Glimmers of Hope in the Eaton Fire!

Witness the astonishing aftermath of a wildfire where our house miraculously survived. The insurance inspector couldn't believe it, finding no smoke smell and minimal damage. See the incredible evidence of survival and resilience.

@RobStafford-17k

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Please reach out to us.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Welcome to another episode of Glimmers of Hope. And I'm Rob Stafford. And I'm happy to have Warren Thomas as our guest today. And we're going to be talking a little bit about the Alting of Fire and how he was affected by that. And so I just want to say, welcome, Warren. And you know, I hope you're doing well today. Yeah, thank you. It's good to see you again. Yeah, we've known each other for many years. Many years, many years. So when I ran into you, you know, you told me that uh you had quite an experience with Al Tedina Fire, and just wanted to have you share that with us, and uh I'll let you give your uh recounting of events.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Yeah, yeah. It was interesting because uh we've lived in Altadena uh off of uh Eaton Canyon on the uh Kineloa side. Okay. We've lived there since 96. Okay. And so a couple years before we moved in, there was a fire that had come down through the canyon. Right. And it actually burned down homes in that area. So remember that one. You know, we were fortunate in that when we moved in, uh, everything had been freshly burned from years ago, right? Right. And uh I know uh at the time I had clients and had uh friends that had lost homes in that fire. Uh, but of course, this fire uh was nothing like that fire. Right. So uh so our story on this one was uh I I had finished my work day. I I kind of split my days working either in our office on Colorado Boulevard downtown or uh my home office. And I'd finished my day working at the home office, and so went into the dining room about uh 610 or so, and the winds were howling. Right. Uh, but I was tired, ready to pull out my Bible and do some journaling. So uh as I sat down, um, got myself comfortable, and had not gone outside to look at anything, just heard the wind and didn't really pay, wasn't paying attention. And uh next thing I knew is my neighbor, his name is Fayez. Um, I see my my cell phone goes off, and it's Fayez calling. Well, he's my direct neighbor, and I thought, ah, it's only Fayez, I'm not gonna answer it. I'm gonna continue to do read my Bible, journal, you know, and and uh kind of end my day that way. So um the fire started at 620. He called at 625. Okay. So if five five minutes into it, our street was already evacuating. Wow. And um and I didn't again, I didn't pick up the phone, so I didn't think anything of it. So it's now quarter till seven, okay. And uh I'm on the side of the canyon, Rob, where uh the electrical towers are, you know, the medicine lines. I'm on the east side. I'm on the east side, yeah. And I'm uh three towers down from where it allegedly began. Okay, and those winds, um, they were strong enough. I had a I have a hedge in the yard, or I did, that it actually uprooted my hedge because of the strength of those winds. And people don't understand how strong that was, you know, if you weren't there, and particularly our houses right there on the canyon where those winds hit it really hard. Um, so it's now quarter till, uh, and all my neighbors have packed up and they're on their way out, or they're gone already. Okay. Okay, so in 20 minutes from the time the fire started. And um uh I get then I see my phone goes off again, and I'm still there doing my degree. Uh and and uh my phone goes off, and this time it's my CCO. Okay, and she's calling me from Boise, Idaho, where she lives. Okay, and uh she calls and she says, uh Warren, she says, Um, there's a fire behind your house. I just want to give you a heads up. And I go, okay. So from Boise. So I go out, I open the front door, and I I start to walk out on the porch and I see that the street is on fire, like the the the trees and stuff up the street. Wow, got the red, they're on fire. And coming up to my door is now a police officer who's coming to help evacuate. Okay. So I hand him my car key and I ask him to pull my car out of the garage because as you know, my wife Ruth is uh uh uses a walker and she's handicapped and moves fairly slow, you know, compared to somebody that's in a rush. Right. Um, so I went and got Ruth and I grabbed my uh my computer bag and and we got in the car that was then pulled out and we drove off. And so uh that was the beginning of the process. Well, called my uh admin assistant and called our daughter who lives down on Orange Grove and uh asked them both to try to find a hotel room. Well, it was still so early in the process because we were out of the house before seven o'clock, even though we got late start. That late start, yeah. And so on my driving out of my driveway and down my little street, I was calling them and they were booking the hotels. So uh at first we we stopped at my daughter's house and asked her if she'd pull some leftovers out so we can have some dinner. And as we're eating dinner, uh down there at Orange Grove, she gets the evacuation notice as well. Okay. So now we're heading with her uh to the courtyard Marriott on Fair Oaks. And okay, and that was the beginning of our experience with the fire.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

