A flight attendant who survived the Las Vegas mass shooting only to have her California home destroyed by wildfire has spoken out about her odds-defying ordeal.
Michella Flores, a 51-year-old former firefighter and paramedic, kept working multiple jobs without taking a day off through a shooting that killed 58 and wildfires that have killed 38 so far.
“Last Sunday, I was running from bullets,” Flores told reporters. “This Sunday, I was running from fire.”
Flores had flown in to Las Vegas on the morning of October 1, a Sunday, and was waiting for her next job on a flight on Monday night.
She stayed at the Hooters Hotel, which offers discounts to flight crews, right across the street from the Route 91 Harvest festival.
A longtime country music fan with nothing better to do in Sin City, Flores wandered over and was watching Jason Aldean perform from the sidewalk of Las Vegas Boulevard when shots rang out overhead.
Flores took cover in the conference room of a nearby casino, barricading herself inside with other festival-goers and waiting in terror for the all-clear hours later.
When she returned to her hotel, the bodies on the trash-strewn festival grounds were visible from her window. Flores didn’t sleep that night, but she had a job to do the next day on a flight to Boston, and she worked the next four days straight.
When she finally returned home to Santa Rosa, California, she knew there were fires nearby, thanks to a second job as a ground support technician for non-commercial flights, including those used by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Flores raced home and battled the flames with a garden hose, side by side with local fire crews.By the time her shift was over, her parent’s rental house had been completely destroyed by the flames.
Luckily, her parents and her dog are alright. They’re all temporarily staying in the rental that Flores had been preparing to move into. Flores, who has worked through both crises without taking a day off, says that she’s focused on taking care of business.
“Believe me. This will hit me,” she said. “And it will hit me hard. Right now, I’m in this space where things need to get done. And I’ll deal with the rest later on.”
