There was a time when the city of Los Angeles conjured rosy recollections of glamorous parties and sun-drenched adventures with friends, but for Vancouver actress Abbie Jenkins, only one scene now springs to mind. The memory of careening down the highway in a friend’s car, with flames erupting in the rear view mirror.
When Jenkins (A Good Doctor, Yellowjackets) travelled from Vancouver to L.A. a few days before the year’s end, to visit a close friend living in the city’s Glendale neighbourhood, she expected it would be a Tinseltown trip like all other Tinseltown trips that had come before.
Within days, the city would be battling the two most destructive fires in its history. Blazes that would go on to take the lives of at least 16 people, destroy tens of thousands of homes, and place over 150,000 residents under evacuation orders.
“It doesn’t feel real, it’s like something out of a movie. You never …