Darris Curry, 95, hoped to return to her Altadena home after a hospital stay, but on January 8, as she and her granddaughter Darice Kelly arrived, they saw smoke from the raging Eaton Fire. Despite no evacuation order, Kelly left, believing her grandmother was safe. Tragically, the fire consumed Curry’s home, and after frantic searches, authorities confirmed her remains were found amidst the ruins. A beloved community member and former Hollywood actress, Curry’s death has devastated her family and neighbors. Kelly struggles with guilt over leaving and calls for improved emergency alerts for vulnerable residents during such disasters.
Darris Curry was hoping to return home to Altadena, California, after spending 15 hours in the hospital when the tragedy occurred.
It was just after midnight on January 8th when Mr. Curry, 95, and his granddaughter, Darice Kelly, arrived at Mr. Curry’s quaint cottage on Krentz Street.
As they drove into Altadena, they both noticed flames and smoke about four miles east of Curry’s home.
The granddaughter said she did not raise any alarm at the time because the smoke seemed too far away to reach her grandmother’s neighborhood.
Curry, affectionately known to everyone as “Mama D,” was tired at the hospital and just wanted to sleep in her own bed, her granddaughter said.
“She gave me a big wet kiss and told me she loved me,” Kelly told DailyMail.com.
“I said, ‘I love you too,’ and made sure she was safe in the house. We were both very tired from our day at the hospital. There was no evacuation order in place at that time, so I didn’t feel she was in significant danger.
“Sometimes her kisses got so wet that I had to wipe them off a little bit. That’s who she was. Just loving. We kissed goodbye and drove home. .That was the last thing we said to each other.”
Kelly, who lives about 40 miles away in Claremont, said she woke up a few hours later to hear the terrifying news that the Eaton Fire had already burned several blocks in Altadena.
Darris Kelly (left) visits her grandmother, Darris Mama D. Curry (right), in what was once her vacation home in Altadena, Calif., after the Eaton Fire brutally destroyed her entire neighborhood. He said a body had been found.
Darris Curry’s family desperately searched for her, hoping someone would rescue her.
The deadly Eaton Fire in Altadena was only 35% contained and had burned more than 14,000 acres as of Tuesday afternoon.
She called the sheriff and fire department and asked someone to check on her grandmother, but they were overwhelmed with calls.
That’s when she decided to jump in the car and frantically drove 45 miles to her grandmother’s house.
“I later learned that at 3:30 a.m., an evacuation order was issued to people in the area. [Wednesday] But Mama D wasn’t the type of girl to use a cell phone. As we get older, we find it difficult to use a cell phone or even dislike using it. ”
By the time she arrived in Altadena around 5:30 a.m., police had already set up a fence around the neighborhood.
Kelly said she couldn’t even see the sun because ash and smoke covered the sky.
“It was pitch black and I felt like I was in hell and I panicked,” she said. “A man walked past me and shouted that his house was burnt down.
“Another woman drove by and screamed, ‘The whole town is gone!’ So I’m like, “Oh my god! What’s going on?”
Kelly said a police officer saw her and wrote down her grandmother’s information, but suggested she drive to the Pasadena Civic Center, just a few miles away, where some residents were evacuating.
Darris Kelly said she could barely recognize the pile of rubble and ash left behind her grandmother’s Altadena villa.
“I was on my way to Pasadena when he called me back,” Kelly said. “He said, ‘Ma’am, I hate to tell you this, but your grandma’s house is completely gone.’
“I still went to the center and then to the Arcadia Recreation Center. Maybe someone took her out of the house and took her somewhere. I thought someone had her. I was clinging to that hope.”
Two days later, Kelly and her family still have not received any confirmation from law enforcement or the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. She was told someone would go to her grandmother’s house to check on her over the weekend.
Kelly decided instead to return to Altadena on Friday to search for her grandmother’s body.
“I went there to see if I could look for her body myself, but I was stopped by the National Guard,” she said. “They told me there was nothing they could do, but one of them took pity on me and offered to guide me there, but we had to walk. did.”
A resident who also decided to stay in the neighborhood found Kelly and the soldiers and drove them through the destroyed Altadena neighborhood.
“The devastation was unbelievable,” she said. “Power lines were down everywhere. It was a nightmare when we got home.”
Mama D was a beloved member of the Altadena community and had lived in her home for over 20 years
Ring cameras captured terrifying video footage showing the possible source of the fast-moving Eaton Fire in Altadena, California.
