Tens of thousands of Angelenos have been forced to evacuate since last Tuesday after half a dozen fires broke out across Southern California. Firefighters are still struggling to beat back the Palisades and Eaton Fires, which are 14% and 33% contained, respectively, even as the National Weather Service warns that gusty Santa Ana winds in extremely dry conditions will resume this week renewing a threat of more wildfires and power outages in Los Angeles County.
Meanwhile, hundreds are now homeless and the current death toll has risen to 25 as more than 40,000 acres have burned and 12,000 buildings have been damaged, per NBC News. It wasn’t just wealthy Hollywood celebrities who lost their beach homes in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, but also working-class and middle-class families in Altadena and Pasadena who lost everything.
I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I was born at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, for the locals who know. These neighborhoods often don’t permeate people’s imagination when they think of Los Angeles, but these communities have always been central to my version of Greater LA.
I talked to over two dozen people this past week. Many residents in Altadena expressed worries that their quiet and diverse pastoral sanctuary, nestled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, might not ever fully recover from these fires. It might be too expensive or difficult for families to rebuild in the area, allowing hawkish developers to swoop in to deliver the final blow as people have seen the encroaching gentrification in nearby Pasadena.
So it is important to witness these stories of families and to acknowledge them. To show the record of who was here so they are not forgotten.
Nyiella Larkin Jones, 38, Margaret Larkin, 66, Dejohn Jones Jr., 18, and Camilla Larkin, 27
Octavia’s Bookshelf, named after celebrated local science fiction writer Octavia Butler and the first Black-owned bookstore in Pasadena, had been transformed into a mutual aid site. On Sunday, the Larkins stopped by to pick up supplies after losing their home in Altadena.
“We spent Christmas and New Year’s [there],” Nyiella said of her childhood home that burned down in Altadena. Thankfully Nyiella’s home, just down the block from her mother’s, survived. All three generations of their family evacuated to an Airbnb in Laguna Hills, offered through the company’s free emergency housing program.
Her mother, Margaret, an immigrant from Belize, grabbed birth and wedding certificates, but in the chaos forgot to grab her US citizenship papers. Her kids and grandkids all grew up in her home of 36 years.
Historically, Altadena and Northern Pasadena were home to some of the first middle-class Black communities in California after the Great Migration. But the 710 and 210 freeways built through Pasadena served as a form of redlining, continuing to segregate the city even as the cost of living has also pushed people out.
“I was the one that lived on that block for the longest,” said Margaret. “All my neighbors are new. My older neighbors were all Black families too, but they had either died or left.”
The uncertainty of whether the Larkins will be able to rebuild is heartbreaking for Dejohn, who was born and raised in Altadena. “We don't even know if we'll be living there ever again. I always thought we'd move away instead of being forced away,” said Dejohn. “But now it hurts even more because we’re forced away [and] there's nothing we can do about it.”
Celeste Sanchez, 33, and Ximena Ramirez, 12
Celeste Ramirez and her daughter Ximena also stopped by Octavia’s for everyday toiletries like toothpaste and toilet paper. Their family of six — Celeste, her husband, and four daughters — lived on Altadena Drive. Ximena was in shock as she saw the Eaton fire march steadily toward their home before they fled. “The flames were catching the trees,” she said in Spanish as a volunteer translated for the pair. “I was trembling.”
It wasn’t just their homes, but their family’s livelihoods that were impacted as well. “One of the houses I was contracted to clean burned down. One of my employees was killed in the fire,” said Celeste, who works as a house cleaner. Her husband was burned on his shoulder and is not able to continue working in construction at the moment. “The tools burned, the cars burned.”
In the rush to leave, she was only able to grab a purse, her mother’s ring, and some of their important legal documents. She saved her right-to-work papers and her husband's citizenship papers, but her kids' legal documents have all gone up in flames with the rest of their belongings. “How do you explain this to your child?” Celeste asked. “I came to a country for better opportunities, but nature took everything away in the blink of an eye.”
Bree Galvez and her dog, Mitzy
At the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the Red Cross had set up an evacuation site. Bree Galvez and her pug, Mitzy, walked in as volunteers offered them food. “It was ash and dark [outdoors]... The air quality was really bad,” said Galvez. The ash from the wildfires had been falling like snow from the sky for days. “Everyone had to leave the area.”
At the civic auditorium, she hoped she could get the help she needed. She was already living on the streets in Altadena before the fires, but staying outdoors was too dangerous with the wildfire smoke. “I don't have a home right now. I’m homeless,” Galvez said.
Josh Kirschner, 44, Max Kirschner, 10, and Alex Kirschner, 6
Josh Kirschner, a documentary producer, was dropping his kids off at a care camp set up at the LA County Arboretum in Arcadia because their school, Saint Mark’s, in Altadena, had burned down.
He and his wife, Julie, had originally left their house in Altadena with their two sons on Tuesday night because a tree smashed through a window in the heavy winds. Josh wasn’t prepared for that to be the last time they would see their house standing. “We honestly thought we were coming back because we didn't [yet] know about the fire. I brought school uniforms because I thought there might be school the next day,” he said. There was a lot they didn’t get to take before leaving home.
“What if a single toy…?” Alex asked his father, trailing off at the end of his sentence. “That would be great, wouldn’t it? Would we keep that single part of the toy?” Josh asked his son. “Yeah,” Alex replied.
Nayeli Barajas, 24, Julia Osorno, 50
Nayeli Barajas and her mother, Julia Osorno, were picking up water at a mutual aid site in the parking lot of a Pasadena public library.
“[The city does] not recommend you drink regular water or use it for brushing teeth,” Osorno said. Since the fires began, tap water in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Pasadena has been unsafe to drink.
The family was unaware that the Eaton fire had started until Osorno stepped outside Tuesday night and saw the flames on the horizon outside her home on Glenrose Avenue in Altadena. “We had no power, we had no [WiFi or phone] signal. We couldn't communicate with family. We had no idea what was going on,” Barajas said. “We heard about the Palisades fire. We were shocked when we found out that there was one right here.”
Since evacuating, they haven’t been able to return home to see if their house is still standing. Osorno, who runs a party supply store on Lake Avenue in Pasadena, is grateful that her business didn’t burn down, but right now she doesn’t have any customers. “I'm feeling very sad because I don't know what [I will] do,” she said. “I need to pay the rent. I need to pay for the house. And I don't know what happened with the house.”
Correction: The Larkins located to Laguna Hills, rather than Laguna Beach, and Celeste's last name is Sanchez, not Ramirez.
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