“Tuesday afternoon the winds were picking up strong,” Dave detailed, and Jennie added, “We could see the flames from our house. It was one range, one hill over. It was really scary. I think that’s when panic set in.”

Jennie noted that her eldest daughter had flown into Los Angeles, which made her feel “more secure” having all of her children near her amid the chaos, but feels “numb” when recounting the details of the last week. 

“It felt like our house was going to fly away, crumble, break every wall,” Jennie recalled. “The kids were terrified.” 

Dave added, “You could start to smell the smoke, so we made a decision—we called Peter—and we all made a decision to go over there.”

For his part, Dave stayed back at their house with the family’s elderly dog before being forced to evacuate the next morning, remembering, “It’s surreal thinking that you’re not going to see your place ever again.”