(NewsNation) — Tricia Cosentino does not yet have much information to go on, but she fears the worst about the status of her Pacific Palisades home and tutoring business as several Los Angeles County wildfires rage on.
Cosentino told NewsNation she has received text messages that suggest Palisades Village, a local shopping center, “is totally gone” and the block where her business is located “doesn’t exist anymore.”
As far as her Palisades home goes, that too is unknown.
Cosentino said she watched the wildfire before first responders arrived and did not believe it would be problematic. Thirty minutes later, she was running through her home to collect her belongings, including family mementos.
Cosentino lives in Palisades Highlands, a canyon neighborhood located in the Santa Monica mountains. Even when her neighbors were ordered to evacuate, she said she was still not all that worried. As time passed, though, she said the situation intensified.
Cosentino said she and family members had wet towels on their faces and that both hillsides were on fire as the family tried to make their way out of the neighborhood.
“I realized I couldn’t see, and I had no choice but to turn around and go back,” she said.
An hour later, Cosentino said her family realized they were not safe at home. The family entered a long line that was part of the police escort and felt they were out of danger. As the family was escorted to the beach, Cosentino told her son to cover his face to shield him from seeing what was happening around them.
“When you looked behind (you), the hills were burning,” Cosentino said.
She said her neighborhood is now in flames and that the reservoir that typically provides water to firefighters is empty. She said she has friends who have lost their homes along Pacific Coast Highway.
She says smoke is now billowing over the Pacific Ocean.
“It is terrifying,” Cosentino said.
Cosentino said every time she receives a text message, it is from another person who has lost their home. Her tutoring center serves 150 students, Cosentino said. With their schools now gone, she said she hopes to help the pupils in any way she can. Cosentino said her husband owns a home in Ojai, 65 miles from Pacific Palisades, and that he is safe.
But her community as she knows it — including historic buildings and the local theater where her daughter participated in plays — is now gone. She said she does not know if her home is still standing.
“That community — we are like a family,” Cosentino said. “We are all displaced. … It’s really hard to wrap your head around the fact that everything you have and everyone you know is in the same situation.”
“It’s a nightmare, and we’re going to get through it,” she said.
