated families with young children, many of whom are now scrambling for diapers, milk formula and clothing.
And then the question is how to explain this enormous disaster to children who can understand their parents’ panic, even if they don’t fully understand what is happening.
“When we woke up nervously at four in the morning, he was trembling, scared,” Miham recalled.
“I was like, ‘Are you cold?’ He says, ‘No, mother, what’s happening?’
The Mihams are taking shelter at a friend’s house after struggling to find a hotel.
Even now, Zahra is trying to distract her son, describing her trip to a donation center on Monday in search of clean bedding and diapers as “a super fun party” filled with people, food and toys. Has been.
When his mother – still wearing the same slippers she ran in – spoke to an AFP reporter, Ethan proudly displayed his new dinosaur pajamas and toy car.
“I’m trying to put this moment out of his mind, and just say, ‘It’s all good. There’s something wrong in our house, we’ll fix it. It’s going to be OK,'” He said it without listening to her.
‘painful’
The donation center in nearby Arcadia — which emerged organically from a resident’s TikTok post asking for supplies, and has attracted hundreds of volunteers — has received so many donations that some people are turning away, but baby products are the most common. One of the pressing needs.
“We are in desperate need of diapers,” said communications director Kelly Krives, 38, who is volunteering at the temporary operation in the parking lot of the Santa Anita racetrack.
“A lot of people, the first thing they ask for is diapers and baby formula,” Krieves told AFP.
Apart from those products, mental health is an immediate concern.
“The children are not okay,” said Chesa Latifi, deputy director of emergency response for the NGO Project Hope.
“They’re behaving differently and they’re stressed — they know their friends have lost their homes, and they know their school is closed.”
She urged parents to maintain whatever sense of normalcy they can, including scheduling play dates with friends.
“I’m just trying to make sure they understand that their community, whether it’s physically or emotionally, is still there for them,” she said.
“This whole town is in shock, whether your house was burned or not,” Latifi said.
Thankfully for the Mihams, their house was only partially burned.
The neighboring houses on three sides of his property were completely destroyed, as the fire miraculously spread around them in an S-shape.
But they are still unable to return, as there is no electricity, electrical wires are hanging dangerously around the house and National Guard troops have sealed off the road.
“We’re fine. We’re just devastated, that’s all,” Mihm said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
