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Wildfires continue to rage in California, with five deaths reported and reports that more than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed so far, affecting residents and visitors alike.
A former Winnipegger who has lived in Los Angeles for the past three years told 680 CJOB’s News that while he is safe from disaster, it is dangerously close to home.
“My friend got a mid-morning evacuation notice — a 9:30-10:00 a.m. call — and by 2:00 p.m. his house was gone,” Dave Shore said.
“And now the entire residential area of Pacific Palisades, which is just a little bit north of Santa Monica, is gone.
“If I were a Winnipegger, I would picture it as River Heights burning down. Well, there’s no more Grant Park Mall, no Gusto pizzeria… that’s how I would imagine it. It decimated him.”
Shore said he was only a few miles away from the fire earlier this week and the impact was impossible to ignore, even from a safe distance.
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“You see, smell it, it smells like when peasants burn chaff in autumn. You get that powerful feeling you get in the fall after the harvest when the farmers burn.
“It’s a panoramic view of smoke clouds, you can see it almost everywhere.”
The Winnipeg business owner says she’s coming back from a high-profile appearance at the Golden Globes and a chaotic experience trying to escape Los Angeles.
Amber Nemeth of HayMad and Co. was returning to Hollywood for the awards ceremony, after invited to the gift package at the Emmys last fall.
“Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would witness a natural disaster of this magnitude firsthand,” Nemeth told 680 CJOB’s Beginning.
“It’s hard to put into words — I’m sure everyone saw it on TV, on social media. It’s apocalyptic, creepy… there’s soot in the air, literally ash and debris falling from the sky. It’s crazy to witness it firsthand.”
Although Nemeth eventually returned home safely, she said there were countless delays at Los Angeles International Airport, as well as turbulence from hurricane-force winds after her plane finally took off.
“The turbulence is like nothing I’ve ever experienced. It’s crazy… it’s very, very scary.
“We were literally going through smoke, we were going through a black cloud, so you couldn’t see much underneath.”
Despite the experience, Nemeth is planning another trip to California — while in LA for the Golden Globes, HayMad and Co. were invited to return to the Oscars in March with their popular ‘Be Kind’ collection, which supports mental health and wellbeing.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
