Spring 2025

T he urn with my mother’s ashes. The framed photos on the bookcase. These would make the list—the “I’m frantically evacuat- ing my house” list—in the awful occurrence of a wildfire. What would you take? As flames approached, tens of thousands of Los Angeles area residents had moments to decide what to grab—or more importantly, what to leave behind—as they escaped January’s infernos. Many of us watched helplessly as it unfolded, with a myriad of television channels and apps creating a feeling that we were there, too. Surely many of you, myself included, have family and friends affected by the conflagration: evacuated, dis- placed or even volunteering. Yet in the first live interviews I saw—all within hours of homes being destroyed—evacuees talked about losing everything but still “having everything,” as they held on to their children, their pets, their spouses. I was in incredulous awe. The ceramic figurine my daughter painted when she was four. On day one of the unprecedented event a serene man stood on a bluff, his Malibu-area house burnt, as he spoke of taking in—in his words— “the medicine of the fire.” He posited that he had something to learn from losing his home. Next up, a mother and her two young children from Altadena with mom calmly explaining that losing everything and having everything can happen simultaneously. What was salvaged from their home? A heart-shaped rock from the beach. That’s right—my slice of an opalized palm tree fromAustralia. In an online interview, actor/director Mel Gibson, whose Malibu house was destroyed, kept the “letting go” sentiment alive. “It was an odd mixture of sadness and kind of a weird realization and blessing because I thought, ‘They’re just things.’ Yeah, I’m gonna miss some stuff, there was valuable stuff, there was personal stuff that breaks my heart, but I feel like I’m being stripped down and prepared for something.” The 1991 issue of The Basketballer with my husband on the cover. If your family, pets and important documents were safe, what would you take from your own home and feel like you still had your most important possessions? Carmel-based organization guru JulieWalton creates what’s called a “go plan” for clients every time she works in a home. She recommends we take stock for about 30 minutes, assess- ing what we own.Then, it’s time for a dry run. “Set a timer for five minutes.That’s all you get.Then run around with one large bag and see what you would take.You’ll find out pretty quickly what’s important to you.” The box of costume jewelry I’ve accrued since the 80s. It hasn’t happened in the village of Carmel, although swaths of Carmel Valley and Big Sur suffered poignant loss of land and structures in the wildfires of 2020. Pebble Beach ignited in 1987, after an illegal campfire tangled with wind and sparked a single wooden roof that resulted in more than 30 homes being destroyed. Cal Fire’s first female Chief of Fire Protection Clare Frank was one of those on the scene. She says we could learn a lot from Australian fire officials who recently enacted strict laws about building materials in so-called wildland-urban inter- face zones or WUI zones. If you live around here, you are likely in one, where trees, brush, flora, fauna and humans cohabitate.“I do think it can happen again,” Frank tells me. “Fire needs only three things to destroy whatever is in its path: fuel, oxygen and heat.The WUI already has fuel (in spades when the rains don't come) and oxygen. All it needs is a spark from mother nature or human behavior.The best we can do in these times is to stay vigilant about not introducing heat sources and to be prepared if someone else does. Create defensible space and have a ‘go- bag' at the ready.” Even while relying on our heroic firefighters, we individuals play a big role, physically and mentally. Keep brush cleared around our homes. Keep tree limbs off our roofs. Trim those pretty vines off exterior walls. (I almost cried doing this for our most recent insurance inspection.) Have important docu- ments, medications and supplies for you and your pets in a handy, accessible area. Know what you’d grab. And if it’s simply life we escaped with, I pray I’d be like those folks in LA who lost everything, but still had it all. Dina Ruiz is a former news anchor at KSBW TV, past host of “Candid Camera” and has starred on a reality show on the E! Network. She is a writer, editor and yogini. She resides on the Monterey Peninsula. BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHT D I N A R U I Z Even while relying on our heroic firefighters, we individuals play a big role, physically and mentally. What’s in Your Go Bag? 50 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 5