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Kevin Devine’s mother last heard from him on January 7th.
He was talking on the phone with his mother, Margaret Devine, from their apartment on Boston Street in Altadena about a gift she had given him. The next day, she was able to pick it up at a local market in Michigan. But as the night wore on, Margaret kept seeing updates about fires in Los Angeles and asked her son if he was okay.
“I said, ‘Kevin, you have to leave,’ and he said, ‘Mom, it’s okay,'” she recalled.
What happened next, why Kevin Devine occupied such a strange place in the Los Angeles fires, missing but not confirmed dead.
Kevin Devine remains missing after the Eaton Fire in Altadena.
(Margaret Devine)
The homeowner saw him in his car outside the apartment shortly after 9 p.m., but hasn’t heard from him since. His car is not at the apartment complex, so it is unlikely that he returned. His family does not know where he went or if he was caught in the fast-moving Eaton Fire.
We also checked hospitals and convention centers, but could not find any information. His mother is already speaking in the past tense.
he was an actor. He was a substitute teacher.
Margaret Devine is not alone.
Fires destroyed homes in the Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena, leaving countless people unable to make it out in time. Firefighters and law enforcement officers are beginning to dig through the rubble and uncover bodies.
Most of the people initially reported missing in the fire were found safe, but hope dwindles as the days pass. Margaret and the other children know that Kevin Devine would reach out to them if he could.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the Times on Thursday that 31 people remain unaccounted for, including 24 from the Eaton Fire and seven from the Palisades Fire.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s tally of those missing in the Palisades fire is slightly different, with the department saying five people are still missing, instead of seven. The Los Angeles Police Department initially said 38 people were missing in the fire, but later announced that 30 people were found safe and three were found dead.
Officials have warned that the number of people still missing means the death toll from the fires is likely to rise, although not significantly. As of Thursday, authorities had confirmed 17 deaths in the Eaton Fire and 10 deaths in the Palisades Fire.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Wednesday that the search and recovery of the body is underway.
“They… use cadaver dogs to try to locate and recover bodies. That’s because, as you know, we have a responsibility to families with missing relatives and we do everything we can to help them. Because we can do it as respectfully as possible,” he said. “There are probably…some people who haven’t been reported missing.”
Mr McDonnell said he expected the death toll to rise further.
Cal Fire Deputy State Fire Marshal Michelle Knight inspected the damage to a home destroyed in the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Wednesday.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
On Tuesday morning, search and rescue teams converged on the Rose Bowl Incident Command Center near Map of Altadena and began another grid search of a large area of Altadena. Teams are in the area daily to search for bodies in the rubble, said Sgt. Bob Vose of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Some across the county heard the news they had been dreading.
Miva Friedli’s house was destroyed in the fire, but her niece Ruth Brown said no one knew what happened to her.
Her family reported the 86-year-old missing and were agonized over her fate. They shared the hashtag #HelpUsFindMiva, but Brown said he wasn’t sure if she had fled the fire and disappeared elsewhere.
But on Thursday, what would have been Friedli’s 87th birthday, her family confirmed that search and rescue teams had found her body among the rubble of her home.
“It’s a blessing because we found her,” Brown said. “If we can get some closure, we can move on.”
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