Kirilenko recalls L.A. wildfire that took house: 'I saw hell on earth'
Former NBA player Andrei Kirilenko gave a hellish account of the Los Angeles fires that displaced hundreds of thousands of people last month.
Kirilenko and his family lost their $5.5-million estate and had to quickly evacuate and flee at 5:30 a.m. They only had an hour to decide what valuables they would pack into a car before speeding off with Armageddon in the rearview mirror.
"I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and the entire mountain was on fire. I saw hell on earth. It looked like the end of the world," Kirilenko told David Pick of Bleacher Report.
"At first, I couldn't believe it. I thought it wouldn't reach us. After we evacuated, I watched the news and was like, 'Oh, our house is on fire.' The funny thing I keep thinking about is the most important things my kids decided to take.
"These were crucial moments of our lives - we all had big decisions to make. My eldest son (Stepan) took his school stuff and his homework. My daughter (Alexandra) took her coloring books, and my other son (Fedor) took his hockey gear. My wife ran for the documents and passports.
"Literally, we all ran out. We packed our lives into two cars in under an hour, and the last thing we squeezed in was dog food for our dogs (laughs)."
The Kirilenkos were thankfully able to find shelter in a hotel before receiving help from family friends.