California mother, former Texan can't imagine what would've happened to son if Pallisades school wasn't on winter break during wildfire outbreak

LOS ANGELES — Over 21 thousand acres as of Saturday, and still burning, the Pallisades fire has destroyed homes, schools and precious memories in Los Angeles. 

“It feels like we’re surrounded by fire and to have it go so wildly out of control is just, crazy,” said Shanna Byrd, who lives near the fire. “I mean, it was just a perfect storm of things that could have gone wrong.”

Shanna Byrd was born and raised in San Antonio. She lives about 20 minutes away from the Pallisades fire. Her son attends Pallisades Charter High School. She explains they were still in winter break when the fire started, otherwise Byrd says she can’t imagine what would’ve happened. 

“The hardest part for me, especially initially when the news was reporting that, that my son’s school was totally destroyed,” she stated. “Finding now that it we had an update where they said 40% of the school had been destroyed, but the rest, the main structures are fully intact.”

On Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbott deployed firefighting resources from Texas to assist the California wildfires. 

“We haven’t seen anything like this that, where we felt surrounded, where we felt, you know, just sort of helpless,” Byrd said. “We were, at the gas station a couple days ago, and the smoke was. It was just red. You could see the fire just over the hill, and it appears to be closer sometimes than what it really is, just because of the topography. But, but yeah, it’s just, we’re we’re going to hang in there, but it’s it’s scary.”

Despite being farther away, Byrd explains they’re still impacted. 

“The air is so toxic here,” she said. “It’s very you can I mean, I’m coughing here and there now even being indoors because the smoke is so thick.”

The Texan in California says their community is staying strong and reminding her of back home. 

“The resiliency of San Antonio we’re seeing demonstrated here,” she said. “You know, people are, banding together to take care of one another. We certainly have heavy hearts. We’re definitely anxious because, we keep getting these evacuation notices, that are coming in that, or at least yesterday, that were not meant for everybody.”