Eaton and Palisades fire refugees moved near and far and often

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With fire pits on the beach, showers and a front-row view of the sun sinking into the Pacific, Mike and Nicole Wirth had no complaint about their $45 overnights at Dockweiler Beach.But neither was their three-night stay there last April a quaint camping experience.Dockweiler RV Park was No.

13 of the 15 places they’ve bedded down since the Eaton fire destroyed their Altadena home last year.Among their other sleepovers — from one night to four months — were two hotels, an Airbnb, a church parking lot, another campground, a townhome rental and three tiny guest houses — one at a co-worker’s boyfriend’s house.

In between were three stays with Nicole’s parents where their precious Australian cattle dog Goose succumbed, they believe, to accumulated trauma.They were not alone.The Eaton and Palisades fires left an urban population of tens of thousands homeless in a single day.

They moved in every direction, some near, some far, some — the lucky ones — only once.For many, home became an improvisation.

Sometimes Nicole stayed with her parents while Mike stayed alone at Dockweiler to be near his work in Hawthorne.It had a subtle reassuring effect.“The van felt like the only room from our house that survived,” Mike said.The Wirths, who are rebuilding their home and expect to move back in April, reflect the frenetic side of the complicated quest for shelter for tens of thousands whose homes were destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires.Their orbit, compact but intense, was dictated by their decision to stay near his job and to oversee the reconstruction of their home.Others moved less frequently, but often went much farther, to stabilize their lives.Christie and Michael McIntire were grasping for anything in the San Gabriel Valley and coming up short.“Won’t take cats.

Price really high.Extremely far.

Somebody got to it first,” Christie McIntire said in a pho...