Los Angeles fires: ‘Everything is gone’ – Agony on a tight-knit street reduced to ash

Professional chef Daron Anderson always tells people he was “born in the kitchen” – quite literally.

The 45-year-old was delivered by homebirth at 295 West Las Flores Drive, where he lived with his mother until this week.

On Thursday, he stepped over charred debris where his kitchen once stood in Altadena, a tight-knit neighbourhood of north-eastern Los Angeles.

He was looking for his cast-iron pans in the hope they might have survived the blaze, one of several historic fires burning in the area that have killed at least 16 people and decimated multiple communities and left thousands homeless.

Across the street – at number 296 – his friend Rachel’s house also sits in ashes. The house next door – 281 – where he’d enjoyed family parties, is gone.

About three blocks away, on Devirian Place, where his girlfriend lived, some neighbours tried to fend off the roaring flames that would consume their homes with garden hoses.

Now they, too, are searching for treasured items in the rubble, after fire obliterated this entire community nestled in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains.

It all started on Tuesday night.