ALTADENA, Calif. (BP) — Jordan Mitchell, caregiver to his disabled father and brother Justin with cerebral palsy, is certain he could have gotten them out of their Altadena home in advance of the Eaton fire. That is, if he himself hadn’t been hospitalized with sepsis.
Instead, the fast-moving fire consumed the home as Anthony Mitchell Sr. huddled beside his son Justin in a bedroom, awaiting an ambulance to evacuate them.
Friendship Baptist Church of Yorba Linda Senior Pastor Kenneth Curry, the Mitchells’ pastor, shared the story with Baptist Press.
“He has … survivor remorse,” Curry said of Jordan, 33, who was released from the hospital two days after his father and sibling perished.
Many Friendship Baptist members were impacted by the fire, Curry said, but he knows of no other deaths from the membership. Four homes of members were destroyed, and Curry’s father-in-law was forced to evacuate.
Jackie McDaniel, Anthony’s sister-in-law and a Friendship Baptist choir member, lived around the corner from Anthony and lost her personal home as well as rental property in the fire that rushed the neighborhood Jan. 8. A third church family also lost a home in the fire, Curry said.
“(Jackie) was on the phone with him (Anthony) literally as the fire was going,” Curry said, “and she went to get the fire department to go and get them out. But by the time they got over there — they said it’s too late.
“They couldn’t risk going in and the house was engulfed so much,” Curry said firefighters told Jackie, “they didn’t think anyone would survive.” She lived nearby, “but she was trying to get out herself as well and was talking to him on the phone because Anthony, the father, did not want her to hang up.”
Jackie struggled to flee the fire, care for her hospitalized nephew and arrange for safe evacuation for Anthony — an amputee who used a wheelchair — and Justin.
“Things were critical for them,” Curry said, “and for her.”
Curry has established a fire recovery fund at Friendship Baptist and is preparing for a long-term response to help Altadena and other communities recover from the wildfires that still rage. The death toll is at least 24 people with 35 unaccounted for, CBS News reported today.
“People are willing to help, but you’re trying to find a focus on what to do,” Curry said. “What is the immediate need right now? Shelter is the immediate need.”
But a lingering question is whether homeowners should rebuild on site or relocate. Insurance companies aren’t able to reach much of the area to assess damages, and search and retrieve is ongoing.
“For any of these survivors,” he said, “it’s a complicated piece.”
As a pastor, Curry felt the initial shock of the loss of the Mitchells. He’s known Jordan since the years he served him as his youth pastor, though Anthony and Justin had not been able to attend church in recent years.
“As a pastor, I’m trying to stay level headed,” Curry said. “We at Friendship have dealt with a lot of loss in the last five years. I try to shoulder it to the best of my ability, but it is weighing on me, because you want to figure out how you can best serve people as they deal with their various issues and the trauma.
“We use the word resilience and we try to keep going,” he said. “But all of this, it’s just traumatic.”
He encourages Southern Baptists to pray and to shore up resources to prepare for a long-term response.
“There are a lot of people that are still considered missing, there are a lot of stories we have not heard yet,” he said. “A lot of this is still fresh and things have not filtered back to us. As we get more information on what is needed, I think there has to be this idea in our heads and hearts that this is a long-term partnership and opportunity to help.”
Firefighters are still battling the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire, with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection putting the Palisades at 23,713 acres and 17% contained, and the Eaton Fire at 14,117 and 35% contained.
Coy Webb, Send Relief crisis response director, told Baptist Press on Tuesday (Jan. 14) that a shipment of supplies left Send Relief’s Kentucky warehouse today en route to California.
Send Relief is accepting donations here, and donations to California Southern Baptist Disaster Relief may be made here.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
