Anthony Mitchell watched helplessly as the raging Los Angeles fires burned through his neighborhood and home, unable to rescue himself or his son – both who used wheelchairs for mobility.
The father was waiting for assistance to evacuate him and Justin, who had cerebral palsy, but the help never came.
Hajime White was going down memory lane, gushing over her father’s response to a Facebook post she shared in April 2021.
“It’s a father/daughter thing you wouldn’t understand. (yes everyone this is my daddy),” she writes in the message, alongside a photo of Anthony Mitchell, 68, and herself.
Eagerly expressing his love for his girl, the devoted father of four writes in the comments section, “She is my heart my soul she is a daddy girl She is everything a father can dream and hope his daughter will be.she makes me proud of her everyday and I am so thankful and proud to be her father and dad (SIC).”
On January 14, 2024, the grieving daughter reshared the post with the new caption: “A father’s love for his daughter is truly special. Thank you, Dad. Although you frequently expressed this sentiment, you also took the time to write it in the comments section of my post for everyone to see.”
Her dad and her younger brother Justin are among the 24 people killed by the devastating California wildfires.
Last conversations
On the morning of January 8, Mitchell made heart-wrenching phone calls to two of his children, explaining that he and his youngest son, Justin, were waiting for help to evacuate.
Mitchell, an amputee with a prosthetic leg, and Justin, who had cerebral palsy, relied on wheelchairs to get around.
Mitchell lived in Altadena, a hard-hit neighbourhood next to Pasadena, with his two sons, Justin and Jordan, the older who alongside trained professionals helped as a caregiver.
But Jordan wasn’t home that week – he was in hospital with sepsis and Mitchell, who lost his leg in 2024 to diabetes, was not able to carry his bedridden son to one of the many cars parked in the driveway to make an escape.
‘Baby, I got to go’
Mitchell had called for an ambulance to assist with the evacuation and assured his only daughter, Hajime, that he and Justin would be okay.
“They’ll get me and your brother,” Arkansas’ Hajime, tells the New York Post of her last conversation with her dad, who was well known and loved in the area he lived for more than 20 years.
“Hopefully they should come soon,” he added, sharing with Hajime, 50, that from his window, he could see the fire was burning quickly through the neighborhood.
But then the conversation was cut short when according to Hajime, flames crept onto the yard of his home.
“Baby, I got to go,” he told his daughter. “The fire just got in the yard.”
That evening, the bodies of the father and son were recovered from the home scorched by the Eaton fire, which is still active more than one week since it was ignited.
‘Cost him his life’
Mitchell’s eldest son, Anthony Jr., knows why his father stayed in the burning home.
“He wasn’t going to leave my brother,” Anthony Jr., 46, told the New York Times. “He would never leave his kids. We were his legacy. We were his diamonds.”
The junior Anthony was one of the two kids he called before the fire ripped through the house that morning.
“Even though he had a missing leg, he did have a prosthetic. He could have got himself in the wheelchair and he could have rolled himself out the fire zone, but he wasn’t going to leave my brother,” Anthony Sr. told NPR. “There was no way my father was going to leave him. He wouldn’t leave any of his kids.”
He adds, “He believed in family, and I think that’s one of the reasons it cost him his life, because he wasn’t going to leave my younger brother.”
Now, Hajime and the family are trying to figure out why help never arrived to get Mitchell and Justin to safety.
“Where was the ambulance?” she said. “Where were the caregivers? Where was everyone at?”
Carlos Herrera, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, told the New York Times that by the time the Eaton fire had broken out on Tuesday, January 7, “all resources were already dedicated to the raging Palisades fire across town.”
Fatal fire
The deadly fire has killed at least 24 people, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and burned more than 60 square miles, “an area larger than Paris,” according to CNN.
As of January 14, officials said the Palisades and Eaton wildfires continue to burn. “Extremely critical fire weather” is forecasted for parts of the region with powerful winds expected to fuel new blazes, further challenging firefighters in their attempts to contain the raging flames.
“Much of Southern California — from San Luis Obispo to San Diego — is at significant risk of rapid fire spread due to life-threatening winds and dangerously low humidity. One less spark equals one less wildfire,” California Fire writes on Facebook.
Our thoughts go out to Mitchell’s family, and everyone whose lives are impacted by the fires.
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