What some Canadians saved from the Los Angeles wildfires were ice skates, a guitar and a grandmother’s quilt

Raymond Francis can hold in his hands all the items he rescued from his home in Altadena, California, which was destroyed by wildfires.

One is a blue metal case containing his most valuable memorabilia — NASA and military medals and commemorative rocks from geological digs in Canada, evidence of Francis’s life and work.

Originally from Sudbury, Ontario, he moved to Los Angeles a few years ago to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on artificial intelligence robotics.

The other keepsake is a Canadian maple leaf quilt made by his mother and grandmother, with all their names embroidered in the corner.

Francis moved into his newly purchased home on December 15. He was supposed to host his first dinner party there on the night of January 7, but instead fled, like thousands of others, as the flames reached deep into Los Angeles’ suburban neighborhoods due to Santa Anna’s powerful force. Winds from the east.

“It’s very hard to lose everything. I had a vision of what the future would be like after I settled into that house, and it looks very different now,” he told CBC News.

His house and most of the others around him were gone. The streets in Altadena hit by the Eaton wildfires look like a disarrayed war zone — homes burned to the ground next to a handful of homes left completely intact, and oranges and lemons still hanging untouched on fruit trees.

The Consul General of Canada estimates that one million Canadians live in California, Arizona and Nevada. Los Angeles, in particular, has long been a magnet for Canadians working in the entertainment, music and aerospace industries. The fires have turned many of their lives upside down, and for some, the ties to Canada are evident in what they have chosen to save, and in their next plans.

Ash screening

Karen Weber and her husband, Rob, are thinking about spending a few months in her hometown, Vancouver, where they plan to rebuild their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Palisades. She says the lower Canadian dollar may help stretch their insurance money over the two years she expects the process to take.

“We’ve always talked about spending some time there, and maybe this is our chance.” She said.

The family secured a month-to-month rental in Santa Monica, after a process that Weber described as “intense.” The day after the fire, she began filling out rental applications in the area, then was outbid repeatedly. Although California has anti-tampering laws, she says some people were offering to pay much more than the asking price for the home, or were telling landlords they would pay a year up front in order to rent the property.

She added: “Prices are rising more and more.” “It’s crazy too. Who has that kind of money? It’s terrible.”

The Webers were able to see what remained of their home on Saturday, when police were providing escorts to the affected area. Among the ashes they found a tea cup from her grandmother’s wedding, her son’s mud volcano from a school project a decade ago, and metal notebooks from a trip to China.

She says the salvaged memorabilia will eventually have a special place in their reconstructed home. In the rush out on Tuesday, her daughter also managed to get the most Canadian of necessities — ice skates.

“My son was a hockey player and my daughter was a big figure skater and we have their skates,” Weber said. “We’re very Canadian.”

“It was heaven”

Guitarist Brian Hughes is relying on a network of Canadian friends, after the Eaton fire destroyed his home and music studio in Altadena. He and his wife, Pamela, are currently staying at the Venice Beach guest house of a friend originally from Ontario and plan to spend several weeks at the Pasadena apartment of a former guitar student who grew up in Edmonton, and who is currently on tour.

“We are lucky to land here with our good friends,” he said.

Hughes leads the touring band of Canadian singer-songwriter Lorena McKennitt, playing guitar and other stringed instruments such as the oud and balalaika. He saved one guitar, but 40 others, and many old instruments of sentimental value, were destroyed in the fire. Hughes says 75 percent of the instruments he lost are “irreplaceable,” and describes the loss of his back home studio, where he wrote and recorded albums, as huge.

“It was heaven.” He said.

Hughes is unsure whether he will rebuild at the same location. He doesn’t think he will replace all the tools he lost, saying this could be an opportunity to accumulate fewer possessions.

He added: “It’s like we’re starting over, starting our lives over.”