"Of course, there is relief in having escaped alive. But the house is gone, and so many valuables are lost. I don’t know how we’ll recover from this," said Meera Menon, a Malayali and Hollywood director, recounting her terrifying ordeal.

Sitting at her sister Dr Thara’s home near the Los Angeles airport, Meera shared her story of survival from a raging wildfire that felt like it came straight out of a movie.

Meera and her family lived in Altadena, an area north of downtown Los Angeles, where most neighbours were connected to the film industry. She and her husband, Paul Gleason, were in high spirits after her latest film, Didn’t Die, was selected for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Preparations for attending the festival, scheduled to begin on January 22, were in full swing.

On the afternoon of January 7, the couple returned home to an unexpected power outage, which is a rarity in their neighbourhood.

Concerned, they reached out to friends and learned about a wildfire in the area. However, wildfires were common in the region and rarely disrupted life in their town.

With no electricity, there wasn’t much to do. Their three-year-old daughter, Lakshmi, was getting sleepy. After dinner, around 7 pm, she went to bed, and the family settled in for a quiet night. Just as she began to fall asleep, Meera heard a knock at the door.

Standing there was their neighbour, Jane. She had been trying to call them repeatedly, but their phone was switched off. With the doorbell out of order due to the power cut, she had climbed the steps to knock and alert them.

Realising the urgency, Meera and Paul grabbed whatever they could --some essentials, important documents, and a few belongings and rushed to their car. As they drove away, the true scale of the disaster became evident.

Fires were raging fiercely, consuming the mountains on both sides of the road. It took an hour to reach Dr Thara’s home, located some 25 kilometres away. But the family was safe.

The next morning, they learned the heartbreaking news. Half of their house was destroyed by the fire. Within an hour of their escape, the inferno had swallowed the entire town and its roads.

"Jane aunty spotted the flicker of a candle in our house and came to warn us. If she hadn’t, I don’t even want to imagine what could have happened," Meera said.

Paul, an animation professional in Hollywood, had co-written the screenplay for Didn’t Die with Meera. Meera holds a postgraduate degree from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

She directed two episodes of the popular web series Ms. Marvel. Among her notable films are Equity and Fara Goes Bang. Meera is the daughter of the Malayalam film producer Vijayan Menon of Thara Arts, hailing from Palakkad.