Marissa Hermer and her family are among residents in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood who have had to evacuate their homes (Picture: Marissa Hermer /AFP/Getty)
A prominent entrepreneur in California has spoken of her devastation at having to flee her home as the wildfires raged near her neighbourhood.
Former Londoner Marissa Hermer told Metro of the ‘mind-blowing’ few minutes she had to pack up what belongings she could in one of the areas worst hit by the blazes that have ravaged Los Angeles for four days.
She was on a canyon hike with her two dogs and a friend on Tuesday when they rounded a bend and she spotted smoke over the coastal Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, including near her children’s school.
Marissa, who starred in reality TV show ‘Ladies of London’ on Bravo, managed to pick up her children before proceeding on foot to her home after a friend told her it was too dangerous to drive.
She spoke as the Los Angeles wildfires burnt for a fourth day, claiming at least 10 lives and forcing 179,000 people to evacuate their homes.
‘The flames were at my back so I got out and walked,’ she said.
‘I went to a friend’s house and borrowed his car and tried to get to my neighbourhood but the police had cordoned it off.
‘I parked and walked in and grabbed whatever I could, my children’s stuffed animals, phones, passports and walked out.
‘I was thinking “what do I pack?”
‘It’s mind-blowing when you’re in that situation, I was there for five minutes.’
Flames and smoke rise from structures as the Palisades fire burns during a windstorm on the west side of Los Angeles (Picture: Reuters)
Destroyed homes are shown as the Palisades fire continued to burn on January 9 (Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Describing the ‘very scary’ scene, Marissa, 43, said: ‘We live at the beach and it’s all mountainside, the mountains were on fire.
‘The sky was dark because of all the smoke, it was black. It’s apocalyptic.’
Marissa, the children’s father Matt, who is a British ex-pat and her co-owner in the Cadogan restaurant group, and their three children and dogs then made their way to a hotel in Laguna Beach, her childhood neighbourhood.
The parents are now taking part in the fire relief effort by using their two restaurants in West Hollywood to serve the community.
Marissa Hermer (right) and the Chez Mia team prepare deliveries of food to people displaced by the wildfires (Picture: Marissa Hermer, @chezmia_melrose)
Marissa Hermer and volunteers get behind the relief effort at Chez Mia restaurants in West Hollywood (Picture: Marissa Hermer, @chezmia_melrose)
They are cooking meals to deliver to displaced families and taking donations to their You Give, We Cook, They Eat initiative, which they originally started during the pandemic.
Marissa, who spent time in London working in public relations before eventually settling back in California, said she and Matt have ‘leaned in to what we know’ and she has realised ‘all I know is I can cook’ as she waits to see how the disaster unfolds.
She has previously written a cookbook entitled An American Girl in London based on her time in the city and her American upbringing.
The family, like thousands of others, face an anxious wait to see if they even have a home to return to.
Firefighters battle an inferno that lights up the night as The Palisades blaze rages during a windstorm on the west side of Los Angeles (Picture: Reuters)
The wind stokes embers while a firefighter works in the Angeles National Forest as the wildfires burn in the Los Angeles area (Picture: Reuters)
‘I vacillate the pendulum between total despair and hope, because if we don’t have hope we have nothing, and right now we have nothing,’ Marissa said. ‘All of our friends have lost their homes.
‘My street is on the fireline, it’s on the line between The Palisades and Santa Monica, so it’s pretty scary.
‘It’s just a house but it’s a lot, it’s all, it’s our home town.’
Marissa Hermer helps out at her co-owned restaurant in West Hollywood as friends and family support the fire relief effort (Picture: Marissa Hermer, @chezmia_melrose)
The family is due to spend a third night in the hotel as the National Guard keeps their neighbourhood shut down. Firefighters are still battling multiple blazes but there are signs that the situation in The Palisades and Eaton, which lies to the east of LA, is beginning to ease due to lessening winds and more support for the emergency crews.
‘We just have to wait and hope and be together with our families,’ Marissa said. We are separating but we have to be together now because it will make it a little easier for our kids.
‘We live separately now but we are forever a family. We will never forget this, but we have to pull together now.’
The restaurateurs are reaching out to people who need help and to those who wish to make pledges. More information here.
For all the latest on the wildfires, follow our liveblog
Do you have a story you would like to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk
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