When Jason Collinsworth and Michelle Bisson met at a condo complex in Texas, they definitely did not think they would weather two natural disasters just two years into dating.
Collinsworth and Bisson got engaged in California, just days before the wildfires erupted. Now, many of the places they celebrated and held dear to their proposal story will never be the same.
The wildfires raging across Los Angeles County have claimed at least 24 lives and forced tens of thousands to evacuate. The Palisades fire, which has been determined to be the most destructive in Los Angeles city history, erupted on Tuesday last week. The same day, the Eaton and Hurts fires started as well, totaling almost 40,000 acres consumed by the fires, according to Cal Fire as of publication time.
According to the most recent data, the Palisades fire is 14 percent contained. The Eaton fire is 33 percent, and the Hurst fire is almost completely contained at 95 percent.
The Collinsworth and Bisson love story started almost two years ago with a "condo crawl" that Bisson organized. Residents went unit-to-unit to see how others have their places decorated, Collinsworth recalled.
"I was wearing this t-shirt that had the armpits ripped out. I wasn't dressing up for this condo crawl. I was just there to meet some neighbors," Collinsworth said. "When I walked out and saw her at the picnic table, I immediately said, 'Oh my gosh, this girl is beautiful' and I sprinted back inside to change into something a bit more presentable."
But Bisson was in a long-distance relationship.
They still went to a Black Crowes and Darius Rucker concert together.
"I thought it was a date, but she did not," Collinsworth said.
They started playing pickleball together, which Collinsworth called his "next hope" to getting close to Bisson. After a day on the courts, Collinsworth asked Bisson if she wanted to go to Joe Rogan's comedy club, Comedy Mothership, in Austin together.
"When we went out for a drink beforehand, the first thing she said to me was, 'Hey, I'm not dating that guy anymore,'" Collinsworth said. "I was like, 'Yes! This is actually a date. Finally.'"
The first natural disaster the couple faced came in the summer of 2024. They rented a place in Asheville, North Carolina.
"Literally right when we left, the hurricane came through and the house that we were at was destroyed," Collinsworth said.
Hurricane Helene caused widespread destruction in the city, with over 9,000 homes destroyed. The storm also damaged roads, businesses and power lines. Flooding was extensive as well, and there were at least 30 storm-related deaths in Asheville and Buncombe County.
About two months later, Collinsworth and Bisson decided to travel to California, neither had traveled to Los Angeles before. They used a house-swapping program where a couple stayed at their home in Texas while they traveled to California in that family's space.
"Their house was amazing. It was a beautiful house and it was in Van Nuys which ended up being a great neighborhood even though in Van Nuys we were literally surrounded by all of the fires," Collinsworth said.
On Christmas Eve—after a long stint of Bisson being very sick during their road trip— Collinsworth was going to propose.
"I don't know if I've ever put so much effort into planning anything in my life," Collinsworth said. "I had a photographer lined up, I had this amazing bouquet of flowers being delivered. We wake up Christmas Eve and she's still teetering on the ropes between 'do we need to go to the emergency room or can I tough it out'...I had it in the back of my head that the proposal's happening today. Even if it's happening in the backyard, it's happening."
Bisson, however, felt good enough to travel to Malibu to El Matador State Beach.
"We get down there and I have the photographer set up. He's the only person on the beach. He's pretending he's taking photos of the sunset," Collinsworth said. "I get her to a perfect spot, and I get down on one knee...It was honestly just perfect."
After the proposal, the two went to a Malibu bar and had a drink to celebrate. They went out to dinner, at an Italian Michelin Star restaurant.
"It was a great night," Collinsworth said. "I just don't think it could have gone any better."
But just a few days later, all of those places that Collinsworth and Bisson had celebrated at and took pictures of started to get destroyed by fires.
"That whole area is now burned," Collinsworth said. "I'm not sure how much of that is now standing."
Collinsworth said his family was "losing their minds" at him and Bisson situated where the "fires kept getting closer and closer." They had tickets to be on Jimmy Kimmel's show on Thursday, January 9, and were trying to wait it out, while staying safe. But even the wind "was unlike anything I had ever seen," Collinsworth told Newsweek. If the Palisades fire, however, jumped the 405, "then we would have been under a mandatory evacuation."
"It was so ominous," Collinsworth said. "There was just this unbelievable wall of smoke."
When talking with Newsweek on Saturday, Collinsworth said the mandatory evacuation was just three blocks from where he and Bisson were staying.
The two who were staying at Collinsworth and Bisson's place in Texas gave the newly engaged couple a list of things to do to prepare the house in case the fire did encroach. They took off the gate so that it could be manually opened by the fire department if necessary. The couple filled the pool in case the firefighters needed more water. They also left lights on in rooms so it can be easily seen that no one is inside and the emergency workers can move on to the next house.
On Thursday, Collinsworth and Bisson started the travels back to Texas, and—after hitting a large dust storm in Arizona—they made it back safely by Saturday. The two they swapped houses with wanted to return to California to salvage some of their personal items.
"It's sad and I'm sad for all of these people," Collinsworth said. "They're losing their home. I feel like it's a little trivial for me to say our proposal spot will never be the same while these people lost their homes, but it is sad because we said this would be an awesome thing to come back to. We have pictures from our trip from all over – Santa Monica, Malibu – and none of these places are going to be the same now...There's so many special memories that it's never going to be the same now. It's so sad."
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