North Texas family loses home in California wildfire. ‘It just melted everything.’
A family from North Texas faced an unimaginable loss after their home was destroyed by the Eaton Fire near Los Angeles, California.
Fires blazing in the Los Angeles area have killed at least 24 people, displaced thousands and destroyed more than 12,000 buildings. Eight people died in the Palisades Fire along the coast and 16 deaths resulted from the Eaton Fire inland, according to the Associated Press.
The Fordinal family, originally from Midlothian and Plano, built their house in Altadena, California, a few years ago, and were raising a family with two young children in their home.
Christopher Fordinal stayed awake while his family was asleep to keep an eye on where the fires were spreading. He drove up the hill directly over their house and discovered that the fire had spread to the houses three streets up from their home, he said.
He immediately called his wife and asked her to get their two young daughters in the car to evacuate. The family grabbed a pair of clothes each, and some important documents, and left the house.
“In California, you get evacuated fairly often — you just come back the next day,” he said. “So deep down, we kind of were like, we’ll come back tomorrow.”
Fordinal was heartbroken when he returned to the neighborhood the next day, he said.
“The next day, when we made it back, it was crazy,” he said. “It’s not just our block, it’s not just our row of houses, it’s just block after block after block of just completely flattened.”
“The wind was so hard, it burned so hot, that it just melted everything,” Fordinal said. “There’s no walls, there’s nothing, just chimneys.”
According to preliminary estimates by AccuWeather, the damage and economic losses caused by the California wildfires are between $135 billion and $150 billion.
“I’ve cried more in the last three days than I had in the last 10 years,” Fordinal said. “My wife and I, from time to time, we’ll just grab one another, give a hug and cry for a minute and then move on.”
“I got what was important out of that house, my girls are safe — everything left had sentimental value, but was at the end of the day, metal, wood and plastic, and can either be replaced or does not matter in the pretty grand perspective of things,” he said.
The family has moved more than three time in the last four days.
“I just moved my family into a duplex that the ministry I used to work for is letting me live in for three months,” Fordinal said. “I’ve been overwhelmed by how giving and loving our community has been.”
Fordinal said that his family is safe and he has fire insurance, but he worries about his neighbors whose homes are not covered by insurance.
“I mourn what we’ve lost and I celebrate what we’ve gained, as far as being with our community and being led by people,” he said.
Fordinal said State Farm dropped more than 72,000 Californians from fire insurance in the last year. He said some of his neighbors lost their coverage just five days before the fire.
Fordinal serves as a board member of Serve Ministries, and is helping to direct donations to families affected by the fires.
“My focus in this moment first and foremost, take care of my family, and then secondarily, how do I take care of my neighbors in my community,” he said.
He said a family in their neighborhood lost their house and they didn’t have any support or anywhere to go. The family was sleeping on the concrete floor of the business they own down the street that didn’t burn down, but has massive smoke damage.
Serves Ministries is helping re-home the family, he said.
Fordinal said although it might take a long time to rebuild the community, he knows that with time Altadena will rebound.
“The hardest part is, honestly, my 3-year-old, keeps asking me if the fire can please put our house back because she just wants to go home,” he said.
This story was originally published January 12, 2025 at 6:31 PM.