Greg Champion was heading to his business in Pacific Palisades on Tuesday morning when he encountered flames so intense he felt the heat and smoke so thick it was difficult to breathe.
Champion, 56, was about 100 yards from the entrance to his company, Startup Recovery, a drug treatment and addiction center in Paseo Miramar, when officials fighting the Palisades Fire stopped him. there was.
The firefighter said, “If you go any further, you will die.”
While he and a treatment center employee headed to an addiction recovery center, other staff members were evacuating all patients.
Champion led firefighters down a hill away from his workplace to his home on Glenora Road. He and his family spent one night gathering their belongings and belongings, then drove through traffic for an hour and a half to escape the Pacific Palisades.
Firefighters descended on the wind-driven Palisades fire Tuesday.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
They were looking for a hotel room for the night and monitoring news reports. Champion’s daughters attend Calvary Christian School and Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center Chabad. Champion watched his late school burn on television.
“The best thing to do is prepare for evacuation,” he said. “I have three beautiful daughters, a wonderful wife and two dogs. Rather than being sorry, I’m just going to be safe.”
At Calvary Christian School, one teacher told the Times he was surprised by the speed of the Palisades fire.
“We’ve had fires before and we’re always very careful. We’re always careful about safety,” said the educator, who was not authorized to speak publicly. . “But this one showed up right away. It looked like something out of a movie. I was really surprised.”
Fifteen minutes after the first report of a fire at the school, located at 701 Palisades Drive, fire engines from the 23rd Precinct began racing toward the road. Schools initially instructed instructors to keep students indoors and began distributing masks.
People watch the Palisades Fire from the California Incline in Santa Monica on Tuesday afternoon.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“There was an enormous amount of smoke on campus,” the teacher said. “You could see the flames. Some of the students were upset that their homes were occupied or set on fire. It was very traumatic.”
Most students had already left school when school administrators decided to evacuate the school as parents began arriving to pick up their children. Teachers, along with other staff members, were closely monitoring who was picking up children. “I can’t hand over my children to someone I don’t know.”
The remaining children walked hand in hand along Palisades Drive to Station 23, guided by staff. From there, due to poor air quality and road closures, they continued to the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping first at Gladstone’s Restaurant and then walking down the street. It is about a mile and a half from the school to Bel Air Bay Club on the highway.
“We’ve been walking all along,” said the teacher. “We did a good job of getting the kids. Some couldn’t get home because of the fire. It happened so quickly.”
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