Former KCCI Photographer Describes Devastating California Wildfires

LOS ANGELES — As wildfires continue to ravage Southern California, former KCCI photojournalist Jeff Christian, now a resident of Studio City, shared his harrowing experience of evacuating his family and witnessing the devastation firsthand. Christian, an Iowa native, described the fires as unlike anything he or even seasoned firefighters have ever seen.

‘I think even people that have been fighting fires their entire lives have never seen something like this,’ Christian said. The fires, which began spreading rapidly on Wednesday, forced Christian and his family to make the difficult decision to leave their home. ‘A couple hours later, homes began burning in Studio City,’ he recalled. ‘That’s when I kind of looked at my wife and said, ‘I think we need to go because if there are homes that are starting to burn around us, who’s to say that ours won’t be next?”

Christian and his family packed quickly and left for Palm Springs around 10 p.m. Wednesday night. The normally two-hour drive took much longer due to heavy traffic caused by evacuations. ‘There was traffic up and down as if it was rush hour on a Friday night. It was slammed at 10 o’clock on a Wednesday,’ he said.

Christian, who volunteered alongside other journalists in the Palisades before evacuating, described the exhaustion of first responders and the heartbreak of those who lost their homes. ‘People are exhausted. They’re really tired,’ he said. ‘I talked to a woman yesterday who had lost her home and she was still there. I couldn’t believe she was still there, and I think for her, she was in shock.’

The emotional toll of the fires is immense. ‘The house that you made breakfast in that morning is gone. The house you put your kids to bed in is gone,’ Christian said. ‘When it’s at that level, when it’s so many people, it just breaks your heart.’

Christian and his family are now safe in Palm Springs, but the fires continue to burn, leaving a trail of destruction and displacement in their wake.