Couple Escapes Palisades Fire Less Than 1 Month After Fleeing Separate Blaze: 'Just Not Real'
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01/09/2025 01:28 PM
"I'm still coughing from the last time," Alec Gellis said
A Southern California couple is detailing their terror after they escaped from two separate fires in less than a month.
Alec Gellis and his girlfriend, Kelly Lauren, found themselves in the midst of the fire in Pacific Palisades near his home on Tuesday, Jan. 7, he told CBS affiliate KCAL-TV.
"It was like a vortex of embers," Gellis, who recorded his evacuation on his phone, told the news station. "There was no oxygen. I couldn't breathe. I barely even made it to my car."
Previously, Gellis and his partner were forced to evacuate from the Franklin Fire, which began on Monday, Dec. 9, and burned more than 4,000 acres near Malibu.
"It's just not real. I mean, a month — less than a month, my lungs weren't even better from the last time. I'm still coughing from the last time," Gellis said.
Lauren, who lives in Carbon Canyon, lost her home and prized possessions.
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"It's just hard," Lauren said. "Everything I'd, like, written for my whole life. I journal and write a lot, it's just the little things you remember afterwards."
She added, "It reminds me of, like, the value of what is not tangible."
On Thursday, Jan. 9, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said the death toll from the fires remains unknown. So far, thousands of structures have been affected in what is already the most destructive firestorm in the city's history which has also disrupted a growing list of events and business activities.
The fires have spread quickly in different parts of the city, and information is still evolving about the scale of the destruction and when the blazes will start to be contained.
Click here to learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.
