Tara Roth works in Los Angeles as a philanthropic executive.
She lives in the Palisades with her 13-year-old son Dane.
The night before, I wasnt feeling well.
Firefighters battle fire from the surf along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025.David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News/Getty Images
A fever and a cold.
I was sort of out of it.
Dane caught his bus to school at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
It was windy, but not so windy.
I slept until 11 or 12.
I got up to get some food and medicine.
I had been hearing things when I was sleeping, fire engines.
But I was so sick I was just grateful to be sleeping.
I first noticed the light outside my window, which was very eerily orange, and very smoky.
I thought, Oh, gosh, theres a fire.
I went upstairs and immediately everything was bathed in this orange light.
I turned on my phone and its suddenly all these alerts, calls from family members and friends.
Lots of text alerts to evacuate.
I was in my bathrobe and I went out to the front door.
The winds were gusting everything, the garbage cans were toppled over, all the plants were toppled over.
I saw rats running around and I was like, I didnt realize we had rats.
We shared an animalistic fear for a millisecond.
I felt deeply connected to this poor rat.
And then I was like, Get over it.
I need to go.
Outside my house, there was a group of firemen who were putting out a fire.
I said, Excuse me, should I be leaving?
And they were like, Uh, yes.
I grabbed some berries from the refrigerator, I grabbed my computer, but no charger.
But all I want to do is get out.
Im definitely late to be getting out.
I left my house.
The firefighters asked me to leave my house unlocked.
So I went back and unlocked my house.
To get to Sunset from my house is less than a mile.
If I had been feeling better, I would have grabbed my sons scooter and just ridden that.
Its hard to be thinking super-clearly in the moment.
But I pulled out of the driveway and realized it was sort of a no-win situation.
We were just all stopped.
I saw a car parked in the median.
I saw people parking their cars and getting out and walking.
Theres smoke in the air.
Theres debris flying in the air.
After a while, I realized Id moved probably only 20 feet or so.
The hills behind my house were on fire.
Then I looked ahead and I saw one of the palm trees was on fire.
I saw there was a truck on fire and no one was attending to it.
No one really seemed to know what they were supposed to do other than get out.
But there was no one directing traffic and it wasnt moving at all.
I thought, Are we just all going to be sitting here and dying of smoke inhalation?
I ran down Palisades Drive and I saw people had parked on sidewalks.
I made it down running so much faster than people who waited.
My neighbors daughter found me, Anna.
Shes a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin and home for the break.
I got into her car.
She was terrified because her cat was in the house.
They tried later to get the cat out but they couldnt.
They couldnt get the fire trucks up to Palisades Drive because of all the traffic and abandoned cars.
They were evacuating to Westwood, to University High.
A little bit farther south on PCH, we started seeing the planes.
Two huge planes, a kind I had never seen before, camel-colored.
They almost looked like World War II relics or something.
And they were crossing so near each other and so low it was almost like an air show.
And were all just watching in this semi-stunned state of mind.
I dont even know how long it took.
My son was taken by a bus from his school.
We kept communicating on the phone about where his bus was.
At first, he was scared.
But I was just like, Focus on getting out of there.
He sent images that he was seeing from friends and on the news.
The lines were around the block.
The police were there.
The staff had printouts of the kids names, they were checking parents IDs.
The scene in line was relatively calm.
I got Dane and we gave each other a hug, but it was very matter-of-fact at this stage.
We had our phones out and werent talking to each other.
I had so many people offering to [have us] stay with them.
But I was not feeling well.
I wanted to go to the fastest place.
And also, since Im sick, I didnt want to infect other people.
Anna picked us up and drove us to her dads apartment.
From there, we Lyfted to my friends house which was empty in Marina del Rey.
I wasnt checking my phone.
Dane was like, Can I go hang out with my friend tomorrow?
I was like, No, we may not have a house.
We may not have a car.
He was living in an alternate reality.
I was delighted he was.
And I guess in some ways I am, too, because Im just in my NyQuil zone.
Im barely able to function and talk.
My house may be gone.
My car may be gone.
But I cant think about that right now.
Theres just a helplessness.
This is not happening.
But if I dont have a house, I have to just deal and figure it out.
