Over a week after the devastating fire was initially reported, thousands of people are still under evacuation orders from the Palisades Fire. One woman, who slipped past patrols last week, has been hiding out while they anxiously await their return home.
To stop looting and people trying to return home illegally, the Pacific Palisades are currently subject to a nightly curfew, which has attracted a constant presence of local and federal law officials.
But when it appeared like the worst of the fire was over, Judy Jensen took matters into her own hands. With her two dogs in tow, she slipped past a checkpoint and patrols using her extensive and decades-old knowledge of neighborhood paths and side streets.
“I’m 84-years-old, I’ve been around for a while but this is one of the worst things that’s ever happened,” Jensen stated.
Her house is in the Santa Monica Canyon, which was mostly spared from the horrific fire last week, but it is still in an evacuation zone, meaning it does not have power or potable water.
Related: After being evacuated from a fire zone in Los Angeles, when is it safe to return home? Here’s what you should know.
She’s getting by on the bare necessities even though the neighborhood is currently a ghost town.
“I managed to enter my neighbor’s residence. “Get in!” she said to me. “Take anything you want,” Jensen uttered. “So, I was able to get more food for the dogs, because I was afraid I was gonna run out of that.”
Regarding her personal cooking, Jensen’s house continues to receive gas, allowing her to prepare meals whenever she feels like it.
She’s attempting to blend in as she sneaks from home to house to use her neighbor’s generator because she fears she’ll have to leave.
“I’ve been going over there every day sneaking over there every day and charging my phone,” she explained.
Although Jensen thinks she has enough food and water to last for some time, the daily loneliness is wearing her down emotionally. She is battling the fear that the house she has occupied since the 1970s may have been destroyed by fire only a week ago.
“I asked myself, ‘What will I do if we don’t have the house?'” on Tuesday and Wednesday. the location of our home. “Where are we going?”
Authorities may take a lot longer to enable everyone else who is still displaced by the aftermath of the fire to return home while she pursues her search. They claim that several procedures are underway, such as assessing the area’s soil and air toxicity, clearing debris from the roads, and searching for potential casualties.