Aussie mum and family escape burning home with moments to spare

Stories of devastation and destruction are emerging out of Los Angeles, with 24 people so far confirmed dead and thousands left homeless by the catastrophic wildfires.

Aussie mum Alina Kiessling and her husband Jason Rhodes live in Altadena and had just moments to spare before the Eaton blaze tore through their home.

The couple and their three-year-old weren't even in an evacuation zone when they went to bed, although Alina was keeping a close eye on the alerts popping up on her phone through the night.

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"Earlier I stood out the front of our home and took a picture of the glow on the horizon, so we could see there was a fire, but we didn't think we were in any immediate danger," Jason told Today.

"At about 2am, Alina woke me and said, 'I think we should get ready just in case'. I was a bit reluctant, I didn't want to alarm our daughter, but Alina put together a suitcase and I woke our daughter and then I realised our power was out.

"The power was out everywhere, we were running on battery backup, so I told Alina I'd take the car out of the garage just in case the electric door failed, but in the 20 feet between our door and the garage, it was the worst hellscape I've ever walked through, winds of 100m/h and ash and smoke, I could barely see."

Jason pulled the car out the front and told Alina to take what she'd already packed, because they needed to leave.

"We got maybe a couple kilometres away and that's when we got the evacuation notice on our phone," Jason said.

The family could see all their neighbours getting out as well and about two hours later, Jason got a phone notification all the house alarms had tripped, so he figured looters had already started breaking in around the area.

"I realised, though, that was the best case scenario, what had actually happened was all of the sensors were triggered and that was our home going up in flames, it took just four minutes," he said.

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The family managed to escape with just a few changes of clothes, but Alina said they were incredibly lucky they got out at all.

"We got out unscathed, we are safe and we're very fortunate to have a very large community of people who have really been so generous with their support, it's very humbling how the community has come together," she said.

"It's hard to process, I think the hardest bit has been telling our three-year-old the house is broken, all her toys are broken and we won't be able to see them again - that's been really the most challenging part of this entire thing."

Hear the full chat with Alina and Jason in the video above