LOS ANGELES (Kyodo) -- A prizewinning Japanese author who lost her home in the recent wildfires in Los Angeles expressed dismay that the life she once knew is now over.

"Everything from the past has disappeared," said Fumiko Kometani, 94, stunned by her losses in the ongoing fires that have ravaged multiple areas in and near the city.

On Jan. 7, the day a major fire broke out and advanced toward her neighborhood, Kometani's family rushed to her home in Pacific Palisades, western Los Angeles, and urged her to leave quickly.

Her home had never before been affected by wildfires and she did not immediately think it necessary to evacuate. But she agreed to go stay in a hotel in nearby Santa Monica, taking only a few of her belongings as she expected to return home soon.

But as the fire continued to spread, the hotel was soon under evacuation orders as well, forcing her to relocate again. Accompanied by her eldest son, Karl Taro Greenfeld, 60, she and others moved to the house of her grandchildren's friend's parents in Los Angeles.

Though grateful for the hospitality, she confessed that the ordeal had made it hard for her to sleep.

Her son went to Pacific Palisades on Jan. 9 to check the damage, and confirmed that Kometani's home had burned down.

"She's lost her entire life, every painting, every book, every photo of my late father, every scrap that proves she has lived her life," said Greenfeld, who also lost his home in the fires.

Still in a state of shock, Kometani said, "It doesn't feel real." As the cause of the fire remains unknown, she added, "I don't know who to blame."

Born in Osaka, Kometani moved to the United States in 1960 to study painting and would eventually settle in Pacific Palisades with her late husband, the writer Josh Greenfeld, in 1974.

She began to write later in life and went on to release the novella "Passover (Sugikoshi no matsuri)," which won the Akutagawa Prize, a coveted Japanese literary award, in 1986.

Kometani liked the atmosphere around her two-story Japanese-style home, which was on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Expressing reluctance to see for herself the ruins of the once-loved place, she said, "I want to keep my good memories as they are."

She has no intention of going back.