Personal Stories Drawn From the Fire Lines : THE SOUTHLAND FIRESTORM: THE BATTLE GOES ON : Latigo Canyon: ‘Once I Was Out of the Fire Zone, I Wasn’t Coming Back’

There are stories that you report as a journalist and then there are stories that you tell--to family, friends, maybe to your grandchildren one day.

Covering and living through disaster leaves its mark. What follows are some of the stories that Times reporters, photographers and editors usually reserve for the spoken word. They are personal. They reveal some of the fear, the close calls, the human connections that do not usually make it into print.

During the day, I covered the story of two Topanga Canyon men who were badly burned when one went back into a burning area to rescue his cat. They were treated at the Sherman Oaks Hospital burn center, where one later died.

On Tuesday night, when I reached my Latigo Canyon apartment, with its gorgeous view of the Pacific, the Malibu fire was visible out the window, moving toward me in slow motion. I cooked some clam chowder, brewed coffee and put one of my favorite albums--the late, great Professor Longhair of New Orleans--on the stereo.

For two hours, I hemmed and hawed about whether to bail out. I began to pack my car: favorite books, letters, photographs. But I kept futzing around, reluctant to depart. I even started doing the dishes. Only when the TV announcers said that 200 Malibu homes had burned did I finally decide, for sure, to leave. It was midnight.

There was one hitch: My two cats resisted the evacuation. The female had to be shoved into her carrier. She didn’t realize that once I was out of the fire zone, I wasn’t coming back.