Ash trickled down from a gray sky and the smell of smoke lingered in the air today as Angelenos made phone calls to loved ones.

The common refrain: We’re OK. We’re safe. We’re at a shelter. 

The evacuees paced outside the grounds of the Westwood Recreation Center in West Los Angeles today. It is one of four makeshift spaces for wildfire evacuees run by the Red Cross in the affected areas. 

“The devastation, the destruction, I never thought this would happen,” said Johnnie Burman, 64, an evacuee from Santa Monica who went to the shelter in hope of finding his elderly neighbor and friend. 

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