Up until the fire, Jackie Peterson lived in her Latigo Canyon home for 23 years. She has three daughters who all live in the LA area; her long-time husband passed away six years ago.
The Woolsey Fire destroyed 15 out of 20 homes in Jackie’s immediate neighborhood. One of the few houses to survive was located directly next door to Jackie’s because the owner stayed and fought the fire. Unfortunately, Jackie heard that neighbor now suffers from PTSD. “He’s really going to be paying a long-time price for staying,” she said. “I think there will be PTSD in all homeowners who stayed.
“Two days before the fire, I was sitting there in the living room with my coffee thinking, ‘I love this place.’ Earlier in the year, I had just finished redoing the house with air conditioning, repainting, new carpet and new drapes. I had a lot of original art and things I collected from all over the world, and family photos, and things from past generations – and I miss all that stuff that’s irreplaceable. But why dwell on it?
“It was my dream house. When we moved in back in 1995, I told my husband, ‘This is it. I can live in this house the rest of my life.’ He passed away at home six years ago. I was with him when he passed, and I had a major shift in my perspective on life.
“The night before the fire, I was watching a movie at the Malibu Film Society. They stopped the movie and said the fire was in Agoura Hills – so I looked at my friend said, ‘I’m out of here.’
“I got home, saw the fire was still over the (Santa Monica) mountains and went to bed. The next morning at 6:00 am, the two Pepperdine University students renting rooms from me knocked and said they smelled smoke. The sky was blue, but we saw on TV that the fire just crossed the 101 freeway. I looked at them and said, ‘Go pack,’ because once it crosses the 101, it’s going all the way to the ocean. I knew it was coming, and I know from experience that once you actually see the fire, you’re screwed.”
“I’d done 300 feet of brush clearance around the house. I had done all the right things with the vents, etc., so I didn’t expect to lose the house. But when I did, there’s part of me that was really sad, because I lost my safe space. I thought I could always come back to that place of security.
“I’m not angry that the first responders didn’t show up. It was a 14-mile wide fire front over the mountain. Up in the canyon, I didn’t expect any firefighters to be there.
“When the house burned down along with everything I owned, I’d only packed for two days, like I was going on a weekend trip. But before I left, some part of me said maybe I should take a few pretty things – so I went back and grabbed four little things and wrapped them in dish towels.
“When I was evacuating, I drove down the canyon to Pacific Coast Highway with my dog, and traffic heading down the coast was dead-stopped and gridlocked. I didn’t want the fire to come over the mountain and fry me while I was sitting in traffic. To me, that thought was terrifying.
“Local radio stations kept reporting that the highway was closed heading up the coast, so those lanes were empty. But I decided to take a chance: Sheriff’ deputies were just setting up the roadblock as I got to the end of Zuma Beach, but the officer looked at the empty lanes and said, ‘Go, go, go’ so we all floored it all the way up to Oxnard. The smoke was so thick, it was like night, and I was coughing and choking.
“Then we burst through to a perfect day with blue skies in Oxnard. It’s the weirdest thing to leave the flames and smoke and hell and suddenly burst through it to see people at the gas station,” Jackie said. “They were all acting like it was a totally normal day. It was very surreal.”
For now, Jackie is renting a furnished apartment in the Santa Barbara area -- saying that, after the trauma of the fire, it was a real relief not to have to go out and buy replacement household goods right away. “Being able to put all that replacement stuff on hold for a while was a gift,” she said. “The very thought of renting a place and having to buy furniture and dishes? I can’t tell you how overwhelming that was.
“The one thing I’d really like to say about this fire is that I have this very complete sense that it’s a good and positive experience. That I’m coming out of the ashes a more full and loving person and I know absolutely I’m taken care of and living in grace. Each of us has life’s lessons and I accept it, and I’m stepping up and learning to the very best of my ability.”
