LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shaw Zhao had a sense of unease even before he touched down in Los Angeles last week: His father’s neighborhood lay within an evacuation zone amidst the deadly wildfires sweeping through the metropolitan area, and Zhao had not received any word from the 84-year-old the night before. Upon his arrival in the city on January 8, as he made his way from the airport to Zhi-feng Zhao’s residence in the Altadena neighborhood, he encountered police roadblocks that diverted his path. Consequently, he sought refuge at an evacuation center, scouring every cot in hopes of locating his father, yet to no avail.
The ensuing day, he ventured on foot into the neighborhood, accompanied by a Lyft driver and the driver’s wife — two compassionate strangers who had volunteered to aid him in his search. As he approached his father’s abode, the entire block lay in ruin, with only remnants of houses left standing. Amidst the debris, a coyote prowled where his father’s dwelling once stood. Upon closer inspection, Shaw Zhao was devastated to discover the remains of his father.
“It was incredibly challenging,” Zhao remarked tearfully.
Zhi-feng Zhao, one of the at least 25 individuals who perished in one of Southern California’s most devastating natural disasters, had emigrated to the United States from China in 1989, as recounted by his son in partially spoken Mandarin. Orphaned in childhood and raised in impoverished circumstances in China, he attained a degree in mathematics and mechanical engineering. However, the linguistic barrier hindered his academic pursuits in his field upon relocating to the U.S., prompting him to seek employment in the restaurant industry, his son revealed.
In 2003, Shaw Zhao purchased the Altadena residence for his parents. Tragically, his mother, a revered local Chinese educator, succumbed to cancer in 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, during a time when hospital visits posed the risk of familial separation. Both parents cherished the neighborhood near Pasadena, with the ranch-style home featuring an avocado tree that yielded a plentiful harvest annually for them and their neighbors.
“He adored the tranquility and clean air above Altadena,” Zhao reminisced of his father, noting his fervor for hiking and his robust demeanor until his wife’s passing. Subsequently reliant on a caregiver, who was absent during the onset of the fires, Zhao’s father’s treasured mementos — including numerous family photos, his mother’s cherished stamp collection, and the sweaters she lovingly crafted for him prior to her illness — were lost in the conflagration.
His father imparted a poignant message to him, stating, “Shaw, Mom will leave you. But you will always have something to warm your body.”
Expressing his intention to inter both parents’ remains in Shanghai, where they possess adjacent burial plots, Shaw Zhao also disclosed plans to reconstruct the family home, despite his current residence in Portland,