We've had several guests where they they had to do two and three evacuations because it was just yeah, yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Yeah. So and by the time we got down there, we had already had the room booked, you know, plenty in plenty of time. The lines were pretty horrendous, you know, cars around the block, and even going into that room. And um, I don't mind being at any of the Marriott's, they're good hotels. But even inside the room, there were ashes on the inside windowsills because those winds were so strong they were driving ash. So the room didn't smell all that good, but we ended up in that room uh for the next you know 11 days. So yeah. Um, but part of the story that I think is is uh quite unusual is that the next day we're sitting in the the hotel room, and you of course all the news is of evacuations and the fire spreading, and um it's it's all pretty bad news basically. And uh um we're wondering, well, what's the condition of the house? And uh that's where uh we ended up getting, I get a text from one of my graphic artists, because we've got a bunch of employees, so and they're scattered all over the country. But um one of my graphic artists, he says, Well, I knew you lived close to the fire, so I was praying for you last night, and as I was praying, God showed me angels protecting your house and told me to tell you that your house is still there and it's fine. And I'm going, Well, this is a young man named Matt, and I don't know Matt all that well. Um, so I took it with a grain of salt, and I go, Well, that's good. Okay. Um, and then the next thing was a voicemail, and I get a voicemail from one of my wife's caregivers. And of course, she's in our house every week. And uh she said, Well, I was praying for you guys last night, and as I prayed, Jesus showed me the angels protecting your house, and so I'm just letting you know that your house is protected, it's fine, and the the reason it's fine is because you're always entertaining people that are doing Christian ministries around the globe, which actually we do all the time where we have people in. Um, and so with that, that's the second message. And I'm going, okay, I still don't can't get up to see the house, don't know. And really, the night before, I was watching my security cameras and I'm watching my my neighbors' security cameras until the power went out in our neighborhood at about seven after nine. Okay. And so I'm watching all of my landscape go up in flames. I'm watching the pool equipment and the gas lines flaring off of my pool equipment, and I'm watching, you know, embers hitting the top of my roof, which fortunately is a concrete shingle. Right. You know, they look like shingles, but the concrete. Yeah. So that was the last I saw of the how the house that night, right? Was watching those videos, uh, the security cams. Um, so second message again is the caregiver. Jesus told her this, and it's because we entertain people at the house. So, okay, well, that's nice too. Okay. The third one was a big surprise. Um, you you would have known my older daughter from school back in the days, high school days. But uh, so she calls me from out of state and she says, Dad, I just got the strangest call. I had a girlfriend of mine uh call me and she said she knew that you guys lived in Pasadena, so she's been praying for you. And while she prayed, Jesus showed her angels protecting your house. And um she said, and that I should that she was to call, call me to tell you. So she told her that she told our daughter, and our daughter calls. Okay, and she also said that our house wouldn't even smell like smoke. It would be like in the Old Testament, there's a story, which I know you know, about uh Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Yeah, and the king of Bab Babylon throws them into the fiery furnace, right? Right, and they come out not even singed, and um uh even though anybody else would have melted in that fire. So that was part of the message that this this girlfriend of hers says, well, as she was praying for us, uh that was a message would be similar to Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego. We wouldn't even have the scent of smoke in the house. Okay. Still, I don't do it. The weekend, I I mean, still we can't see the house. I don't know. Yeah, and um the weekend before was uh the Christmas week, right, and the Rose Parade and all that. So we had had our four kids, the nine grandkids, all of them were at the house and staying