A father at the bedside of his son and a woman who stayed behind with her beloved pets are among California wildfire victims

They didn’t know what to tell me,

Eric Nickerson said

We made the choice to evacuate on Tuesday night, however my grandmother decided she wanted to stay,

wrote Navarro

It was a normal conversation. Like most mornings,

Eric Nickerson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday

Son, the winds are picking up really, really bad.”

In one of his final phone calls, as the Eaton Fire approached his Altadena home, Rodney Nickerson said

It’s in God’s hands,

Kelley told family members, according to her granddaughter, Briana Navarro

He was not going to leave his son behind. No matter what,

White told the Post

After we lost the house, I was angry that this all happened, and I hated and resented it every time someone asked me if I was going to rebuild,

Gibson told HuffPost

We didn’t want to believe it, but could tell from the shaking in his voice that he wasn’t lying,

The day ... she said

In Hawaii, there was also an ‘after you’ mentality — my problems aren’t as bad as others, so I should let them go first,

Grove said

I remember people kept insisting that things would be OK to those who’d lost their homes,

said Lisa Grove, an owner of a consultancy firm who served as the interim executive director of Maui United Way

Whether you choose to rebuild or not, you share a common experience with these people,

Gibson said

We felt sadness about the extensive losses — but mainly relief at being alive,

said Janet Stanley, a professor at the University of Melbourne who lost her home to wildfires in 1983, when two fires tore through southeastern Australia

We know from videos that others have taken that our house is gone, gone, gone,

she told HuffPost

We were able to move into a rented house in the local township,

she said

There was even a ‘store’ that would make Costco jealous,

she said

Grief and depression tend to take center stage, fueled by the loss of physical space, irreplaceable memories and, in many cases, a sense of community,

she said

I have friends who have already volunteered to don boots and masks to sift through the ashes,

she said

I remember him having a fear of steam coming out of the kettle, thinking it was smoke,

she said

We evacuated to my parents house, and my mom tells me that we sat staring off into space for the whole first week,

she said

The experience of losing your home is like a cleaver splitting life into two parts, the before and the after,

she said