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"Everything is ash."

We had seen images of the house, and our neighbor from across the street who did get in to the area shortly after the fire told us that, "Everything is ash—the chance of finding anything is slim," but we held out hope.  Arriving on Radcliffe, the scene was burnt trees, chimneys, and debris.  There were signs of earlier visitors to the neighborhood.  An inspector from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety had posted red "unsafe" signs on the front of properties, trees had been marked, and workers from the gas company had pulled out the meters.  By random chance, a few scattered houses further down the Radcliffe survived, including ironically one that had been slated to be demolished to make way for a new house. 

Wearing our PPE, we went through the house, being careful of the many nails, taking in the destruction, and looking for things that could be salvaged.  There wasn't much.  Several neighbors were also going through their debris.  Recent rain kept the dust down in the morning, but later in the day the few vehicles going along street stirred up dust.  The State Farm property adjuster did a very thorough walk through of several houses including ours, noting construction and taking measurements.  A public information officer from the fire department who driving by stopped by and provided us some cans of water, and said that the inside scuttlebutt was that area would be opened to the general public in a matter of days. 


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