Woman Paid Off Mortgage Just 1 Day Before L.A. Wildfire Burned Down Home: 'Not Sure What My Retirement Will Be Now'

Mar. 15, 2025

A Pasadena, Calif., woman had finished paying off the mortgage of her home one day before it was destroyed during theLos Angeles-area wildfireslast week.

“We’re in this circumstance with so many other people, victims of the fire,” Totress Beasley, 64, said in an interview withCW affiliate KTLA.

Beasley, who is nearing retirement, had been saving and paying off her three-bedroom home for years,AARPreported. The city employee made her final mortgage payment on Jan. 7.

“I’ve been working since I was 16 and my goal was to pay off the house and retire,” she told AARP. “I’m not sure what my retirement will be now.”

“I’ve been quoted maybe $5,000 [a month],” Beasley said about a one-bedroom unit. “Some of my friends have talked to people and they said $6,000 plus and then one girl told somebody was charging $8,000.”

She also expressed regret over not taking a framed picture of her late mother. “Before the fire, I was cleaning my walls and I said to myself, ‘If anything ever happens, I better take my mom’s picture off the wall,’ ” she told AARP. “And then I didn’t take it.”

The Eaton fire, which has been 55% contained as of Thursday, Jan. 16, has left 16 dead and burned over 14,000 acres,Cal Firesaid.

PEOPLE reached out to Beasley on Jan. 16 for comment, but she did not immediately respond.

source: people.com