THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: WEEK TWO : Voices

“Everybody was scared. Some of the people were crying about the fire because they thought it would come to our school.”

--Ashley Darrow, 6, a first-grader at Topanga School, which was evacuated as the fire approached

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“The kids were very orderly. I was hysterical.”

--Donna Workman, a third-grade teacher at Topanga School

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“I’m scared. I was on the phone with my mom and we got cut off; I’m sure she’s really upset in Arizona. But I’m getting out of here.”

--Joy Randall, a student at Pepperdine University in Malibu

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“Nothing would make us leave. We’re ready for this; we have our brush cut about 150 feet out, sprinklers on the roof; we have our own well water supply.”

--Stephanie Heng as she watched smoke billow over her home in Monte Nido

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“It’s so great to see something so powerful. It will be less great, however, if I came home and find my house charred. . . .”

--Jane Peckham, a resident of Cold Creek

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“I just bought this house. And here we are--in the middle of an inferno. I don’t know what we’re gonna do. If that house up there burns to the ground, I’m going to be ready for the nuthouse.”

--Raoul Fima, Topanga Canyon homeowner

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“I came here to take pictures. But when I got here, I saw people crying and losing everything they had ever worked for. I knew that it wasn’t the time to take pictures. It was time to pitch in and help.”

--Gregg Ouist, who helped residents pull horses from barns and water foliage

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“Damn, this is hard work. But it sure beats being behind bars.”

--A woman prison inmate fighting the fire in Topanga

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“You people have screwed it up for yourself.”

--A California Highway Patrol officer, trying desperately but without success to move traffic in the fire area