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Orvil Lane, 67, a resident of San Bernardino, observes damage caused by wildfires that burned app

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Wildfires have been ravaging Southern California, destroying houses in neighborhoods that may seem distant to the UCLA community.

But the devastating blazes have hit home for many students, several of whom are just beginning to cope with their losses.

Jade Smith, first-year business economics student and El Cajon resident, said she helped her family members and friends after they were evacuated.

“When (my family) was helping transport some of (our relatives’) belongings, the sky was orange and black,” Smith said. “It seemed like a scene from Armageddon.”

Smith’s relatives stayed with her family because the hotels around the area were filled with other people who had to evacuate, she said.

Smith said she had gone home due to a medical emergency and was there when her relatives arrived after their evacuation.

Her residence was full when the family learned they were also in danger of being evacuated, she said.

Her house was 10 minutes away from the rapidly moving wildfires.

The family did not have to evacuate, however, and their guests were able to remain housed until they could go back to their own homes.

Smith said some of her relatives lost their homes and possessions. Her family is currently helping them find a temporary residence.

Though Smith said the ordeal was awkward and unusual, it was not emotionally difficult for her.

“You just have to deal with what you have to deal with,” she said.

For others, the emotions caused by the experience return every time they visit the affected neighborhood.

“My area is so weird at night, and it’s just black where there used to be houses on the hills,” said Heather Hemingway, first-year political science student and El Cajon resident.

“It’s just empty,” she added.

Hemingway and her family were evacuated Oct. 26 and could not return for a day and a half.

Hemingway’s family hosed down their yard as the fire approached their block, and a neighbor used a tractor to build a dirt barricade around his house, she said.

Hemingway said her cousins who live in a nearby area also had to evacuate; they rescued their horses by riding them down the street.

“The moment was kind of depressing because you’re sitting there, watching the houses burn ... and there was no one there to protect them,” Hemingway said.

Hemingway’s family stayed with a friend until they could return to their residence, she said.

The fire subsided a block away from her house.

Many of the high school students in Hemingway’s area, including her younger sister, volunteered at the local evacuation center after being given the week off, Hemingway said.

Some evacuated residents returned to their homes after a few days, but others lost their homes forever.

One student, who prefers to remain anonymous, lost her San Diego home to the wildfires.

The student lived in the house and her neighborhood her entire life, but when she returned after the fires abated only two houses in her area remained standing, she said.

The family had five minutes to gather what they could before being evacuated from their home.

The student said they managed to save their photos, cat and her mother’s jewelry. Her family escaped the fires safely and went to her grandfather’s residence for shelter.

Last weekend, she and a friend returned to her neighborhood and drove to the the site where her house once stood.

“It would have been harder to see my house half gone. It’s more like my stuff just disappeared,” she said.

The student said that although losing her house has been difficult, she is in “survival mode” and is able to focus on dealing with her situation because she has no choice.

She added that it might be more difficult to deal with over the holidays because her family will not be in a familiar setting.

Though she misses her home, the student said she is just glad her family made it through without harm.

“Because my family didn’t lose anybody, (our situation) is not devastating,” she said.

The student said her parents are currently filling out insurance forms for their house, and that they were also not devastated by their loss.

“What’s done is done, and they’re going to rebuild from there,” she said.