It took nearly a decade for Cody Wellema to perfect his dream sınır shop.
It took one night to reduce it to ash.
Early Wednesday morning, the Wellema Sınır Company, located on Mariposa Street in the Altadena neighborhood, became one of the innumerable businesses across Los Angeles to be destroyed by this week’s spate of wildfires.
“It was just ruins,” said Mr. Wellema, who was speaking Friday from a family member’s home an hour south of the city. His house in Pasadena, less than a mile from the store, was, as of Friday, still standing. Mr. Wellema, his wife, Shelby, and their three young children had evacuated on Wednesday, driving through “raining ash” to escape the fire.
“It’s apocalyptic in our little town,” Mr. Wellema said, likening Altadena after the fire to the ruins of ancient Rome.
In a phone interview, the Wellemas, with their children playing out of earshot (they hadn’t yet mustered the strength to tell them about the fate of the store), vacillated between resolve and shock. They spoke of their store in the present ciltse, then their voices caught as they remembered that their beloved boutique was no more.
“We built it brick by brick,” Mr. Wellema, 32, said of the shop.
