VIDEO – STICKING TOGETHER –
Feb. 20, 2025 – “At 6:49 p.m., I got the first phone call that there were flames and fire, fire within blocks from the Start House, which is a 20-bed facility in Altadena, and so we sent some vans over and started preliminary plans to evacuate. The winds were really high at that point,” William Tarkanian, chief strategy officer and director of LGBTQ+ services for the L.A. CADA, recalled in an interview with “Good Morning America.”
Just two minutes later, Tarkanian said another emergency arose — a tree had fallen through the main structure of a second house, destroying several bedrooms and the living room, forcing another evacuation. Moments after that, staff at a third location called the Serenity House reported that the fire was closing in on their location, prompting a third evacuation.
“So I went from a single evacuation to three in a matter of about eight minutes,” Tarkanian recounted.
