California boy details horrifying moments leading up to loss of home: ‘A lot of stuff I love is gone’

My brother-in-law is a fireman, and needless to say, they're frustrated and angry at the cuts the city made to the fire budget last year."

Others highlighted systemic failures, with one commenter stating

Meghan Daumamerican author, essayist, and journalist

When we think of people losing their homes in fires in California, we think of rich people, we think of those people abandoning their BMWs only to have them bulldozed,

Daum said

Meghan Daumamerican author, essayist, and journalist

This city will never be the same again,

Daum said

The devastation is impossible to comprehend. Such a tragedy,

one listener commented

Meghan Daumamerican author, essayist, and journalist

I've lost my home. I am safe,

Daum said, capturing the bittersweet reality faced by many survivors

I was sure I was leaving out of an abundance of caution. I'd be back in a few days at most,

she recalled about her decision to evacuate

Your description of your neighborhood was touching and captivating,

said another

I fell to the ground, and I didn't know - I didn't want to look at him,

Shari told KTLA News

You know, when you're younger, you don't really appreciate your sibling,

Shari said

I can't imagine what he might have been thinking, how he might have been so frightened,

Shari Shaw, Victor's sister, told

Our firefighters are out putting out the remnants of the fires in these structures when they're coming across these victims,

Anthony Marrone, the Los Angeles County Fire Chief, told LA

But other than that, everything was still smoldering, and there were burnt cars and trees, just chimneys standing, ... It was awful.

she added

When I went back in and yelled out his name, he didn’t reply back, and I had to get out because the embers were so big and flying like a firestorm – I had to save myself,

she told the local TV station KTLA

They didn’t make it out,

said White, the Associated Press reported

He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,

added White, who lives in Arkansas

It was so special to me and it's going to make me a little sad, but, I don't know why, but this is what happened to our house,

the boy said

It all happened so fast. We thought there would be time to return, to save more of our belongings, but within less than just 5hours, the entire neighborhood was consumed. We grabbed our kids, our 2dogs, and left with what little we could carry,

her post said

I wanted to check on it and see if it was not broken and my dad took a video that it was broken,

he says

I’ve seen really bad fires, but this is the worst I’ve ever seen,

said Harley, 28, who did not give his last name