A Father and Son Called for Help Escaping as Flames Approached. None Came.
The New York Times
The man and his son, who both used wheelchairs, called for help in evacuating from the Eaton fire in California. They were found dead later that day, and now their family is asking what happened.
Anthony Mitchell called his daughter from his home in Altadena, Calif., on Wednesday morning and told her that he was OK.
He had called for help, he said, and was waiting to be evacuated from his home, which was uncomfortably close to a fast-growing fire that had ignited in the Angeles National Forest.
Then Mr. Mitchell noticed something out the window.
“Baby, I got to go,” he said. “The fire just got in the yard.”
Mr. Mitchell lived on Terrace Street in Altadena with two sons, both in their 30s. It was a modest white house with a green front gate and green trim. Trees towered above the home’s carefully tended garden. The edge of a woods climbing up into the San Gabriel Mountains was just 10 blocks away.
Mr. Mitchell used a wheelchair after his leg was amputated last year, a complication of his diabetes. One of his sons, Justin, was born with cerebral palsy and was “bedridden,” according to Mr. Mitchell’s daughter, Hajime White.
