A selfie by Katherine Turman in front of her Pasadena/Altadena home on Jan. 9, 2025 . Photo: Katherine Turman
Amid the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, there have been many harrowing stories of residents in the impacted areas evacuating to safety with nothing more than a few belongings and questions of whether their homes would be still standing when they return.
One of those evacuees is journalist and author Katherine Turman, who only relocated back to her native California less than a year ago.
In this first-person account, told to PEOPLE’s David Chiu, Turman recalls spending time in the Pacific Palisades as a youth, the tense moments surrounding her evacuation during the Eaton fire and the scenes in her neighborhood upon her return days later.