Hajime White was logging onto her work computer at 8:10 a.m. central time on Wednesday, Jan. 8, when her father called from California and told her he had to evacuate amid the devastating wildfires.
But that was going to be difficult. Anthony Mitchell, a 67-year-old amputee, was alone in his Altadena home with his son, Justin Mitchell, who has cerebral palsy. Both men were wheelchair-bound.
“He said, ‘Baby, I’m just letting you know that the fires broke out and that we’re going to have to evacuate,’ ” she tells 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.’ “
That was the last thing she heard before he hung up the phone.
“It was scary,” says White, a 50-year-old doula in Warren, Ark. “I’m like, ‘Dad, just get ready to get out.’ And I’m …