DES MOINES, Iowa – The wildfires in Southern California continue to rage out of control displacing tens of thousands of people. Even those who do not live in the direct line of fire are feeling the impacts in the form of smoke and ash that are blanketing the region.

That includes a former employee of WHO-13.

“You get out of your car and then the first thing you smell is just burning,” said Karsyn Bunnell. “And it almost feels like I’m in some, like dystopian movie, you know?”

Bunnell had dreamed of living in California her entire life. Several months ago, the newscast technical director left her job in Des Moines, packed up her things and moved out West to Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

It was a great experience until this past week when strong winds fanned the flames of several wildfires, turning thousands of homes and buildings in Los Angeles County into rubble. The burning embers eventually morphed into a suffocating swath of soot that spread across miles.

“It’s really disheartening,” she told WHO-13’s Katie Kaplan over a Zoom call Thursday evening. “When I pulled into the parking lot for work today, like there was, like, actively like, ash that I could see.”

Bunnell works at a store roughly 10 miles from the nearest fireline and shared photos and videos of ash collecting on vehicles and in gutters. She said she has been wearing a mask outside and has kept her windows and doors closed at home to avoid getting the potentially toxic mixture in her eyes and lungs.

But, she said, she knows that what she is dealing with is nothing compared to the thousands of families who have lost their homes.

“Yesterday was really hard for me,” she said. “I was on, like, check out, checking people out, and I had at least 15 people tell me that they were there just to get underwear and clothes because their whole house had burned down and everything was gone.”

Two of those customers included a father and his young daughter.

“He was talking to me,” Bunnell said. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, we’re just here to get her toys, you know, so she can have something to do and, you know, try not to think about it.’”