By Dawn Chmielewski
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Foad Farid, a data scientist and engineer who lives in the Pacific Palisades, left home on Tuesday morning for an appointment in Malibu when he began receiving alerts on his phone about the approaching wildfire in the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood.
Farid was unable to return home, because the Pacific Coast Highway had been closed and drivers had abandoned their vehicles on Palisades Drive to escape the approaching fire.
"I have nothing with me except my car and my phone," said Farid. "I don't even have my medication."
Farid was staying at the Westwood Recreation Center's gym, a temporary shelter where community members dropped off blankets, clothing, water, pizza and pet supplies for residents who fled the wildfires.
Volunteers like Jeff Harris showed up at the temporary shelter spontaneously -- in his case, towing his Feisty Fish Poke food truck, which he set up and began serving food to those coping with the disaster.
"I'm just here to help," said Harris.
Farid wasn't the only resident of Pacific Palisades who escaped with the clothes on their backs.
One man who asked to be identified only by his first name, Brian, had not planned to evacuate his apartment. That plan changed when he noticed traffic building on Palisades Drive and people walking on the Pacific Coast Highway with their luggage and he observed the approaching fire.
"Right across the street from us, the fire started going up the hill," said Brian, who spent the night sleeping in his car before seeking shelter.
One volunteer offered Brian a change of clothes -- a sweatshirt bearing the logo Laughing Man. He demurred, suggesting a more appropriate slogan would read, "depressed and in the dumps."
Rick Cicetti, an actor with more than a dozen film and television credits, left his Santa Monica home with a clutch of important documents and his beloved 19-year-old cat.
He said he has lived in Southern California for 42 years, but has never before had a police officer knock on his door to order him to evacuate.
"When you're seeing it on the news, or you're seeing it five miles away in Malibu or whatever, it's a lot different than when you're being told you're next," said Cicetti.
He said he was touched by the gestures of compassion from people he had met while traveling with author and coach Tony Robbins and who contacted him after learning of the wildfires.
"I get a little choked up just thinking about all the people from around the world that have reached out to me," said Cicetti.