A man and his old dog are home at last after fleeing LA area fires

ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — It is a sight Ted Koerner feared he might never see again after his house burned down: His treasured golden retriever, Daisy Mae, playing in his backyard, under the shade of his 175-year-old Heritage Oak.

A year ago, as the wind-swept Eaton Fire moved in, Koerner fled with then 12-year-old Daisy Mae, grabbing a couple pairs of sweats, long-sleeved shirts, a pillow and two pictures of the dog. He drove away as the flames were at the end of his street in Altadena.

Koerner and Daisy Mae spent the first weeks in a hotel with hundreds of others after the Eaton and Palisades fires destroyed thousands of homes and killed 31 people. They went on walks, the hardened ash crunching beneath his feet and her paws.

"Those first few weeks were beyond devastating," he said.

His biggest fear was losing Daisy Mae before he could get through a daunting and costly rebuilding process. Koerner has lived alone with the 75-pound, snow white dog for 12 years. He takes her with him to restaurants — even five-star steakhouses — without a leash.

For nearly a year, Koerner raced against time to rebuild his home. He liquidated most of his retirement holdings so he could afford to hire contractors quickly while he waited for his mortgage servicing company to release his insurance payout.

He gave the builder enough money “to build at record speed, because I need to get home with my dog before she passes,” he recalled telling his mortgage servicing company early on. “Because if she passes, I don’t want to come here. And this is a very, very, very special dog.”

The first time Koerner brought Daisy Mae after construction started, the house was framed, with a roof and openings for windows and doors.

“She walked right over to where the front door was supposed to be, went right in the house, walked around the house, walked over to what was the master bedroom sliding door, which was a great big opening, just like it would have been, and sat down and got a big smile on her face and went, ‘OK, the house is still here,’ ” he said.

Shortly before Thanksgiving, his home was among the first to be rebuilt of the thousands destroyed in the Los Angeles area wildfires a year ago. Construction took just over four months.

“I went into the house and cried a lot,” Koerner said. “It still has that effect. I’m actually home with my dog. ”

Ted Koerner, whose home was reduced to ash in the 2025 wildfires, sits on the porch of his newly rebuilt home, alongside his dog Daisy Mae, in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Daisy Mae, a dog belonging to Ted Koerner, walks on Koerner's property in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Ted Koerner, whose home was reduced to ash in the 2025 wildfires, sits on the porch of his newly rebuilt home, alongside his dog Daisy Mae, in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Ted Koerner, whose home was reduced to ash in the 2025 wildfires, stands on the porch of his newly rebuilt home, alongside his dog Daisy Mae, in Altadena, Calif., Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

NEW YORK (AP) — NASA is cutting a mission aboard the International Space Station short after an astronaut had a medical issue.

The space agency said Thursday the U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew of four will return to Earth in the coming days, earlier than planned.

NASA canceled its first spacewalk of the year because of the health issue. The space agency did not identify the astronaut or the medical issue, citing patient privacy. The crew member is now stable.

Seven astronauts are currently living and working aboard the space station. The latest crew arrived in August after launching from Florida.

“I’m proud of the swift effort across the agency thus far to ensure the safety of our astronauts,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said at a Thursday press conference.

The crew of four returning home arrived at the orbiting lab via SpaceX in August for a stay of at least six months. The crew included NASA’s Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke along with Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov.

Fincke and Cardman were supposed to carry out the spacewalk to make preparations for a future rollout of solar panels to provide additional power for the space station.

It was Fincke’s fourth visit to the space station and Yiu’s second time, according to NASA. This was the first spaceflight for Cardman and Platonov.

Three other astronauts are currently living and working aboard the space station including NASA’s Chris Williams and Russia’s Sergei Mikaev and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, who launched in November aboard a Soyuz rocket for an eight-month stay. They’re due to return home in the summer.

NASA has tapped SpaceX to eventually bring the space station out of orbit by late 2030 or early 2031. Plans called for a safe reentry over ocean.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - The International Space Station is seen from the space shuttle Atlantis on July 19, 2011, after it left the orbiting complex. (NASA via AP, File)