“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Red Wind’
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RELATED: Rita Abouchedid awoke to neighbors knocking on her door shortly after 6 a.m. urging her to get out. She quickly drove her three teenage children to their grandparents’ house and then got back in her car and drove back. Her husband, who built the house in the 1100 block of Kregmont Drive from the ground up 10 years ago, refused to leave “I thought, ‘I feel like an idiot, driving back up when everyone’s leaving,’” she said. “My husband didn’t want to leave, we couldn’t leave him alone.” As she stood atop her roof, she said other family and friends had returned to put hoses on the flames as they advanced into her backyard. Palm trees lining her street had started catching fire, and electrical transformers were sparking. The smoke was so thick, “I can’t see,” she said. MORE
