New Brunswicker living near hellscape created by Los Angeles wildfires
Cayman Grant says she and her family are ready to evacuate if flames get get too close
A St. Martins native is hunkering down with her family in Los Angeles as fires in the region continue to threaten her home.
Cayman Grant, a TV and film director who now lives in L.A., said her home is in-between several active fires, including one in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
"We're not out of the woods until at least [Friday] night at 6:00 p.m., when the winds die down," said Grant.
The fire has the neighbourhood justifiably concerned, she said, especially whenever smoke is detected, even from false alarms.
"We woke up [Thursday morning] to a little scare. There was smoke about 800 yards away, and we found out it ended up being a food truck that caught fire."
Grant said she is keeping up to date, with the TV always on and her cellphone notifications set to the highest volume, alert to any news.
"You have to be very vigilant and so my kids aren't in school," said Grant, whose neighbourhood was on standby to evacuate Thursday evening.
"We haven't left the house. We have all the HEPA filters going. We're not outside. The air quality is disastrous. It's like stepping out into an ashtray."
In such unusual times, Grant is trying to keep everything as normal as possible for her family.
Having kids stuck indoors can be a chore at the best of times, even when there aren't multiple infernos within walking distance.
"Luckily we have inside gym equipment and they're playing on those … letting them play some basketball inside … wall ball … trying to keep them active and trying to keep a sense of normalcy," said Grant.
"They know that in the middle of the night they could be brought out and woken up to be taken out of the house to somewhere safe."
This isn't the first wildfire scare Grant has dealt with while living in Los Angeles. She also lived through fires in 2008 and 2017.
While Grant's house has so far been unharmed, some of her friends haven't been as lucky.
"I have friends that have lost their homes — flattened to the ground."
With files from Shift