Aid the Giammarco Family in Fire Recovery

-update: We lost our house. I have no words. Everything is gone. -

Hello, my name is Sasha Giammarco. My family has unfortunately been evacuated from our home due to the Pacific Palisades fire.

I had no idea about the fire until I got the shocking phone call from my father. I was told my sisters had to leave school at 11am and everyone in the house was rushing to get out. All that was brought were our dogs and passports.

Hearing what my sisters had gone through was so hard to hear. Their school was extremely close to where the fire had started so it was pure chaos. There were parents running, screaming, and crying to find their kids. My grandmother had rushed to get my sisters, but when they left the school, they were stuck in standstill traffic for 4 hours. Stuck in the car, they watched as the smoke got closer, and people leaving their cars behind and running away. Luckily, they got to safety as well as the rest of my family. My father had gotten our dogs and passports from the house as quickly as possible, while being able to see the flames just over the hills. My mother had fortunately left the Palisades early in the morning, so she rushed to get my brother from school, also getting stuck in traffic.

I am a professional figure skater so I was training at the rink while all of this was unfolding. It was hard to grasp the concept of how extreme this situation was. We have had many, many fires surrounding us, but never this bad or close.

I started seeing videos on the news and social media. It was still a shock that the fire was spreading so fast, with no thanks to the extreme winds.

I was about to leave the rink in stress and on the verge of tears from the overwhelming news articles, when I got another call saying I shouldn't even bother coming down, as the fire is too close and there was a mandatory evacuation for the whole of the Palisades. We are going to be finding shelter elsewhere.

As the night went on, we watched the news as the fire got worse and worse. I was struggling to watch as my elementary school, library, and all of my favorite local shops were in flames. I could have never imagined seeing them like this. Only feeling immense pain while seeing the updates, and the fear for my home grow. I feel guilty worrying about my belongings, but some things you just can't replace, and everything I have is connected with a memory.

We are extremely grateful that our family is safe, and our dogs are safe. But we cannot help being worried about our home and all of our belongings. Our whole lives are in that house... everything we own.

I know there are families who have bigger burdens and bigger struggles. I know that almost every single family is going through the same hard time, which absolutely breaks my heart. But with so many young sibling, my grandma, and our dogs, we are also struggling. This is such an extremely difficult and stressful time, so we are grateful if you even consider helping us out to provide enough food and essentials for basic living. Absolutely anything helps, and we are truly thankful.❤️

Hopefully we can get to a better point because I would love to donate and give back to my community if I had the option. This is the city my sibling and I grew up in, almost all of our memories were around the Palisades.❤️

For the rest of our friends and community, we have you in our thoughts and prayers.❤️

I will keep you updated with our situation, as everything is unsure.