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SA-raised artist mourns loss of California ranch due to wildfires
Rianna MacMillan drove to San Antonio during the holidays and was visiting family when the wildfires erupted. During that time, the Eaton Fire destroyed her home.
SAN ANTONIO — The start of the new year wasn’t what Rianna MacMillan imagined.
She was raised in San Antonio and Bandera, but now lives in California. She drove to San Antonio during the holidays and was visiting family when the wildfires erupted. She lives in Altadena, where in the first week of January, the Eaton Fire reduced her home to rubble.
“Going to sleep one day,” she said. “Talking to my neighbors and hearing about the fire moving through. At that time, the wind was going the other direction. So everyone had hoped that it wouldn’t come to evacuation. And then over the, I don’t know, 6 to 8 hours that I was asleep, everything burned down.”
MacMillan is an artist, and wasn’t able to save much, losing thousands of dollars in tools, sewing machines and irreplaceable family heirlooms.
“The ranch is gone where my studio was,” she said. “And also all of our homes. And it’s just been, you know, trying to, try my best to pick up the pieces long distance before I can head back and, do what I can to rebuild. Luckily, I have really good relationships with my neighbors. And so, one of them was able to grab, some important documents that I had consolidated and luckily also my computers.”
She only has the things that were in her car, and her dog.
“I had driven to Texas specifically to bring her, which I, that’s the thing that I’m certainly most thankful for her,” MacMillan said. “She’s here, and she’s safe.”
But beyond her studio and her home, what MacMillan is most emotional about is the historic ranch her studio was on.
“It was a cultural center, an arts center and education center to work with the land and difference,” MacMillan described. “It was a sustainable building, and we’re desperately afraid that we won’t be able to rebuild our dream. In a way, I feel like I haven’t really been able to even process it yet. Like, I haven’t been there. I’ve heard it’s really like, the reports that I’m getting from my friends are like that it’s a combination of really deeply sad and dark and also really inspiring.”
There are GoFundMe campaigns to help MacMillan and to rebuild the ranch: