US swimmer Gary Hall Jr. says he lost 10 Olympic medals in Palisades wildfire

“It’ll be a range of emotions, particularly when it’s time to go back to where the house stood. I’ll shift through the ash and see if the medals melted together. Will I be able to find anything worth saving? Probably not. I don’t know,” Hall added. “There’s no time to take photos or videos when running for your life.”

“It was worse than any apocalypse movie you’ve ever seen and 1,000 times worse,” Hall said to the Australian publication.

The Palisades fire gathered traction on Tuesday when the blaze grew quickly and burnt thousands of acres on Wednesday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It was a few hours into the Palisades fire when the Eaton fire erupted near Pasadena in the San Gabriel Mountains.

“I was on the phone with my daughter. I noticed a plume of smoke coming over the back side of my house. I saw the flames erupt and houses start popping. There were explosions. I didn’t have a lot of time,” Hall recalled.

“Sunset Boulevard was a complete logjam. People abandoned cars and were running for their lives. Police were telling them to do that. My girlfriend was trapped in her car around smoke,” Hall said. “It’s mayhem in Los Angeles. We were surrounded by flames. The embers were raining down on me as I jumped into my car. I had time to grab my dog and just a couple of personal items. It’s just every person for themselves.