When Jimmy Wang and his family evacuated their Altadena home Tuesday night, he “100%” believed he would return the next day with “minor damage.”

However, when they returned home the next day, they found their neighborhood – including their house – burned to the ground.

“I often think about whether I could have made a difference if I had stayed back and used my hose,” Wang told CNN.

“I mean, our neighborhood was perfect, your conscious mind just can’t imagine that such disasters actually happen, but the reality is that everything can just happen like that and you have to judge what’s important and why?” Wang added, he was frustrated by what he called “bad policies that could have prevented this.”

His wife Sara documented the return to their home in a series of videos that went viral on TikTok. In one video, Sara gave a “MTV Cribs”-style tour of the now burned-down house.

“Hey guys, welcome to my crib,” she says as she walks through what remains of the family home. “We could light a fire, but I think we already have one here,” she jokes as she walks past a fire pit, one of the few things left standing – and points to a small fire still in the background burns.

“I guess we all deal with it differently,” Wang said.

The family purchased the home in 2022 and completed extensive renovations for a year before moving in. “We have made our home a place where we can experience love, companionship, peace, curiosity and laughter,” Wang said.

He said he now has difficulty explaining to his 2 1/2-year-old son that their home has disappeared. In a video shared by Sara on TikTok, his son can be heard crying, saying, “I don’t want my house to burn down,” after watching a video of the charred remains of the family’s home.

“It makes us all cry. My parents, who live with us. Sara, me, both children. But it also gives us hope that we can rebuild,” Wang said.