in Pasadena and went to the parade with us. And we were debating whether or not to pull the trigger on buying a house out of the area. Okay. Okay, so this is how much I believed the people that were telling me the house is okay. Uh-huh. I called my son-in-law and I say, go ahead and make an offer on this house. So he makes an offer on a house. Okay. Um, but uh that was that was three stories that day that all said the house would be fine. Okay. And of course, we didn't know, but we were grateful for the stories. And then we ended up getting back into the house just a few days later. We were able to move back in the house eleven days later. Nothing in the house smelled of smoke. Wow. Nothing in the house. Um, like along the window sills of our single, we have both double pane and single pane windows, depending on which windows they are. And on the single pane, there was a little bit of dust. Yeah, of a little bit of uh on the windowsills, but the rest of the house there was really nothing. And so, you know, I went through and still had the carpet clean, right? Also did the dry cleaning of the draperies and did, you know, went through the preventative, but um, but that was you know a story of God's faithfulness. Now it it went a little beyond that on a couple different and there wait, wait, it there's more. There's more. So a month later, we were at a a retreat in Palm Springs, okay, and we support a uh mission work throughout the Middle East. Okay. We've supported it for many years. And so the director of that work, who's from Beirut, Lebanon, um, and uh he was there, and I said, Nadem, uh, the night of the fire, were you praying for us when you heard about the fire? Oh yes, Brother Warren, we had to pray for you. Uh well, did you hear anything? Did God tell you anything? He says, Oh yes, he showed me angels protecting your house. And and uh so I questioned, I said, Are those are you sure? And he, yes, he showed me the angels. So then he went to sleep. He says, Well, I woke, he tells me, he says, I woke up three times, still worried about you. Each time God showed me the same angels protecting your house. So that was a month later. Wow, that was really reassuring. Um, then we had the fire uh inspectors come, the insurance agency, you know, the insurance folks, and the uh the the guy that was our inspector, uh he circles around the house and he sees all that happened around the outside of the house. And and actually we had we had uh windows that cracked, but like just a couple windows, and the glass that popped out was this two slivers the size of your index finger. Okay. That's it. Wow. So that was where the smoke could come into the house through the house. Then, of course, you've got your vents up above. But so he walks around the house and he sees the damage to all the landscaping is pretty much gone. Right. Right. He sees all of that and he's shaking his head, he says, This is impossible. Your house can't still be here. And we go into the house, and I tell him, I said, I want you to take a big smell, see if you smell anything at all. Yes. And he he says, Nothing. He says, Uh you don't even have a scent of smoke. And then I said, Well, I know I know you're going up into the garage or the attic, right? And so he goes up in the attic, he comes back down, he says, he says, I don't understand it. He says, There's one area next to the event that's got a little bit of evidence, but there's really nothing here. So so that was that was part of our expert was a major part of our experience of the fire, and I know that is not common. Uh September 15th, we had these other missionaries that we support. They're Turkish, they're in Turkey doing their work, and they were visiting the U.S. We had arranged for them to come by the house, and so they came by. I answered the door, opened the door, and the wife hands my wife and I a picture of an angel, and she says, This is just a reminder that the night of the fire, when we were praying for you, just like I texted you, your house is protected by angels. God showed us the angels that night, just like I texted you, and I said, You never texted us this. Oh, yes, I did. Look at you. So I'm looking at the WhatsApp, I'm looking at the text, she never sent any message. Uh-huh. Uh, but she brings a picture of an angel eight months later. Wow. Um, because it meant meant so much to her. And I never told her the story about the angels at all. So this was just her doing that.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

