At around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7, a small fire was reported near the Pacific Palisades, an affluent residential neighborhood in west Los Angeles. As of Jan. 17, it’s estimated that 50-75% of the region has been burned to the ground, with over five thousand structures decimated. 

Over the past week, the fires have spread and caused unprecedented damage to the rest of Los Angeles. At least 27 people have died as a result of the flames and an estimated $150 billion in damages have been accrued. 

Students from DePaul’s College of Computing and Digital Media, having just arrived in the city days earlier to start the university’s LA quarter program, found themselves at the mercy of the elements. Their housing, the Kapi Residences at AVA Hollywood, is located close to the Hollywood Hills. 

Tess Detwiler, a senior at DePaul, recalls how suddenly her experience was uprooted. “I got into the city on Friday the third,” Detwiler said. “I was going to go into my internship but they told me to work from home. I was trying to stay in my apartment building and not go outside because the air quality was so bad.”

That evening, a small fire in the Hollywood Hills quickly expanded and was named the Sunset Fire. Detwiler, along with a few other students who had family in the city, decided to leave of her own volition. 

“Around 20 minutes after the fire was identified, I grabbed my classmate, Rob Luedtke, and we were like ‘let’s go,’” Detwiler said. “About 15 minutes after we got to my uncle’s house, Becky Krochmal, who is the associate director of LA quarter operations, emailed everybody and basically said ‘we’re having you all evacuate.’”

While no formal evacuation order was placed by the city of Los Angeles for where DePaul students were housed, it was close enough that administrators found it best to relocate the remaining students to a hotel near LAX, according to Detwiler. 

Kimberlie Goldsberry, interim vice president of Student Affairs, issued a statement about the situation on Jan. 16. 

“This is a difficult time for communities in Los Angeles, including those at DePaul whose family and friends have been directly affected,” Goldsberry said. “All of our students in the LA Programs — 28 in LA Quarter and 11 in MFA in Creative Producing — are safe and accounted for. Student housing and classrooms for the program were not damaged by the fires.”

Classes were moved online for the following week and students had been relocated to a hotel in Anaheim. While observing safety guidelines laid out by the university, students were able to return to the Kapi Residences on Jan. 18. 

“DePaul is providing students with health and safety guidance, N95 masks and stipends for expenses,” Goldsberry said. “We recognize that this is an uncertain time and an unfolding situation, and we will continue to monitor and adapt as needed to keep students safe.”

Matthew Quinn, director of LA programs, echoed Goldsberry’s sentiments. 

“Our students have shown great resilience during this time, and we’re grateful to them for their flexibility,” Quinn said. “We remain committed to ensuring that the LA Quarter continues — albeit with some adjustments — providing students with the immersive and enriching experience that defines this program.”

Detwiler felt reassured that the university was quick to respond. 

“We had a mandatory Zoom meeting (on the ninth) with all the students on the trip,” Detwiler said. “There were lots of DePaul admin on the call, lots of Chicago-based people. The dean of CDM was on the call. It was definitely like big head honchos there. It was nice to know that lots of people are involved. It was pretty much just them asking what we needed from them.”

Unfortunately, students originally from the Los Angeles area were faced with more chaos. Jack Lorenz, a junior at DePaul, worried in Chicago while his family had to evacuate his home in Pasadena. 

“Our house didn’t burn down, which was really great,” Lorenz said. “(My family) stayed at my uncle’s house for two or three nights, but they’re back at home now. A lot of people I know are still not at home, because in some cases there’s just nothing to go back to. They’re just trying to figure out where to go from here.”

David Morales, a junior at the University of Oregon, faced that reality firsthand when he discovered that his home had been burned down by the Eaton Fire. 

“The fire reached my house and neighborhood on Jan. 7, which is also when my family needed to evacuate,” Morales said. “Jan. 8 is when we found out our house had been destroyed along with all of our belongings.”

Morales was assured that his family home would be reimbursed by insurance and that they would be able to rebuild when conditions were safe. 

He may be a rare case in that regard; many Angelinos found themselves without funds to rebuild after insurers found that the additional cost of fire insurance was too much to bear when renegotiating their home insurance. 

“You can look at the situation through the eyes of an insurance company and think, ‘Hmm, an area without rain in eight months. This is the Santa Ana wind season, and all the mountains around it are dead. So a fire happens. You know, we lose a lot of money,’” Lorenz said. “It seems inhumane to be like ‘we want our businesses to stay focused, and we want money more than we care about these people.’”

Despite the tragedy, communities around Los Angeles have been banding together to support one another. 

“A lot of people are opening up their homes, giving huge donations to evacuation centers where people can stay,” Lorenz said. “Restaurants are providing people with food, people are giving clothes away … people are eager to rebuild.”

Morales found that same kind of support from his own community. 

“During the fire many people felt alone, as they were losing everything they had in the blink of an eye,” Morales said. “I personally have received an overwhelming amount of love and support from family, friends and people I have never met. It goes to show how loving and caring the community is and how impactful these events have been.”

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