Charlotte Phillipp is a Weekend Writer-Reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2024, and was previously an entertainment reporter at The Messenger.
One woman who lost her father and brother in the Los Angeles wildfires that began burning around the city earlier this week is opening up about the tragic loss.
On Thursday, Jan 9, Hajime White, who lives in Warren, Ark., recalled to The Washington Post the last phone call she shared with her dad, 67-year-old retiree Anthony Mitchell.
"He said, 'Baby, I'm just letting you know the fire's broke out, and we're going to have to evacuate,' " said White. "Then he said, 'I've gotta go -- the fire's in the yard.' "
Mitchell, a former salesman, was an amputee and used a wheelchair. White's half-brother, Justin, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and couldn't move by himself, so he and another of Mitchell's sons -- who was in the hospital with an infection at the time of the fire -- lived with the 67 year old.
White added that the family sometimes had caregivers, but none were there when the blazing Eaton fire reached their Altadena home.
Mitchell had been waiting for an ambulance to come for them, but it never arrived, according to The Washington Post. White said that authorities told the family Mitchell was found by the side of his son's bed. The family believes Mitchell was trying to save him.
"It's like a ton of bricks just fell on me," she said, remembering how she found out about their deaths just a few hours after their final phone call.
White told the Post she had fond memories of her dad, a father of four, grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of 10.
"He had nicknames for everybody: Strawberry Shortcake, Marshmallow, Bug," she recalled. "He just went on and on."
Justin sometimes struggled with his cerebral palsy, White added, but he used a computer to read and communicate with others.
"He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what," White said of her dad, according to The New York Post.
Although authorities have confirmed that at least five people have died in the Eaton fire -- raging about 30 miles northeast of the destructive fire in the coastal Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades -- and 10 have died in the county so far, according to the medical examiner.
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Among the others who died in Altadena was Victor Shaw, 66, whose body was found still clutching a garden hose outside of his family's home near the Eaton Fire.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department reported that as of Friday morning, Jan. 10, the Palisades Fire was 8% contained and 20,438 acres had been burned, and the Eaton Fire remained 3% contained with 13,690 acres burned.
Several other fires have broken out across the county, including the Kenneth Fire, which started Thursday afternoon in West Hills and burned 1,000 acres as of 10 a.m. local time on Friday, sitting at 35% containment, officials said.