Tragic stories continue to emerge out of Los Angeles as the devastating wildfires rage on. One of the most heartbreaking is that of Hajime White, who is mourning the loss of her wheelchair-bound father and stepbrother, who died in their Altadena home.
It’s a loss that’s forcing White to ask why the people who should have been there to help were not.
White, who lives in Arkansas, says she spoke with her father, Anthony Mitchell, a 67-year-old amputee who was alone with her step-brother Justin, who has cerebral palsy on the morning of January 8. White says her father told her the fires were getting closer to their home and that the family was going to have to leave.
“He said, ‘Baby, I’m just letting you know that the fires broke out and that we’re going to have to evacuate,’ “ White told PEOPLE. “I was like, ‘Okay.’ He told me he loved me and started to say something else but he said, ‘Baby, I got to go. The fire just came in the yard.’”
White told PEOPLE she grew worried about her family, who had experienced wildfires but had never been forced to evacuate. But two hours after she spoke with her father, she learned that he and her brother had died. According to the Associated Press, Mitchell was found by his son’s bedside in their home.
According to White, Anthony and Justin Mitchell lived with her brother, Jordan, who was in the hospital at the time. But in an interview with PEOPLE, White says the death of her family members has left her with a lot of unanswered questions, including why the caregiver who was supposed to be there was not and why her father and brother died waiting for an ambulance to come and rescue them from their home.
“He made a lot of phone calls that morning to family,” she said. “Everything is kind of a red flag to me. I don’t know. I’m just still stuck in the dark.”