'Everything is gone': USC community reeling from LA wildfires

Plus, scroll to the bottom for a list of GoFundMe pages to support students, faculty, and staff.

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Tomo Chien & Yana Savitsky
January 10, 2025

A USC spokesperson said it’s too soon to know how many students and employees have been displaced by the fires. (Henry Kofman / Daily Trojan)

The destruction was unfathomable.

Sophomore Ella Zarrow fled her childhood home in Pacific Palisades Tuesday. Days later, when her father returned, the news he sent back was grim. 

The entire house was burned to rubble.

“It’s hard to wrap my head around,” Zarrow said. “Everything is gone.”

Zarrow is among an unknown number of USC students, faculty, and staff who’ve lost their homes — or been temporarily displaced — as the Palisades and Eaton fires continue their blitz through Los Angeles County.

Zarrow’s childhood home in Pacific Palisades was completely destroyed. (Ella Zarrow)

The fires have razed more than 12,000 structures and killed at least 11 people, the LA Fire Department said. They are on track to become the costliest set of wildfires in U.S. history. 

Morning, Trojan identified over a dozen USC community members whose homes have been destroyed through GoFundMe listings. But the real number is likely several orders of magnitude higher given USC’s more than 22,000 full-time employees and 47,000 students, many of whom are certain to live in the vast affected areas.

A USC spokesperson said it is too soon to know the exact number of displaced community members, citing the rapidly changing situation. The school is not aware of any deaths or critical injuries, the spokesperson added.

Multiple sources privy to high-level discussions at USC said officials have floated preliminary numbers in internal meetings based on self-reports and HR address data, but they were unable to provide a reliable count. They asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The spring semester will begin according to schedule on Monday.

In Altadena, the fast-moving Eaton fire has leveled entire suburban neighborhoods. (Jordan Renville)

The Palisades fire has sent a thick layer of smoke over Santa Monica. (Anthony Clingerman)

When doctoral candidate Ariyana Griffin left her Altadena home Tuesday night, she could see the flames tearing through the nearby Eaton Canyon. This was the last thing she needed: Griffin’s father had unexpectedly died on Christmas Eve. 

Now, still grieving her father, she packed a few bare essentials and keepsakes into the car, then fled to her brother’s home in Orange. 

When her mom and brother returned the next day, the charred ruins of their flattened home were still so hot they couldn’t walk through the rubble.

“We’re trying to take it day by day,” Griffin said. “The future is really hard to think about right now.”

Griffin, who graduated with her bachelor’s last May, had planned to return to USC to pursue a doctorate in occupational therapy. The plan was to commute from home, as she had for the previous four years. Now, though, that’s all in the air.

“My mom wants me to go, but I don’t want to make a selfish decision,” Griffin said, worrying about the cost of tuition while her family starts from scratch.

Griffin’s home was reduced to rubble by the Eaton fire. (Ariyana Griffin)

Sabrina Bates stood outside her Altadena home of 26 years on Wednesday and felt the hot gusts of the Santa Ana winds blowing through the suburban corridor. For the previous 24 hours, the Eaton fire had rampaged unchecked through the town.

Still, when the evacuation order came, the USC nurse practitioner and her husband packed “optimistically.” She thought they were coming back.

Now, her side of the street is completely flattened.

“Life can change in an instant,” Bates said. “We're not promised tomorrow.”

Bates said the outpouring of love and support she’s received from her USC colleagues has moved her. She’s worked at the USC Keck School of Medicine since 2016, but only started at the Headache and Neuralgia Center in November. Those co-workers are now organizing a GoFundMe campaign for her and other displaced staff.

Ana Gjurgevich, a colleague of Bates’, lives just two doors down. They often carpool together. Her home was likewise destroyed in the flames after she fled with her husband, dog, and 18-month-old child. 

On Friday, a Samaritan dropped off baby clothes at her parents’ house and Gjurgevich said she “broke down.”

The chimney was one of the only recognizable parts of Gjurgevich’s home left standing. (Ana Gjurgevich)

“It’s just so beautiful how communities get together and support each other during these times,” Gjurgevich said. “And being on the receiving end, you see it more, feel it more. It’s just beautiful.”

For some families, even temporary refuge is no sure thing.

Zarrow, the sophomore who lost her Pacific Palisades home, is staying with her grandparents in Calabasas. But she’s found little solace: The family is anxiously monitoring the nearby Kenneth fire, which could force them to evacuate yet again.

“It’s totally apocalyptic,” Zarrow said.

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