'I have never felt more afraid' — Irish model in LA on wildfires and looting
Tiffany Stanley moved from Co Kildare to Los Angeles 12 years ago to pursue her career as a model, after participating in Miss Universe Ireland.
An Irish model who had to be evacuated from her home in Los Angeles because of the wildfires has described the devastation in the city as being like “a real-life horror movie”.
Tiffany Stanley moved from Co Kildare to Los Angeles 12 years ago to pursue her career as a model, after participating in Miss Universe Ireland. She has since gone on to grace the covers of magazines all over the world.
She was one of thousands of people evacuated from her home in the Hollywood Hills where she lives with her husband Garrett Thomas, a tech entrepreneur from Texas.
To date, the wildfires have claimed the lives of at least 16 people, with more than 150,000 evacuated from their homes.
Los Angeles county sheriff has warned that the death toll is expected to rise, while 35,000 homes and business are today without power, and police have made more than 20 arrests for looting.
Ms Stanley told the she has “never felt more afraid” since the fires broke out.
“When we first saw the fire from the canyon it was like a skyscraper with a blaze coming out of it, it was just a massive explosion, it was terrifying,” she said.
“Our house is OK, we are so lucky, but we don’t know what is going to happen because the fires are still burning, and the winds are going to pick up on Monday.
“We can see the fires from our home, we don’t know if they will move in the direction of our home.
“It is complete chaos here and I don’t feel like they are getting on top of it. There are six fires now and they’re still burning.”
The 37-year-old said she was at home with her husband when she received a text on Wednesday from the emergency services to prepare to evacuate.
“The police said that we had to pack up our things, and our pets and be on standby,” she said.
“We live by Laurel Canyon, and it has a main road to one side, but the other side became engulfed in flames, all my friends had to evacuate too and one photographer friend, her house has completely burned to the ground.
“Most people evacuated, and we did too. Everyone was just scared. It was chaos, it’s so surreal and it’s still happening and still going on.”
She said she has also witnessed elderly people being forced to leave their homes. “There is an elderly community in my area, and this is all they have, this is their life savings," she said.
"People think that most people in LA are millionaires, but this is their life savings. I don’t care who they are — celebrities or just normal regular people — they’ve lost everything.
“That’s not fair on anyone for that to happen. There are rabbits and mountain lions roaming around the streets and we have been leaving out water and food for them and there are many getting involved with supplies and donations for them.
“Our house is still standing I’ve been praying so hard that we can all stay safe but 16 people are now dead," she said.
“The Palisades fire has been the worst and it’s not stopping.
“I just feel so traumatised to be honest and there is no mistake here, this has all been mismanaged and could have been prevented I believe.
“In the last year American insurance companies also cancelled a lot of house insurance so some people will never get their money back."
She said looters have also started to rob vulnerable homes in the city.
“I’m back at the house, unfortunately, there’s looters going around now breaking into homes," she continued.
“We have to keep an eye out for this too, where there is vulnerability there will be someone willing to take advantage. It is sickening to the core."
Capt Mike Lorenz of the Los Angeles Police Department said: “Looting is an issue, the number of arrests is continuously growing.
“We even made arrests of two individuals that were actually posing as firefighters coming in and out of houses,” he added.
LA County Sheriff Roger Luna has said looting was “unacceptable” and hoped having soldiers — deployed in LA to crack down on looting in neighbourhoods emptied by wildfire evacuation orders — would “help send a stronger message”.
Tiffany said her younger siblings in Ireland, Chloe and Jordan, have been in regular contact with her.
"They are so worried about me, but we are a close family, and I am keeping in touch with them, they know I am safe.”
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