Man returns home to old dog after rebuilding from LA-area wildfire damage

ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — Ted Koerner feared he might never see his golden retriever again after his house burned down in the LA area wildfires, but he said Daisy Mae is home with him now.

Koerner, who lives alone, said he fled the Eaton Fire last year with then 12-year-old Daisy Mae, grabbing a pillow and other quick items, including “two pictures of the dog,” before driving away as flames reached the end of his street in Altadena.

He and Daisy Mae spent the first weeks after the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed thousands of homes and killed 31 people in a hotel with hundreds of other evacuees, and Koerner recalled those early weeks as devastating. “Those first few weeks were beyond devastating,” he said.

Koerner said his biggest fear during the months that followed was losing Daisy Mae before he could get through a “daunting and costly rebuilding process.” He said Daisy Mae weighs 75 pounds, is snow white, and they have been together for 12 years, and that he takes her to restaurants—including five-star steakhouses—without a leash.

To move as quickly as possible, Koerner said he liquidated most of his retirement holdings to pay contractors while waiting for his mortgage servicing company to release his insurance payout. He said he told the mortgage servicing company he needed it to build “at record speed” because he wanted to be home with his dog before she passed. “Because if she passes, I don’t want to come here. And this is a very, very, very special dog,” he recalled telling them.

Koerner said the first time he brought Daisy Mae after construction started, the house was framed with a roof and openings for windows and doors, and she responded as if recognizing the layout. He said she walked to where the front door was supposed to be, went in, walked around the house, and then sat down and got a “big smile” and seemed to confirm the house was still there.

He said shortly before Thanksgiving, his home was among the first to be rebuilt of the thousands destroyed in the Los Angeles area wildfires a year earlier, and that construction took just over four months.

Koerner said returning to the finished house brought him to tears. He said he went inside and cried a lot, adding: “It still has that effect. I’m actually home with my dog.”