When Roya Lavasani saw the flames at the top of Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, there was little time to think of her next step.  They were swiftly approaching her home and the rental properties she and her husband have owned since 1982.  She instructed her husband of 28 years and daughter to evacuate immediately and take their beloved Coco the goat with them.   She’d meet up with them later.

“The firemen and policemen came to our house and told us to evacuate,” Lavasani told LA Weekly on Saturday while she, Coco, and her husband were camped out in their cars at the Westwood Recreation Center evacuation location.

“Then I saw the fire on top of the Las Flores at one of our friends’ houses.  I told my husband and daughter to take the cars and they left with just some documents because there wasn’t enough time to gather anything else. When I noticed the fire getting closer  I started watering the area, which helped the fire go down.  The water was controlling it.  A firefighter came and saw that I was trying to save the property and said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.’  These were rental properties and my tenants were out of town on winter vacation and I felt responsible for their belongings.  They left, and I kept watering for three more hours, but the fire kept growing on the top of the canyon. After those three hours they came,  shut off the water and left.  The flames were coming towards me, a spark hit me and burned my pants.  I realized I had to leave.”

Coco The Goat

Coco The Goat (Michele Stueven)

There wasn’t time to take any of her treasured belongings like  artifacts from Iran that were gifted to her by family members including  silver and dishes

 I don’t care about any of the dishes,” she said in tears. “ I’m just sad that I wasn’t able to save the photo albums.  I wasn’t able to carry them because they were too heavy, and the fire was staring me in the face.  I couldn’t take any of them.  I have no memories left of those times of the family growing up.  I don’t know how to explain it.”

Neighbors later sent the Lavasanis a video of the properties burnt to the ground. 

“This wasn’t just our home, but the rental properties were our business and it’s all gone now.   Even if the insurance company gives us something, it’s a loss of at least  three years of income.”

Her only solace now is the Cameroonian princess, Coco, the goat, the only tangible memory of better times.

“Coco is calm if she is with me, but if I leave she starts shaking,” Lavasani said while preparing a hay-based goat smoothie with donated water in the parking lot.  “She’s used to running around free.”