LOS ANGELES (WLS) — The wildfires in Southern California continue to impact families with ties to Chicago.

ABC7 Chicago’s Liz Nagy is in California and spoke with two former Chicago journalists whose home was destroyed in the fires.

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Becky Schlikerman and Kim Janssen’s Altadena home was punctured and crushed by a tree.

By 8 p.m. Tuesday night, evacuation orders blared, and Schlikerman, a former Chicago journalist and Cook County employee snapped a photo, what would be the very last picture they ever had from their mountainside home.

ABC7 Chicago returned with them to the site of the home Sunday afternoon. It’s an almost unrecognizable pile of ash.

As it happens, she is spending her 40th birthday stepping on almost everything they had, alongside her husband who is also a former Chicago journalist.

After they left Chicago in 2019, it had been their personal paradise for the last few years, and Schlikerman’s mother’s safe space. Fanny had moved in after fleeing Israel for good last February.

‘She’s struggling to be honest,” Schlikerman said. “She’s 70, fled her home in Israel and now lost her home here. She’s struggling.”

It’s hard to describe some of the randomness of destruction. The entire neighborhood was burned to the ground.