Geline Salac

Altadena father opens up about protecting his children from wildfire

Article (news)

Reuters Wires

Altadena resident Michael Soto is one of the lucky ones.His house was one of the few on his street to survive the California wildfires that tore through his community.On Monday (January 13), although his house was safe, there was still a lot of debris to clean up in his backyard.He told Reuters, &quot;My whole block is gone. Guess I&#x27;m going to have to walk up and own and explain to my kids what happened and everyone just lost everything.&quot;Soto added: &quot;I moved to this area for my kids to have a better upbringing for them and for them to have a better future. It was a beautiful community, you know. It was mixed, it was nice. Everyone looked at each other and waved and all that so it was just nice. I wanted my kids to have a better future for themselves but yeah, looks like we&#x27;re going to have to start all over again and rebuild, become stronger.&quot;Soto, along with some of his other neighbors whose properties remain, are staying alert at night for looters.He said: “Throughout the night we&#x27;re all waking up, making sure no-one&#x27;s that&#x27;s not supposed to be here is walking around. You know, the cops are doing the best they can but at the end, we have to protect our own.&quot;But his main concern is keeping his children away from the devastation of the neighborhood, so he sent them off to Disneyland.He said: “I don&#x27;t want them to know what I got to do, I want them to be more focused on their lives. They&#x27;re younger, you know. It&#x27;s an easy distraction for them to keep them going and keep their mind away from this... This shouldn&#x27;t be in a little kid&#x27;s head right now.&quot;(Production: Shannon Stapleton, Rollo Ross)

An Altadena father keeps his home safe from looters after the Los Angeles wildfires.

An Altadena father keeps his home safe from looters after the Los Angeles wildfires.

Altadena father opens up about protecting his children from wildfire

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Altadena father opens up about protecting his children from wildfire

Reuters

Published January 14, 2025 08:27 AM PHT

Read More:

california

wildfire

los angeles

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