PERSONAL: Altadena father opens up about protecting his children from wildfire destruction

Record ID: 1899577

  • Title: PERSONAL: Altadena father opens up about protecting his children from wildfire destruction
  • Date: 13th January 2025
  • Summary:  ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 13, 2025) (Reuters) HOMEOWNER MICHAEL SOTO CLEARING OUT BACKYARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALTADENA HOMEOWNER, MICHAEL SOTO, SAYING: "My whole block is gone. Guess I'm going to have to walk up and own and explain to my kids what happened and how everyone just lost everything. It's going to be a big change from, you know, seeing you
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2025 21:54
  • Keywords: California Children Homeowner Looters Michael Soto Wildfires
  • Location: ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • City: ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,North America,Wildfires/Forest Fires
  • Reuters ID: LVA001293213012025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: 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, "My whole block is gone. Guess I'm going to have to walk up and own and explain to my kids what happened and everyone just lost everything."
    Soto added "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're going to have to start all over again and rebuild, become stronger."
    Soto, along with some of his other neighbors whose properties remain, are staying alert at night for looters
    He said "Throughout the night we're all waking up, making sure no-one's that'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."
    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't want them to know what I got to do, I want them to be more focused on their lives. They're younger, you know. It's an easy distraction for them to keep them going and keep their mind away from this... This shouldn't be in a little kid's head right now."
    (Production: Shannon Stapleton, Rollo Ross)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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