Missing the park

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Gabriella Parra, 40, and her son, Tupac Otero, 3, fled their Richland Avenue apartment about 8 p.m. while her husband stayed behind. She said she and her family are regular visitors to the park and that her son particularly enjoyed the carousel and the zoo. ‘It was really devastating because it has so many memories for us,’ she said. ‘Every day we go to the park.’ Parra said when she picked up her son from school Tuesday he had written on a Mother’s day art project: ‘I love my mommy and daddy because they take me walking to the hills...’ As she talked, her son interrupted, ‘I’m not going hiking anymore because of the fire.’

When they left their apartment, Parra said they could see the flames in the hills above the neighborhood. ‘At that point, it hit me that everything could be burned,’ she said. Parra, who spent the night along with her son at a friend’s house in Cypress Park, said she was happy to learn Wednesday morning that the carousel had been saved. ‘You just feel relief,’ she said. ‘We take him there all the time.’

-Anna Gorman