After the Eaton Fire swept over his Altadena neighborhood, his family discovered an 83-year-old grandfather dead in his bed amidst the ash and debris.
According to Kimiko Nickerson, who was seeing the remnants of her childhood home on Thursday, her father’s final phone call to her was, “I’ll be here tomorrow.”
The wildfire that started Tuesday night close to Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive, roughly three miles from Rodney Nickerson’s house, has claimed the lives of at least five people.
When Kimiko said, “We found his bones, his whole body was intact,”
Thursday, the extent of the Eaton Fire’s destruction is still unknown because it is still burning and has no containment. It has so far burned 10,600 acres in the Angeles National Forest, Pasadena, and Altadena.
According to Kimiko, her father Rodney insisted on remaining in the family home he had bought for $5 in 1968. The Nickerson family has a strong connection to the city of Los Angeles. According to Kimiko, her great-grandfather, William Nickerson, founded and owned Watts’ Nickerson Gardens, the city’s biggest public housing complex.
Rodney spent forty-five years as a project engineer with Lockheed Martin. According to Kimiko, her mother was employed at Lockheed as well. She stated that since he was still accustomed to waking up at 4 a.m., he was most likely retiring to bed shortly after their previous discussion, which was around 9:30 p.m. “That was the last thing he verbally said to me was, ‘I’ll be here tomorrow,'” she continued. “My son tried to get him to leave, my neighbors and myself, and he said he’ll be fine…”
At a press conference on Thursday morning, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna stated, “Be patient with us when you ask about death toll numbers, right now honestly, we don’t know yet.”
“At one point we will be able to do a more thorough search of these impacted areas — some of them look like a bomb was dropped in them – where we will be able to bring in K-9s and other things to help us, hopefully not discover too many fatalities, that’s our prayer.”