As they were packing to evacuate, Navarro said, her grandmother walked around her house in her pajamas while talking on the phone with a friend, making fun of her decision to leave the house. Navarro said they offered to give her a ride, but she declined.

Navarro said her grandmother told them, “No, I’m fine. You carry on.”

As they drove away from her home and grandmother, Navarro said, she called her father in a last-ditch effort to save her grandmother from the fire. She said her father drove to the house and spoke to her grandmother for an hour, but she still refused to leave the house.

As the fire grew larger and spread to her home, Navarro believes her grandmother probably tried to escape, but isn’t sure.

“I think maybe she was just happy with where she was and I think she was happy with that, with her decision,” Navarro said. “I think she felt comfortable being home and staying where she was.”

Ultimately, Navarro said, she believes her grandmother died in the house, which she said was “devastating.”

“We didn’t expect to lose her so tragically. And that hurts the most,” she said. She said it gives her peace knowing her grandmother died in the home she loved and lived in for decades.

Navarro described her grandmother as “sweet” but “really strict” and said she cared about her community, noting that “everyone knew her.”

“She was just the mayor of Altadena,” Navarro said.