A Saskatchewan business owner lost her Los Angeles home as wildfires ravage parts of the city.
“Everything is gone, our whole community, it’s unbelievable.” Nadia Williamson, the owner of Regina based bridal business NWL Dresses said on Friday. “Everything, thousands of homes have disappeared, elementary schools, high schools.”
Williamson, who runs a satellite store in Santa Monica, said she got a text from her neighbour while she was at work earlier this week telling her to come home.
“They were like, ‘You should really come home like, we are evacuating. You should really come get some stuff and your pets and come home and deal with everything,’” she recalled. “I was kind of like, you know, we have fires every year. I wasn’t taking it that seriously, but she urged me to go back.”
Williamson said she drove back, grabbed her two cats, and then returned to work. She said three hours after she returned to work, the entirety of her community in Pacific Palisades was gone.
“That’s what it felt like. I don’t know the exact timeline, but everything is gone,” she said.
Williamson said she has been moving from one place to another since the wildfire destroyed her home.
“I’m already in my third location. Now I’m at a friend’s house in Manhattan Beach. On the night, I left at 2 a.m. my husband and I were in an Airbnb in Marina del Rey, we woke up and the smoke was horrible, so I called my friend at 2 a.m. last night, we drove here to Manhattan Beach, and now I’m taking my first walk in three days,” she explained.
“It’s scary,” she added. “Nowhere feels safe. No area really feels safe.”
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Williamson said that before evacuating, she was able stop at her store in Santa Monica to grab gowns for the brides whose weddings are coming up soon.
“I took them to my husband’s office, which is also in Santa Monica, but a little bit closer the other way of the fire. So hopefully they’re safe [there],” she said.
Williamson said she continues to experience different emotions, but the community support has been helping everyone deal with the situation.
“To be honest, it’s been very scary, and my brain is all over the place. You know, one minute, I feel like I’m strong and I can handle it and, and I do, I have a lot of support. Like, I just have to say that there’s huge community support,” she said.
“I’m just kind of playing it one day at a time, to be honest,” she added. ”We just need to be safe at this point. I think you’re just in survival safety mode. We’re not really thinking about, you know, we have to start thinking about where we’re going to live long term. But right now, we’re just kind of hopping from place to place.”
Diminished winds are aiding firefighting efforts but the fire remains out of control in some parts of Los Angeles. Canada is assisting with the military transport of equipment while some provinces are either already on scene or preparing to send waterbombers. If requested, Saskatchewan could join in.
“Right now, we have not been requested to assist California but we could be if there is a request, like any good niehgbour, if there is a request we would take a moment to see how we could fulfill that and get as much help as we can,” said Saskatchewan Fire Commissioner Marlo Pritchard.
Saskatchewan is in constant contact with national agencies that coordinate firefighting efforts and will be ready to assist if a call for help comes in.
- With files from CTV News Channel and Wayne Mantyka
