Michael Cohen

Jamie wakes up, takes a look around and says, we're safe for now, but we're leaving.

We got to watch him exit that one camera and walk out the front door on the doorbell camera.

He only lived about a block up the street, so they just walked.

up to his car, and then they eventually drove away.

And then my wife and I just sat in bed and watched the feed of the house as it filled with smoke and the flames came through the windows and the sparks just poured off the roof and the trees in the yard burned.

And we felt so helpless and it felt so unreal.

There's nothing we could do, no one we could call.

And we just watched until the whole screen just filled with smoke and black and flashes of flames.

And then eventually the feed cut out.

Mike's home was completely destroyed by the Eaton Fire.

His dog, his dog sitter, and his neighbor who called him all survived, thankfully.

But some people in his neighborhood did not.

Of the 19 people that died in the Eaton Fire, all but one of them were in Western Altadena.

If you were telling someone who'd never been through what you've been through, who's never experienced a natural disaster, who's never experienced losing their home, is there any advice you would give someone?

Two answers to this question.

On like a personal side of things, it would be when you're going through a disaster like this, it tells you really quickly what is most important and what is worth packing in a bag.

And that's probably a small bag.

From a practical standpoint, when a natural disaster is happening, if you're looking around for the people who know what to do,

They might not be there.

So you have to be that person for yourself.