The fire quickly moved down the hill, consuming several residential blocks in Altadena.
Kelly said that when she arrived at the cottage, she could barely make out where her grandmother’s favorite chair was usually placed.
“She loved that chair and always slept in it, so we thought she would be there, but we didn’t see any debris,” Kelly said. “The smell of gas was so strong that the National Guard told us we had to leave.”
Two days later, Kelly received a call from the county coroner.
“At 5pm on Sunday, I saw the coroner’s number and my heart sank,” she said. “They said, ‘Unfortunately, we found your remains at your grandmother’s house.'”
Officials said the only remains found in the small hut were half a skull with glasses frames attached.
“That means she was probably asleep and was so tired she couldn’t even take her glasses off,” Kelly said through tears.
Kelly told DailyMail.com that her 95-year-old grandmother suffered heart complications a few months ago. But during Curry’s last visit to the hospital, doctors ordered a CT scan.
After several tests, doctors said Curry’s scan results and vitals were normal for a 95-year-old, and he was discharged from the hospital on January 7 at around 11:30 p.m.
By that time, a fire was already underway near some power lines on the Eaton Canyon Trail in Altadena. Within half an hour, the canyon was already on fire when the two arrived at Curry’s cottage.
Kelly said she is completely heartbroken and blames herself for bringing her mother back to Altadena.
A distraught granddaughter said she is struggling with guilt for parting ways with her beloved Mama D that night, but had to return home to help her sick sister who was diagnosed with cancer.
The Eaton fire destroyed an entire row of houses and utility poles.
“Mama D had never had a CT scan in her 95 years of life, but one was ordered the day before the fire,” Kelly told DailyMail.com. “We don’t know why this happened, but ironically, only part of the skull was found, so it was the only thing left to identify her body.”
“I thought, ‘God, was this inevitable? Why did this happen? Why didn’t we stay in the hospital?’ Questions and what-ifs… There are a lot of things. She wanted to leave the hospital that night and go to a place where she could be happy: her home.”
Kelly said the Eaton fire destroyed many homes near her grandmother’s summer home. Neighbors who cared for her 95-year-old grandmother are also distraught over her death and their own loss, she said.
She recently learned that one of her grandmother’s neighbors was frantically banging on her grandmother’s door as the flames approached the house. But the 95-year-old didn’t answer, so the neighbor left, Kelly said.
Kelly said city and county officials need to have better plans to warn residents about wildfires, especially older adults who may not have heard evacuation alerts sent to their cell phones. Ta.
“Altadena was a wonderful place, but it breaks my heart to see such devastation for miles around,” Kelly said. “Except for Hurricane Katrina, we have never seen this kind of destruction in the United States.
“You never think something like this will happen to you. We never thought fire could come down from the mountains and wipe out the whole city.”
She said that even at age 95, her grandmother was “still very intelligent” and would often tell her stories about her time as an actress in Hollywood.
Curry appeared in bit roles in several Hollywood films that became pop culture classics, including The Blues Brothers and The Ten Commandments.
Kelly said her grandmother told her family about her work in Hollywood and how she got into the film world. Curry’s godmother, Madam Sultewane, is known as the first black actress to have a film contract in Hollywood and helped her break into the business.
Curry appeared in films such as Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross, but suddenly decided to leave the film industry shortly after 1980.
Darris Curry starred in cult classic films such as The Blues Brothers and The Ten Commandments. She quit Hollywood and focused on her career as a geriatric nurse until her retirement.
“There was a casting couch situation where she met with a major producer and director and he made rude advances toward her,” Kelly said. “He told her to raise her skirt, but she was a woman of some kind of integrity and immediately put him in her place.”
Kelly said her grandmother never revealed the producer’s name.
“He threatened her and told her he would never work in town again. After that, the calls from Hollywood stopped.”
Curry appeared occasionally in community theater, but until her retirement, she devoted the rest of her life to a career as a home health nurse for the elderly.
Callie lived in a cottage in Altadena for over 20 years and loved her independence. Kelly said the family is struggling to move on without their patriarch and is trying to raise funds for a memorial and funeral.
“She loved cheeseburgers, told stories and visited all the local stores and Altadena stores,” Kelly said. “This is a special place filled with eclectic people and hard-working Black and Latino families.
“Everyone who met her loved her. I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worst enemy. Mama D always said, ‘Well, darling, at your worst, you don’t look like you.’ It can’t be that bad.” I’m trying to remember those words because I miss her so much. ”
