During the Eaton fire, a brother and sister made a fateful choice. One survived

“Victor, we have to get out!” Shari Shaw screamed as orange flames and thick smoke rose toward her older brother’s modest 1960s bungalow in Altadena. “We have to get out of here!”

Victor Shaw, 66, former courier driver who suffers from diabetes and chronic kidney disease did not mix.

She shook him, but he didn’t respond. She kicked his feet gently.

“Victor, the fire is getting closer,” she said. “It’s not safe to stay here.”

“Okay, let me sit here for a few minutes,” he said.

“No time to sit here!” Shari pleaded. “We have to get out!”

She fled when embers fell on her SUV.

Shari survived; her brother died.

Authorities have confirmed that at least ten people have died in firestorms that have burned large swathes of Pacific Palisades, Altadena and surrounding communities this week. But that number is likely to increase significantly as investigators sift through the rubble of thousands of damaged or destroyed homes.

“Unfortunately, I think the death toll will increase,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said.

In Altadena on Thursday, chainsaws whirred nearby as emergency crews chopped down fallen, blackened trees and the charred remains of a house destroyed by the Eaton fire crunched under the boots of homicide detectives searching for human remains.

About a mile east, the medical examiner’s van was parked on Monterosa Drive, a grim reminder that official testimony had not yet been completed.

And along the Malibu shore, miles away, investigators searched burned foundations along the Pacific Coast Highway for more remains.

The Palisades and Eaton flames forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Fleeing through streets that quickly became congested, some residents were forced to abandon their cars as fire trucks headed toward the flames.

In Pasadena and Altadena, officials ordered evacuations shortly after the Eaton fire broke out, but strong winds caused the blaze to quickly grow out of control and prevented firefighters from fighting it from the air.

One Pasadena resident told The Times that when the evacuation order was issued, it took about 30 minutes to drive 10 blocks as people were “desperately trying to get out.”

Now officials are searching burned-out neighborhoods for those who never made it.

“Our firefighters are extinguishing residual fires in these buildings when they encounter victims,” said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone.

The speed of the fire made it especially difficult to ensure people were evacuated in time, but Marrone said there were other challenges, including a lack of warnings or a failure to respond to them.

“Some people don’t follow the evacuation order, so they stay,” he said. “And then some people don’t get evacuation orders. Some people have disabilities and mobility issues, so they need help evacuating.”

Dr. Odey Ukpo, Los Angeles County’s chief medical examiner, said dental records or DNA will be used to identify people who died in the fires. Most of the fire victims are “charred, for lack of a better word,” Ukpo told The Times.

Identifiers such as fingerprints or facial features are lost.

Details of the victims’ deaths will be released in the coming days and weeks.

Shari Shaw said she is still reliving her final moments with her brother.

Shaw, a 62-year-old graphic designer who lives in Pasadena, drove to Victor’s home at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to ensure his safety and help pack some of the family’s belongings.

Victor, who lived in a house his parents bought on Monterosa Drive in the 1960s, suffered from balance and vision problems.

She found him watching the local TV news and becoming increasingly agitated as he saw footage of wildfires spreading through Los Angeles. She said he took anti-epileptic medication to help calm him down, and he began to feel lightheaded.

As Victor fell asleep, Shari monitored the news and packed up their parents’ wedding photos, important documents, as well as Victor’s medications and night kit.

But around 2 a.m., when she went outside to load her SUV, she saw flames on the hillside and mostly orange smoke. A house a block away began to burn. The embers descended on the dead-end street.

She ran home and knocked on the front door.

“We have to get out of here!” she screamed. She didn’t hear him move. Embers were falling on her SUV. She thought that if she didn’t get out of there, they would both die.

Shari got into her SUV and drove to the end of the street, where she noticed a police officer walking around the area. She pointed at him and asked him to help get her brother out.

The policeman rejected her pleas and warned her: “Don’t go there,” she said.

As the officer drove away, Shari decided she would try again to wake her brother up.

But the smoke was so thick that she only made it halfway down the street.

“I couldn’t do it,” she said. “At that point I was just praying he would come out.”

Throughout the night, her calls to his cell phone went to voicemail.

On Wednesday morning, a neighbor texted her: “There’s nothing left.”

Shari asked if her brother’s car was still in the driveway. The answer was yes.

Around 11 a.m. Shari returned to her family home with her friend.

After pleading with law enforcement officers to let her through the barricades, they finally succeeded. As she passed downed power lines, she found her neighborhood unrecognizable.

“It was complete, utter destruction, just like Armageddon. Everything has been evened out,” she added. “There wasn’t a single house still standing except one. But apart from that, everything was still smoldering, there were burnt cars and trees, only the chimneys were standing. It was terrible.”

The modest bungalow that had been in their family for over half a century was gone.

She told her neighbor’s son about her brother and it went to waste. He found Victor’s body on the sidewalk outside the front door.

He held a garden hose in his hand.

Shari saw her brother’s body but couldn’t get any closer. She recognized his green sweatpants.

Since then, she has wondered what happened after she left.

“He may have felt like he was doing the right thing and trying to put out the flames,” she added. “I don’t know if he really believed he could, but I know he tried.”

Victor was having trouble breathing and wondered if the thick smoke might have suffocated him. He might have lost his balance, he wonders, and fallen.

“It plays on my mind,” Shari said. “If I could go back or stay another five minutes, would it make a difference?”

He continues to consider the possibilities, wondering if maybe things could have been different.

“Maybe I could carry it?” she said. “Maybe I would be overwhelmed by some superpower, heroic power – adrenaline rush or something else?”

Despite this, Shari stated that she is glad that she has become closer to her brother following the death of their mother in 2020.

Victor loved driving on the highways to various US cities and was fascinated by Route 66. Together they went on little weekend trips to Reno, Lake Tahoe, San Diego and Palm Springs. They enjoyed each other’s company.

“You know, when you’re younger, you don’t really appreciate your siblings,” Shari said. “As we grew up, our relationship developed. …He was a good guy.