To Save the Passport

Dog Trainer Loses Home in Los Angeles Wildfires

Dog trainer Laura Nativo thought she had it covered when her local news warned of potential catastrophic fires in the Los Angeles area due to hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and fueled by dry vegetation. She felt relatively safe living near the beach with a fire station almost directly across the street from her apartment building.

A Devastating Loss

Nativo, 44, lost her tiny rent-controlled apartment in Pacific Palisades, where she had called home for 15 years. The entire complex with 75 units was leveled. She’s hoping a fireproof bag containing irreplaceable scrapbooks from her late mom, who died of breast cancer when Nativo was just 9, might have survived.

However, she knows the footprint and handprint of her unborn child lost at 17 weeks into her pregnancy is gone, along with the sympathy note from her doctors. She also lost her childhood photos and other irreplaceable memorabilia.

The Emotional Rollercoaster

Nativo tells PEOPLE she had prepared for the possibility of evacuation. She even alerted neighbors, especially the elderly and single moms, to prepare to evacuate. She then decided to leave early to get her dogs out of the smoke, leaving her partner, Jason, behind to help others nearby in case the fire got close.

She just never believed it would happen, and happen very quickly.

The Aftermath

Nativo’s neighbor, Dr. Anna Hsu, lived with her daughters aged 10 and 12 next door on the second floor. The family had a little cat named Candy Corn. Hsu was working at Cedars-Sinai and called Nativo to see if someone could retrieve the cat. But they could not get into the apartment and had to leave.

She received a text from Hsu the next morning. “Candy Corn is gone.”

A Life in Ruins

Nativo now wonders what she does now that she’s lost her rent-controlled place. “Now you’ve got 30,000 evacuees who are going to fight for overpriced, exorbitant rentals,” she says.

She does have a spot where she keeps an RV as her office for her nonprofit, Preston’s Planet Foundation, named for her late pooch, Preston. And a van dubbed Gidget where she could live with her dog if worse comes to worse.

Conclusion

Nativo is still mourning the loss of things that marked her life’s journey. She says the photos showing her as a 17-year-old kid from Parsippany, N.J. who came to live out her dream in L.A. are all gone. All the photos showing “that era of my life of being this starry-eyed, aspiring actress who became producer, who became this TV dog personality and who now runs a nonprofit.”

She says she sees in the media horrific comments from “people who love to hate L.A. and laugh as our city burns.”

FAQs

Q: What happened to Laura Nativo’s home?
A: Laura Nativo lost her rent-controlled apartment in Pacific Palisades, where she had called home for 15 years, due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

Q: What did she lose in the fire?
A: She lost her childhood photos, irreplaceable memorabilia, and the footprint and handprint of her unborn child.

Q: How is she coping with the loss?
A: Nativo is still mourning the loss of things that marked her life’s journey and is struggling to find the right words to encapsulate her depth of loss.

Q: What is she doing now?
A: She is living in an RV and a van, and is focusing on rebuilding her life and her nonprofit, Preston’s Planet Foundation.