Bryanna Reynolds was sitting on the couch in her Los Angeles apartment when the TV flashed with a news warning. Her neighbourhood was on fire.
The Australian-born presenter had been watching the wildfires burn across the city for days, starting in the Palisades on Tuesday before more blazes broke out in Eaton, Lidia, Hurst and beyond.
It wasn’t until flames started ravaging the iconic Hollywood Hills that she realised just how catastrophic the situation had become.
”When the alert hit our phone about the Hollywood Hills fire, there was pandemonium. … cars began speeding, honking and immediately it felt unsafe,” she told 9news.com.au.
“You could see the black and red smoke coming across the city from multiple fires and it was like witnessing something out of an apocalypse film.”
Wildfires have raged across Los Angeles for days, destroying thousands of homes and claiming the lives of at least 10 people.
Reynolds said locals were told to expect wild weather conditions this week as the Santa Ana winds blew through, but nothing could have prepared her for the blazes that have ravaged the city she’s called home for the last five years.
She told 9news that getting information about the fires and evacuation orders has been difficult and she and other locals have been forced to rely on TV news and social media platforms to stay informed.
It’s also been hard to stay in contact with her family back home, who are terrified for her safety.
“The information they are hearing is different to what we are being told here in Los Angeles,” she said.
“Power is in and out and communications are dropping in and out as well.”
On Wednesday night, Reynolds raced through wild traffic to rescue a friend in Runyon Canyon who was ordered to evacuate but didn’t have a vehicle.
“The streets of Hollywood Boulevard were lined with people evacuating hotels in Hollywood as the hills burnt in the background,” Reynolds said.
“The traffic was in complete chaos and there was a moment where we wondered if the gridlock traffic would move, and if it didn’t we would have to make a run for it.
“It was one of the most terrifying things I have ever witnessed.”
Residents start returning to homes reduced to rubble in LA wildfires
Reynolds took her friend back to her Studio City apartment where they stayed awake for hours watching the news and peering over her balcony, terrified the fires would soon reach them.
When they learned one blaze had crept over the hill and into the neighbourhood, Reynolds and her friend packed their credit cards, passports, cash, important documents and a few changes of clothes and left.
At the time of writing, Reynolds’ home hasn’t been affected by the fires but she fears what she will return to when the last of the embers die out.
”The rebuilding they say will take years, there has already been a housing crisis and I wonder how the city of Los Angeles will accommodate the thousands that have lost their homes,” she said.
“I don’t doubt that there will be riots and protests in the coming weeks. I hope that they bring in the national guard.”
Reynolds was 27 when she won a Green Card as part of the Diversity Visa Program, which allows people from a select group of nationalities to live and work in the US.
That was just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing her to return home to Australia where she appeared on reality show Beauty and the Geek before jetting back to LA and eventually becoming an American citizen.
Now she fears nothing will be left when the wildfires tearing through the city she’s come to call home finally burn out, and the people of LA are left to pick up the pieces.
“This is the most devastation I have ever witnessed. It is so tragic to watch the city you have called home for the past five and a half years burn to the ground.”
