‘It’s like hell is here’: Singaporeans tell of their experience amid LA wildfires

SINGAPORE – Singaporean Shabnam Melwani is now holed up in a hotel room in Santa Monica after deadly wildfires in Los Angeles damaged her home and wrecked others.

The 55-year-old businesswoman’s home in Pacific Palisades was left smoke-damaged on Jan 7 as the fires, which began the same day, swept through the second-largest city in the US,

with at least 24 dead

.

More than 150,000 residents, including Ms Melwani, have been forced to flee their homes and more than two dozen people have been reported missing.

Though her friends and family in Singapore urged her to return home and despite the damage to her house, Ms Melwani has chosen to remain in Los Angeles to help others affected by what US President Joe Biden

called the most devastating fire

in the history of California.

On Jan 10, she and a friend set up a donation drive for women displaced by the fires at her Santa Monica lifestyle store called Sun Moon Rain.

She asked her suppliers to drop off bodycare products and T-shirts at the store. On Jan 13, her team packed 90 packages containing T-shirts, toothbrushes, toothpaste tabs, and body and hair care products. They were set to distribute the packages to the victims of the fire on Jan 14.

Ms Melwani, who has been living in the US for five years, said: “Instead of seeing myself as a victim of the fire’s impact, I chose to take control and focus on what I can do, paying it forward by rallying together our incredible community to co-create this initiative.”

On Jan 7, the mother of two returned from the gym to find her house covered in smoke.

She had just 10 minutes to grab important belongings, while firefighters and her neighbours hosed down her home with water.

The house is intact but suffered serious smoke damage.

“I was in fear and disbelief. But when I had time to process every­thing, I realised I wanted to pay it forward – what the firefighters and neighbours did for me. They are my true heroes and I want to help others,” she told The Straits Times.

Ms Melwani is not the only Singaporean affected by the fires.

‘Shaken’

Over the weekend, firefighters battled to contain the raging wildfire that threatened to engulf the communities of Pacific Palisades and Malibu.

Despite their efforts, the flames devastated the family holiday home of Singaporean Cheryl Uyesugi that overlooks Malibu beach.

The property was reduced to its concrete foundations and rubble.

The 39-year-old housewife, who has been living in west Los Angeles for nearly a decade, told ST that the house held many precious memories, such as her seven-year-old son’s recent birthday barbecue party. Her home in West Los Angeles was not affected by the fires.

Valuables from her Japanese-American mother-in-law, such as tea ceremony equipment and kimonos passed down through generations, were lost in the fire.

While Mrs Uyesugi and her immediate family are safe, the fires have reached Bel-Air, where her mother-in-law resides. She and her husband are now planning to move to San Diego with their two children if the fires worsen.

“I’m so shaken by the wildfire situation. I spent most of my life in Singapore, where there are rarely any natural disasters. I never imagined the wildfires would come so close to us,” she said.

Mrs Uyesugi is not the only one who had to wrestle with the decision to evacuate.

E-commerce director Winnie Puah, 44, shared videos of a ball of fire engulfing the mountains, taken from her home in Arcadia, on her Instagram page on Jan 10.

“My husband and I were so shocked and asked ourselves if we should run. The winds were howling at 129kmh like a typhoon,” said the mother of 13-year-old triplets, referring to the deadly Santa Ana winds, which have fuelled the fires’ spread.

The couple, who moved to the US 12 years ago, ultimately chose to stay. While their house was not damaged by the fire, their heavy front gate was blown off its track by the powerful winds.

“The gate weighed about 80kg to 100kg, and we struggled to grab it, pull it onto the ground track and lock it. We spent hours the next morning fixing the opening device of the gate. My husband swept the debris (left by the fires) in our yard till night,” she said.

Ms Puah added that her children’s schools were shut for three days last week due to power outages, structural damage and evacuations.

Meanwhile, other Singaporeans, such as movie producer and director Thomas Lim, have chosen to voluntarily evacuate.

On Jan 12, he grabbed his passport, refuelled his car and fled his home in West Los Angeles. The street next to his had already lost power and gone dark, and almost everyone in the neighbourhood had evacuated.

“The winds were picking up, and the evacuation warning zones trickled down to a mere 1.6km from my neighbourhood... It was nerve-racking as I don’t know how fast things could escalate to potentially become a life-or-death matter,” said Mr Lim, who is in his 40s.

Currently staying with friends in East Los Angeles, he is preparing to fly to Singapore this week, predicting that an evacuation order for his area is imminent.

He said: “The news started to report on new fires erupting in different corners every other hour. It felt as if those fires were going to form a chain to surround Los Angeles and swallow us all within.

“It’s like hell is here.”