So I mean four or five totally unconnected. Unconnected, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

And and I will say the connection is that uh we were, you know, God was gracious, he protected the house. Um, I think there's a there is a reason which was expressed as to why, but it's really all of grace. You know, it's like glimmers of hope, as you say, it's like I I have so many clients and so many very close friends that lost everything. So it's even being on here, it's hard to be on a podcast like this because my story is not the normal at all. No, I recognize that. I can say that that's uh quite different.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So we've been in a position to, you know, trying to assist others. Um I I for years I ran a tax practice, and so we've been talking to folks about how they can deal with the damages and from that. Uh that's not what I do these days, but um there's been plenty of opportunity to just uh attempt to encourage people and help people. But uh yeah, so my stories or our stories are unusual. Um, but there is hope. God does love us. Yes. And he would have loved us just as much if the house had gone up, too.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

But uh well, and you bring up a point about the taxes because what I've been reading and hearing is that the if your house burned down and you know, selling your house and doing this and getting insurance proceeds, it's kind of like it could be a mess. Yeah, so that's really awesome that you're uh using your expertise to help people out.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

So yeah, yeah, because folks have uh rental properties up there that they need to go into another one if they're not if they're gonna abandon that, but they've got insurance proceeds that came to them, they need to reinvest, otherwise they may not realize that they they're gonna get hammered. They're gonna get hammered, yeah. And the same can be true for the loss of a personal residence when your cost basis is really low. Right. So, yeah, there's some complex issues there, or the seemingly complex, but um there's also I think every CPA firm in Pasadena is well aware of what to do. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Well, we got you know, the fire came uh and burned three houses like ten houses away from us, so you know, we were fortunate that we didn't burn down, but uh it was a blessing, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Well now everything is is coming together. I'm really happy to see how much construction is taking place, particularly by those that have been proactive in working with their insurance companies and working with their contractors. So uh I'm sure you know many more people than I do that are in the process of building and making good progress. So um I'm really happy to see that. Um after shortly after the fire, uh one of my partners had had moved out of town, and so I I drove him up on Brayburn where his house was, you know, and uh he was able to see the lot and mourn a little bit from that, and he was no longer there. But uh I think those a lot of those neighbors are gonna come back really fast. And they'll they won't have the character that they once had in the same way.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Yeah, I mean it's gonna be like a rebirth, but yeah, you know different.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Yeah, so yeah, and then you know we've been able to we've replanted all of the landscaping and that uh it is amazing again uh as growth starts to occur, it's it's only been a year, right? And uh replanting, you're seeing all of that new growth, it's really encouraging, and and and for a lot of us, uh you know, it might be that you even did better in the changes you make to your property or whatever could could be better.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

So well, so I just want to kind of revisit something. So you called up your son-in-law and said, make an offer on the house. So are you gonna stay or should I go?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah, um, well, it's a great question. So I ended up buying a house. Okay. And uh the house is up in Idaho. Okay. And if you want a place to live, it's it's available most of the time because I'm still living down here in reality. Okay. But uh uh within six minutes of that house, I've got three of my grandkids. Okay. And um, you know, it there's a a reason we we were seriously, we're gonna buy, I narrowed it down to three houses the weekend before. Okay, and so this was really coming to that choice of which house was gonna be the house. Okay. But but frankly, if you and your wife need a place to go and you want to access it, it's available to you anytime, no charge, and and you're uh like a little getaway? Yeah, it's like 3,800 square feet of getaway. Well, thank you. It's more than you need.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Well, thank you. Yeah, so you're at some point in time, you're do you plan on uh uh relocating there and so you can be. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

I think so. So um our our business when I stopped uh running a CPA firm in 2007, and then we launched a uh 1031 exchange company and um launched it down here in Pasadena. So we were on prior to COVID, we had 80 to 90 employees that would come into the office every day. We've got about 190 employees now. Almost everybody's most of them are remote. Okay, and we do have an office up in Court Alain. Oh I've got an office in Iowa, and then the one in Pasadena. Okay. So there's a there's a reason the grandkid reason and a business reason why Idaho makes sense. And then there's a tax reason. They have a lot lower tax rate than you get in California. So I would imagine so. Yeah. So uh uh, but it's really hard to leave this beautiful weather. And right, I love it down here.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

I s I struggle with uh um because being a fourth generation California That's all I know. Yeah, and and I mean you can't beat the I would I

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Raised in San Diego, you know, and beautiful weather, right? And uh my great-great-grandparents came to California in the 1880s and 1890s. So they might have known mine.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

That's when my that's when my peeps came.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So back aways.

unknown 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Anyway, I don't know that, you know, I I'm I'm hopeful for the community. I think that uh it's making progress. Everything takes longer than than you would like, but right. Um I'm also I know there's a lot of experiences with insurance and uh some good, some good, some bad ours was very good. Right. You know, we didn't we had landscape damage, we had pool equipment damage. We didn't really have anything in the house other than uh the couple crack windows that had to be replaced. But I would say that uh, and we had California Fair Plan. Oh dear, you know, but and they they treated Joke? They did a good job.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

That that's the first time I've heard that.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah, no, they did a good job. I think they were really fair on their numbers and um some things that they covered, I I truly didn't expect them to cover, but um they did.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

And so well, I'm glad to hear I'm glad to hear that you had a good experience because I have not heard um any good uh uh experiences. Yeah, yeah. But no, uh you're talking about your landscape and everything. We have friends that uh from church that they had just redone their pool. Just put all the new landscape in it. Everything perfect around their in their backyard. And the house there they just came from behind and burned everything on that on the street behind them, and their house didn't burn, but uh all their brand new backyard, beautiful backyard that they hadn't even gotten a chance to to use, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Uh so well my backyard, my backyard didn't survive, but it's been I mean the grass survived fine. And um I had I had the pool cover on that night. Okay. So uh my pool is 22 by 40 feet, so it's a big rectangle. Okay, and the the pool cover um had uh a few holes in it, and the insurance company covered a new one, right? I didn't have the same level of damage, all those houses that had pools uncovered, they really went through damage to their pools, and I didn't have that. So we had a lot of the water re was retained in the pool. We when the the uh heater and gas, you know, the gas the pool heater went up in flames, it also the valves broke, and so the pool level dropped about two to three feet. Okay, but it we didn't get dirty okay because they had the pool cover. So uh you were really covered. We were we were covered by that pool cover. So yeah, and and we're our house happens to be uh down close to High Point Academy. Okay, and uh because didn't because the church the church across the street burned down. That's right, that's just south of us. Okay, that's actually about the closest structure on the south of us is the church. Okay, yeah. And then uh uh the uh during all that time, all those utility trucks, fire trucks, they all parked down there where Magic Growers is, you know, I think now they call themselves Growing Magic, but they had parked there, so magic growers lost about a third of their inventory because they couldn't get in to water it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, and that that became a little bit of a challenge to those of us that are residents there because we had to we had to get past that, which meant the first number of days you had to go up um around and through the back gates and all of that to get in. But okay, but it worked out.

SPEAKER_02 26:05

Well, I'm I'm glad uh you had an awesome story to tell, and you had many glimmers. Many glimmers, yeah. Many glimmers.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

And uh, so how did that the picture of the angels like was it uh full wings or you know it it was uh I'm just gonna just no, I know it's it's kind of funny you would ask because uh yeah, this little picture of the angels got wings. This angel particularly looks like a girl angel if you can have a girl or a boy angel, it's got more of that, but it's a picture of an angel, you know. I can't I that's great, yeah. That's and and and really the story that I that uh the different stories uh yeah had to do with uh angels and more than one. Yeah, so this one picture of an angel. I I I say it was indicative of of what people were talking about, but it probably wasn't a real picture of these angels. That would be interesting if somebody walked up to me and gave me that next.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

But yeah. Well, our time has uh coming come to an end. And uh just want to thank you for uh joining our podcast. Yeah, appreciate and uh appreciate taking the time. And with that, thank you for watching, and we'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Thanks for watching. Please reach out to us. Info at glimmers of hope.me