Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA---Anthony Amorello describes what he saw from his balcony the morning of January 7 when wildfires started tearing through his California community.

“When I woke up on Tuesday, there was a cloud of smoke so thick I thought like, did a bomb go off, did a plane crash?” he said.

The Worcester native moved to Hollywood in 2016 to pursue a career in comedy and said he’s never seen anything like this. 

“It smelled like a bonfire, but I don’t think that’s even fair to say because it makes it seem like a happier thing,” Amorello said. “It smelt like you were in a fire.”

The fires moved as close as a mile to where Amorello lives, but he said he never worried about losing his home, he only feared the worst for his friends.

“It’s just so sad that people I consider family lost everything they’ve ever had,” he said. “People’s childhood homes just taken. Their parents have nowhere to go.”

Amorello said the smell of fire is gone and the smoke plumes have disappeared, but his neighborhood is coping with devastating damage and an uncertain future.

“This city is not much different than Worcester. It is the city of blue-collar people that day to day, get up and go and they build a road and they’re building houses,” Amorello said. “That is going to be who rebuilds this city.”

As the city slowly moves towards that rebuild, Amorello said camaraderie is at an all-time high.

“We want to rally around each other. It’s almost a similar feeling to the Boston marathon bombing of Boston strong,” he said. “ It’s now LA strong.”