California family recounts dramatic fire evacuation
California residents Julie, Lillian and Kelia Davies discuss their evacuation from the Pacific Palisades area due to wildfires and structural damage to their local community on ‘The Faulkner Focus’.
A family from California filmed their terrifying escape from Pacific Palisades region after forest fires forced them to evacuate.
On Jan. 7, 11-year-old Lillian Davies took the video of her mother, Julie, driving down Palisades Drive to escape the wildfires that were raging in the area. In the video, the sky is dark yellow with smoke clogging the air. Lillian is heard exclaiming, “We’re literally driving into the fire.”
Later in the video, while the family was still driving past the fire, Julie prayed for the safety of her family and for their community. “Holy Spirit, protect the whole house, protect all the people – bring everyone out…”
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The family, including Lillian’s 14-year-old sister Kelia, joined in “Faulkner’s Focus” on Thursday. Julie told the show that when she received the first evacuation alert, they were in Highlands in Pacific Palisades.
“We knew we had to get out fast,” she said.
“We started going down Palisades Drive, which is the only road out of the area,” Julie added, explaining that the fire was approaching “very quickly,” which made her nervous when her car was temporarily caught in traffic near the end of the drive. “At that point it was uncertain how long we were going to be there.”
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Lillian later explained why she started recording the video while she and her mother were running away. “I thought it was clouds, but it was actually smoke,” she said. “And then I saw the flames, and we were like, oh my God, there’s fire right there.”
Kelia, who was not in the car during the filming, was asked in an interview with Fox News what was left in her local community.
“There are some buildings still standing and some of our friends’ homes, but most of it is gone,” she replied.
An aerial view shows debris from burned properties after the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA on January 10, 2025. (REUTERS/Daniel Cole)
“And most of all, the things that we love and all the places that we used to go to are gone. So it’s been really hard. But, you know, we’re still hoping that, you know, God will get through it and just help everybody through this time,” she added.
Many areas of the Los Angeles metropolitan area have been affected by ongoing wildfires outside of the Pacific Palisades, including nearby Eaton. Both forest fires in those areas are among the most destructive in the country’s history.
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