The recent devastation and damage caused by the Los Angeles-area fires caught the nation’s — and the world’s — attention. The region is actually home to several former Bolivar County natives and their experiences echoed what many of us have seen on the news. Glen Casanova, who was born and raised in Cleveland, reported that he was actually one of the fortunate ones as the fires raged. “I live in a high-rise in downtown L.A. and we really didn’t see much of an impact here,” he said. “The terrible Palisades fire was to the west of the us and so the winds blew most of the flames out towards the ocean and along the coastline. The other major fire, which started up in Altadena, kept to the east of where I live. With the exception of one day here downtown with some heavy smoke, there really wasn’t much of an issue.” Casanova said that the destruction around him certainly did concern him. “So many people lost their homes, their jobs and the places where they work and it was a terrible thing to be able to see from a distance and hear about it. But, thankfully, the downtown area was spared from the worst of it.” Another Cleveland native and former Delta Business Journal employee, Joe Meek, lives in West Hollywood, CA, three blocks east of Beverly Hill, and about four miles from the Palisades community. “Thankfully, I did not have to evacuate and the lights only flickered only once or twice,” said Meek. “Otherwise, we were spared. But it’s been surreal out here for the past several days. The fire actually started on my birthday morning and I woke up to all these text messages asking if I was okay — I wasn’t sure what to think. That’s how I found out about the initial Palisades fire.” Meek said the whole situation was a very frightening ordeal. “The sunset fire was the one that shook us up the most, because it was only about a mile away from where my partner and I live, and I believe it might have been arson. It’s way up in a canyon that’s a walking trail where there are no power lines. We were right on the border of the evacuation zone but never had to leave. The traffic in our neighborhood, though, was absolutely unreal. And then people would just leave their cars in the middle of the road to escape the fire and there was no way in or out. It was absolute gridlock around here for days. If we would have had to leave, it would have been on foot because of the congestion on the streets.” Southern California Edison was continually cutting power to prevent arching and downed wire fires, said Meek, and many people in his neighborhood did go without power. “However, we never did,” he said.  Meek said that so many of the old, famous eating establishments on the beach where he used to frequent are completely