As wildfires continue to blaze through Los Angeles, local Andrea Heindel reflects on the life she and her parents built in the Palisades — a life forever changed by the devastation.
For years, they loved living side-by-side in neighboring homes, celebrating holidays and milestones. Last summer, they marked Heindel’s 50th birthday in her backyard,
“It’s such a special place,” says Heindel, 50.
Both homes were destroyed in the wildfires. All that remains is the chimney her father, a master mason, built.
“It’s devastating,” Heindel, 50, tells PEOPLE. “Devastating.”
Courtesy of Andrea Heindel
Heindel’s parents, Michael Horusicky Sr., 79, and Jana Horusicky, 80, were Czech refugees who escaped the 1968 Soviet invasion of the former Czechoslovakia. Their first home was in a trailer park in Paradise Cove. Michael started a construction business in 1970, earning a reputation in the community.
“Everybody knows who my dad is,” Heindel says.
Her mother , Jana, worked as a lab technician at the VA Hospital in Westwood.
Courtesy of Andrea Heindel
In 1971, the Horusickys bought a house on Fisk Street in the Palisades and later purchased the home on Edgar Street 49 years ago. In 2012, Andrea and her husband, Jason Heindel, bought the house next door. Their yards were connected by a side gate.
“That’s my whole childhood – as well as my kids’ – now gone,” Heindel tells PEOPLE.
Courtesy of Andrea Heindel
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Heindel was in Hawaii for work as a national sales representative for the Hawaii-based clothing company Khush when she saw news of the wildfires. Immediately, she called her parents and urged them to evacuate their Palisades home.
“I was like, “Get out of the house,” and they were being reluctant,” she says. “We’ve seen so many fires.”
Determined, Heindel stayed on the phone, begging her parents to take their two dogs, get in the car and leave.
“But they didn’t take their medications like I told them to,” she says. “I think everybody thought that they were just going to be back that afternoon or the next day.”
Courtesy of Andrea Heindel
She stayed on the phone until her parents reached the Santa Monica Pier.
“I was like, ‘Okay, they’re good. They’re safe,” she says.
Heindel’s parents then checked into a hotel in Marina Del Ray.
Her son Jakob’s friends visited the remains of their homes and sent pictures and videos to Heindel.
“They sent the most devastating but beautiful picture of my parents’ house and mine devastated,” she says. “All you see is the chimney and the fireplace. And that fireplace was the last fireplace my dad ever did as a mason. And he was determined to do it for us before his open-heart surgery. And then you see a giant sun behind it.”
Courtesy of Andrea Heindel
While she is grateful her parents evacuated, they left behind important documents and even their medication.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“My parents were lucky. We were happy that they left when they did. If they had left five minutes later, they would’ve been in that pile-up of cars,” she says. “We have nothing, so we’re hoping to go back to the debris and maybe find something.”
Heindel has lost everything she owns, including her engagement ring, which she had left at home.
Courtesy of Andrea Heindel
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family.
She is also worried about her children, Misha, a ninth grader and varsity tennis player, and Jakob, a high school junior. Both their schools were destroyed in the fires.
“They’ve already been through Covid, so now we’re going to have to figure out where they go to school. What are they going to do? They’ve already said they don’t want to go back online,” she says. “We’re trying to figure that out.”
Read the full article here
