These are all former co-workers living in SoCal
Ray & Mike: their younger brother's building burned to the ground, their mom's home is in the Eaton Fire evacuation zone.
Mark: his home is receiving lots of smoke from the Eaton Fire. His mom's home is in the Eaton Fire evacuation zone. The building where we used to work is also within the heavy smoke zone, so probably lots of our old co-workers are still nearby.
John: the home he recently sold (moved to the High Desert) and all the homes on that street, burned to the ground by the Eaton Fire.
Randy: His aunt's home burned to the ground by the Eaton Fire.

One person's spouse is sitting in the emergency room (current average wait: 11 hours) for an existing issue that may have been aggravated by the smoke. They routed her to a different hospital because the ones close by are overwhelmed with smoke-related symptoms.