Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast . I'm your host , tracy Wallace . Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life , that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues ? So did I . You don't have to be an only child to feel this way . In my podcast , we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting , while doing so with humor and light . Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast .

Today I'm going to talk about , well , fire again . If you've been listening to some of my recent episodes , you know that that's been a prevalent , prominent topic with the fires here in Los Angeles . Friday night this past week I came home from doing some stuff out and I brought dinner home for us and I caught out of the corner of my eye . I caught the flashing red lights of a fire truck whizzing past our house , and so I went to investigate towards the front of the house and I saw that and I heard that there were more sirens and more fire trucks going past us , looking quite rushed , and I looked at there's a PulsePoint app that I have . Now there are several apps that will tell you what is going on with emergency vehicles , whatnot , in your neighborhood , but PulsePoint is free . There's the Citizen app I believe that there's a fee for that so PulsePoint tells you what the fire department is doing , where they're going and what kind of a basic call it is . If it's fire medical assist , what have you with the address usually ? So I pulled that up usually . So I pulled that up and I saw that it was categorized as a house fire and it was in the next block from us and I should say that I was already fairly tired . It was about coming up to nine o'clock in the evening . I'd had a very long day and in terms of fires , we're already pretty much on edge . Everyone that I know is pretty much on edge . So , watching and hearing all the sirens , all the trucks go by and there were several and hearing all the sirens , all the trucks go by , and there were several . Somebody the next day counted off that there were five fire engines , two ambulances and three police cars . I think there were closer to six engines , but I'm not going to split hairs . Anyway , it was categorized as a house fire .

I found out the next day that it was actually a fire that was outside of the house . Either way . To add to the complexity , when I came home . The porch light blew out , and so I kept walking outside to see what was going on . It was freezing cold , which is it's been so odd to have all these fires here when it's hot , but that's where we are . And so I was going out in the pitch black of night to see what was going on up the street , but then the upper part of our block was bathed in red lights , flashing red lights , and it already looked like the block was on fire because it was so red . But it wasn't .

And then I really had to laugh , because people were rushing around the corner in their cars . A lot of people in our neighborhood like to speed , lot of people in our neighborhood like to speed and so they were rushing around the corner to to , you know , speed up the hill , and they were met with a blockade , of course , and they thought they would circle back and try to go around the block the other way . They weren't going to be able to get through , because that's where the fire was . They weren't going to let anybody through . So what happened was is that the fire department ? Because they were so swift and they hit it so hard , so fast . I did also hear a helicopter , just in case , because we are in a brush area , we're in a canyon and the brush has been really , really dry . So they hit it fast , they hit it hard and the fire was out very quickly . And we're all very grateful because before everything happened with the fires here , I would have said that , you know , there's no way that anything would happen like houses would burn down , and watching everything with Pacific Palisades and Altadena now I know that that's very possible . And thank goodness it wasn't windy Friday night . Luck was on our side and starting on Saturday , the next day , we did start to have some light rain . Today is Sunday and did have some pretty good rain . I'm not sure the status of the fires yet , but I know that they're also worried about mudslides . So if it's not one thing , it's another other .

I was out today and I met a man who was buying buckets and I found out that he lived in Altadena and I asked him if he was okay , because that's just who I am , who I am , and he said no , we lost our house , and he said it in a way that I really had to give it to him . He wasn't . I'm sure he had some tough times , some tough days , but he was , you know . No , we lost our house , but we're okay . You know , we all got out the baby and our dogs and cats , we all got out , we're all okay . But he was buying buckets because they were going to start going through the rubble of what was left of their house to look for their wedding rings . And I'm not sure what happened , because a few hours later it was pouring where we were . It was a couple of towns over , but you know , rain is good but rain makes a lot of mud . So but he said you know , it's okay , everything's covered by insurance and you know , we'll , we'll , we'll manage , we'll get by and the important thing is that we're all , we're all okay . And you know , I thought about it later . I thought about it after he left and I , I just wanted to sit and cry . But it's not even my house , I don't even know him .

But wow , it's really hard to fathom the incredible amount of loss , the incredible amount of loss here in California , especially Los Angeles . We live in a desert and with everything that's happened with our climate , it's been drier . That's not our fault . There's been a lot of talk about the fact that you know we haven't let the water flow , that there's some sort of mysterious spigot somewhere that we don't want to turn on , that we're all , I guess , hinting , that we're all idiots and that we're led by idiots . But you know what ? That's just not the case . We have done what we have to do here .

That so many houses burned was simply the fact that the fire was combined with incredible amount of wind , and they're just it's spread so fast in so many different directions , and people will and you know , people that don't know any better will say whatever they want to say , but , but those of us that live here know the truth . Um , so that's what I'm going to say about that . Uh , but , yes , we did get a pretty good amount of rain today . I mean , pretty good for us is an inch . I'm not sure that it's even an inch , but some places , yes , we did get an inch of rain and and , um , I think we're all very grateful for that , because we don't have to be on edge anymore that a fire is going to start here or there .

We've all seen so many fires start up from nothing , it seems . I'm not sure if it's the power poles or arson , or what , but there were so many fires that started in such a short period of time . You have to question why that is . And no , it's not a political reason , it's just dry brush . It's just what we were dealt , but the immense loss that we have here is truly a disaster . So with that I will say that fire , if you've ever been around a fire or you've been around smoke from a fire , it can be very deadly , very fast .

And when we were in the apartment the fire alarm went off a lot in the building and it was nothing Like somebody tripped it , some kid tripped it , whatever , um , and there were a lot of times when everybody rushed out of the building , uh , and you know , uh , there's a fire . And we were very close to the fire department . And so this one time I remember there really was a fire . It was very small but there was a fire and for whatever reason , I thought I would . I went down in the lobby , I went downstairs , we all went downstairs and I thought I would just go out into the garage , which was on the street level , and get something out of my car , and I opened the door and the smoke from that fire was . I didn't realize it was all in that garage and there was ventilation on all sides but for whatever reason , it had captured itself in that area and I walked a foot or two outside the door and I realized there's nothing I could do . So smoke can be just as deadly as fire . So you have to be respectful of that fact and I have to really give it to firemen , fire personnel , because they really put everything they have into their jobs and they do such a great , great job . Thank you to all the firemen and the first responders because they keep us safe . So that's all I've got for today .

Next week we'll tackle another topic together . I hope you'll join me . If you like this episode , please follow the only child diaries podcast on apple podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating only child Diaries and writing a review . It helps others to find us . Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well . Visit my Instagram page Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast . Thanks for listening . I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries .