A California wildfire continues to wreck devastation, destroying homes. One woman, who had a 175-pound tortoise, detailed escaping from the inferno. The fire ended up destroying several of her family's homes.
Fortunately, she and her family including her pet tortoise escaped the devastation unharmed.
"I mean, everybody lost their house," Caitlin Doran told People. "So it's all of us. We're all going to be figuring it out together, but there's nothing to go back to."
Doran added, "We're fifth-generation Palisadians. My mom, we lived across the street from my grandparents where my mom grew up. My aunt and uncle are three streets down, all gone. All of our houses are gone. My grandpa's, the property owner for the Ralphs, the Pharmaca, the hardware store and the car wash. I think the Ralphs is gone. I mean, the whole community's gone."
Woman With 175 Pound Tortoise
"We were on the roof just watching until we broke out the hoses," she said. However, by Wednesday, she and her family were forced to evacuate their homes. "Once the water stopped, then that's when my boyfriend was like, 'No, there's nothing left to do.'"
The family made the difficult decision of choosing what they were going to take with them and save from the blaze.
"They grabbed a couple of things that they could, but we were at the house all day," she says. "We were watching the flames and I mean, maybe we in hindsight could have packed a couple more things, but you just never know. Really don't know. What do you take? There are so many things that come into play. I feel like that. I mean, it's just kind of in that fight or flight — you're watching your house burn."
"The plan is we're all going to move in together, be one big happy family," Doran said. "I mean, it's quite the shift, but I feel like at least seeing how my family has reacted so far, what do you do? They're going to be strong about it, [and] I feel like they're community-driven people. So I feel like we're already feeling the love from the community so much. I mean, we've been so lucky."
