Musician shares his tale of survival after fleeing LA fires with his parents, who are disabled

Chad Comey watched through binoculars as the Pacific Palisades fire crossed the ridgeline behind the condominium he shared with his disabled parents.

He’d been debating for hours whether it was safer to stay or go, and as the fire roared closer he decided: They had to get out.

The 31-year-old musician carried his mother down five flights of stairs, with help from a neighbor. His mom, 69, is visually impaired and paralyzed from a rare disorder.

His dad is 75 and blind, and also stubborn: He refused to leave.

Chad Comey watched on January 7 as the Palisades wildfire drew ever closer to the home he shared with his disabled parents. Courtesy Chad Comey

His dad argued that the falling concrete in the building and the thick smoke outside made it safer to stay. Comey loaded the family cat and three of his 17 guitars into the car and begged his father one last time to leave.

His father told him not to worry: In two days, they’d be watching the Notre Dame game together.

“I was angry at my father for his dogmatic viewpoint that this would be so safe to stay. I’m angry at myself for not pushing it as far as I did, and still not having the outcome of him coming with me,” Comey tells TODAY.com.

Chad Comey California Wildfires
Chad Comey’s dad and mom: The family loved watching Notre Dame football together.Courtesy Chad Comey

Comey and his dad stayed in constant communication; as his dad felt the heat increasing around him that evening, he told Comey he made his way downstairs to the garage and hunkered down there. Then at about 8:30 p.m., the call dropped.

Comey waited for a call back that never came.

He couldn’t sleep that night, feeling absolutely “horrified,” he tells TODAY.

Then, before dawn broke over the charred L.A. landscape the next morning, Comey’s phone rang.

It was his dad; he’d hitched a ride out of their neighborhood then walked about a mile downhill, toward the coast.

Chad Comey California Wildfires
The apartment complex where they lived was reduced to the garage Comey’s dad had sheltered in.Courtesy Chad Comey

When Comey picked up his dad near the Santa Monica pier, his soot-covered father filled him in: He’d been standing in the underground garage, listening to what he thought were firefighters working around their building, when the sprinklers went off. As the water rose around his feet he decided, then, to evacuate.

“That was the moment I knew we would be watching the game on Thursday,” said Comey. “I wasn’t going to blame him for anything, for him staying behind … I don’t think he deserved to be blamed for that. His life is there, and that’s what matters.”

Comey and his dad did indeed watch their beloved Notre Dame beat Penn State in a thrilling victory last week. They’ll watch together, again, when the Fighting Irish play in the college championship on Monday. But they’re not sure where they will be watching, or what their future holds.

Chad Comey California Wildfires
Chad Comey endured a horrible night not knowing if his dad made it out alive.Courtesy Chad Comey

They had no homeowners or wildfire insurance; Comey mentioned that many of his neighbors had been dropped from their insurance policies after the 2019 California wildfires. His parents lived off their social security checks.

Nearly all their possessions were destroyed with their home in the fire that, along with the other L.A. blazes, killed at least 25 and forced around 180,000people from their homes.

“A lot of what comprises me has been ripped out of me, like the memories; the different things etched in my lifetime that I’ve come to know, have all been burned out of me,” Comey tells TODAY.com.

The Comeys are staying with friends temporarily, though they can only stay with people who happen to have wheelchair-accessible homes. They think they’ll have to move to a different state, Comey says, because they can’t afford to stay in California. They’ll need to be near a major health care center that can help manage his mom’s neuromyelitis optica, a condition with only 1,000-14,500 cases in the United States, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Chad Comey California Wildfires
Chad Comey was able to evacuate his mom, a few guitars and possessions, and of course, the family cat.Courtesy Chad Comey

A friend of the Comeys, Tom Rhalter, started a GoFundMe on behalf of the Comeys and has raised $132,000 so far.

“We have been extended the graciousness of various friends,” Comey says. “I’m incredibly grateful for all those people that have reached out.”

All that matters now for Comey is that his parents are safe. He sums up his feelings, a week after the evacuation: “It just feels like a hole has been burned in the center of your heart.”

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