Heidi Montag is doing her best to “focus on the gratitude” after a fire destroyed her family’s Los Angeles home.
Montag and husband Spencer Pratt lost their property as a blaze spread throughout the Pacific Palisades on Tuesday, January 7. The couple and their sons, Gunner, 6, and Ryker, 13 months, safely evacuated earlier that day.
“The craziest thing when you’re packing for a fire is that your brain just freaks out,” Montag, 38, shared via Instagram Stories on Wednesday, January 8. “You’re like, ‘What do I need? What do I not need?’ It’s so overwhelming packing up a house. I mean, I only have, like, two pairs of jeans, two shirts. I got so much more clothes for the kids.”
Still, she asked herself, “‘Why didn’t I grab more?”
As her eyes filled with tears, Montag said “the main thing is that we’re safe. Got out.” But in the moment, “you really just panic and then a part of you [thinks], ‘I’m coming back.’ You know, ‘Of course I’m coming back for all [our things].’ So I’m praying for everybody else who’s going through this and all my friends and loved ones. Thank God we have our health and our children — and I know that. Just trying to focus on the gratitude. It just kind of comes in waves.”
Earlier Wednesday, Pratt, 41, delivered a poignant message on the Instagram grid.
“The one positive sign I saw as our house burned down was our son’s bed burned in the shape of a heart,” he wrote, posting Ring camera footage of the nursery.
He continued, “A sign of how much love was in this house so thankful for all the years and memories there with our family.”
Spencer’s sister, Stephanie Pratt, was the first to confirm the news.
“I don’t know if it’s a good thing I’m in London or I need to get back to L.A. I can’t think straight. What do I do? Honestly looking for advice. I’m frozen in shock,” Stephanie, 38, wrote via Instagram late on Tuesday. “How horrible for my sweet little nephews to watch their house disappear like this. They must be so scared and confused.”
Over on her Instagram Story, Stephanie noted that she was “beyond heartbroken” for her brother and their family.
“Just spoke to my dad — he tried to save my brother’s house but the wind was so strong. There was nothing he could do,” Stephanie added. “Even the fire station in the Palisades has burned down. The Pacific Palisades is completely on fire. No one is there.”
Stephanie further noted that the siblings’ parents had also “evacuated safely” before watching their own house burn down via security camera footage.
“My parent’s house gone,” Spencer wrote via Instagram Stories on Wednesday, sharing a photo of the rubble and adding seven crying emojis.