‘My heart is in LA right now, I pray people can rebuild their lives’

A Californian woman living in Drogheda has spoken of her heartbreak at watching wildfires devastate her home city.

Ursula Wilson has been living in Ireland for the last seven years but was born and raised in Los Angeles and has been struggling to watch loved one's homes and neighbourhoods she grew up in burn to the ground from the other side of the world.

At least 24 people have died in what California Governor Gavin Newsom said could be the most devastating natural disaster in US history, one that has destroyed thousands of homes and forced 100,000 people to evacuate.

Ursula, a familiar face around Slane having worked in hospitality in Slane Castle in recent years is now living in Co Louth says she is still "in shock" having learned that the home she lived in for four years was destroyed in the deadly inferno.

"The home of the first family I was ever a nanny for and lived with for four years has burned to the ground," explains the LA native who was born in Glendale, about 30 minutes from Pacific Palisades, the area where the fire started on 7th January.

"Thankfully the family is safe but I'm just struggling to watch all of these familiar neighbourhoods and streets I know like the back of my hand literally disappear in front of my eyes," she added.

"My friend's home in the Pacific Palisades is gone and she is living with her daughter now, it is just so scary.

"Thankfully all of my family are safe. My niece lives very close to where the Hollywood Fires started so she said they were on tentative evacuation but now they are ok because that was contained pretty quickly.

"About half of the people I know there have either lost their homes or are displaced,"

Ursula says she has experienced wildfires before living in LA but nothing on the scale we are seeing at the moment.

"I was born in Glendale which is just next to Pasadena and we moved to LA county when I was three so I lived in LA until I was 18 before my family moved to Orange County.

"We have had fires before, I have lived through some crazy fires there too but nothing like this.

"My heart is in Los Angeles right now, I just pray people can rebuild their lives."