6 months later, 12 ways the Eaton and Palisades fires changed Southern California

Eric Swenson was in Altadena last week in the waning days of his time in the Eaton and Palisades burn zones As of Monday six months will have passed since the twin catastrophes exploded Jan The U S Army Corps of Engineers colonel who led the ash and debris cleanup paused in the sunshine in front of an empty parcel for the melancholy anniversary RELATED months later What we know so far about Palisades Eaton fires and status of the recovery Six months and four million tons of fire ash and debris later Swenson sought a silver lining Related Articles Remains of bodies recovered from Northern California fireworks blast site Bay Area fires burn Oakland warehouse homes over holiday weekend Uncertainty of future FEMA tragedy funding alarms Bay Area crisis planners This pinecone-sized device could transform the fight against wildfires Madre Fire map Evacuations for California s largest wildfire of People here have already started to rebuild he disclosed noting that properties have been cleared in less than five months between the two burn zones The rebuild has begun however slowly But it s happening The charred remains of residential and commercial parcels along the coast and in the foothills are giving way to acres and acres of blank dirt slates ready for their owners to come back But six months after the mammoth firestorm unsettling questions linger about whether a great number of of the displaced will return to communities generations of families called home Those questions often turn to whether the character of beloved neighborhoods could ever be captured Is the soil healthy Is the air clean By June buyers took ownership of more than homesites in the Palisades and Eaton fire zones Will they be the vanguard of a growing wave of land sales caused by the January firestorms Time is telling School districts houses of worship and businesses too have their own questions as they find their way back in scorched and emptied neighborhoods But one thing is for sure on the six-month anniversary of one of the bulk destructive natural disasters in the county s history In places such as Altadena Palisades Malibu Pasadena Sierra Madre the disasters have brought lasting changes specific of which resonate beyond the confines of where the fire burned to much of Southern California It s a picture that only time can bring in such a dramatic year during which the fires have transitioned to recovery a complex process underway against the backdrop of national political divisions unrest and an uncertain financial system In specific cases that picture is about heightened awareness of the risks facing this region In others it s about bonding relationships strengthened after tragedy Swenson himself was hopeful for the region I personally look forward to coming back to see my friends that I ve made here as they rebuild their homes their lives and their livelihoods and start the next chapter of their lives he announced Here is a collection of the changes that are evident in the burn zones and beyond as residents continue the journey to recovery at the six-month landmark Six-year-old Matilde White has her face painted during a society event celebrating the reopening of Grocery Outlet in Altadena on Monday Feb Photo by Drew A Kelley Press-Telegram SCNG Survivors have built society amid collective trauma In person online and via text survivors of the Eaton fire are holding hands through the tough stuff Whether it was checking in hours after the fire and commiserating with their loss and grief Altadenans are leaning on their communal trauma to process their grief and share the unique challenges of what s next The hundreds-strong Eaton Fire Survivors Architecture will gather in person for the first time on Monday celebrating what s come out from the fire a neighborhood of survivors standing together sharing support and enabling us all to recover faster and stronger Sharing the post-everything good and bad of all things Eaton Fire is helping One woman questioned if anyone else had trouble cooking in the kitchen of her rental The chore reduced her tears Another complained about insurance waits and woes as well as a hair-pulling bureaucratic morass to which a great number of sympathized we get it Others marked common milestones getting their lot cleared collecting soil for testing their first Easter post-fire first visit to El Patron or Webster s Pharmacy Fair Oaks Burger or bar The members of Altadena Rotary Club of whom lost their homes haven t taken a pause since Jan Aside from fund-raising and volunteering at distribution events the group is taking the full-house success of its Concerts in the Park to a newly-created stage at Lower Loma Alta Park It won t be Farnsworth Park and they don t know how several folks will show up Dealing with uncertainty is par for the unit now Granted it means that there will be those meager complicated moments for folks who haven t seen the latest phases of cleanup and rebuild but rest assured that you will be greeted at the concerts by folks who are truly glad to see you and who ve personally gone through what you ve experienced noted Altadena Rotary member Ren Amy Six months after tragedy upended their lives Altadenans are finding they still don t agree with everyone and their town will never be the same The hits will keep coming will insurance money last When can I return to my standing home Survivors are finding what has stayed with them six months after the blaze isn t the wind or the heat or the panic it s re-discovering public and belonging Numerous may find it watching Kenny Metcalf making like a young Elton John on stage at Loma Alta Park He sounds pretty good The kid in front is dancing like a drunken sailor You look around and realize you ve seen a large number of of these faces at the library or Grocery Outlet For a minute stuff isn t so tough You take it Bring on summer Anissa Rivera Thousands now have a common bond and identity fire survivors On any given street flattened by the Jan fire in the Pacific Palisades a microcosmic representation of the choice residents face after the fire can be seen At one lot a yard sign declares this home will rise again returning to the place we love At a neighboring property a Realtor s heavy wooden sign stands declaring that lot is for sale As homeowners weigh the cost both economic and personal and time that it will take to rebuild businesses also must decide if they want to come back Multiple have returned from a hardware store hoping that the rebuilding could be a boon for them as suppliers of building materials to restaurants opening their doors so that district members and workers can have somewhere to go Palisades real estate developer Rick Caruso promised the reopening of his luxurious retail center Palisades Village in seemingly looking to lead a comeback for the area s shopping Things take time and countless residents look at a years-long timeline to rebuild waiting on permits and insurance A not for sale sign on destroyed property in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday July Plenty of of the homes and businesses in the Palisades were destroyed in the Palisades fire on Jan th Photo by David Crane Los Angeles Daily News SCNG Palisades Charter High School with the iconic Stadium by the Sea will not return to their main campus in the fall but will remain at Pali South Santa Monica s old Sears building repurposed into a school But among these decisions to stay or go when to come back and those that have chosen one way or another or remain on the fence the neighborhood has banded together sharing in an identity as fire survivors whether they find a new home or remain in the Palisades for years to come The group members because everyone now has this shared experience in their life they re all fire survivors stated Col Eric Swenson of the U S Army Corps of Engineers the federal agency responsible for debris removal after the wildfires Whether they lost their home or didn t they had to evacuate I think the district dynamics have gotten stronger despite people being displaced I think that will be one of the keys to help people rebuild because it ll keep their fire in their belly that they want to get back and be with their former neighbors they want to be back as a society and not be separated Sierra van der Brug Jeff Clark of Trident Inspection Group performs a home fire inspection in Upland Thursday April Fire-hardening retrofitting inspectors and contractors have seen an uptick in their business since the LA County wildfires in Jan Contributing Photographer John Valenzuela Awareness of fire dangers have heightened Throughout Southern California residents are showing a heightened awareness of the dangers lurking in the wildlands abutting urban neighborhoods For several home-hardening companies business has doubled since the Palisades and Eaton fires Companies revealed they re busy responding to calls for home inspections both in the fire zones and throughout the region Lisa and Ken Drew of late not long ago paid more than to have a home-hardening company evaluate their property in Upland While their home is miles from Altadena it s just two miles from the San Gabriel Mountains If there s ever a fire we would like to be the ones whose house is still standing Lisa Drew announced Pacific Palisades homeowner Robert Dickey whose home survived plans to replace all the attic and crawl-space vents in his house with modern ember-resistant models He s also considering other retrofits but only up to a point We don t have unlimited funds to do this he declared Joe Torres owner of wildfire prevention firm All Pitfall Shield mentioned the newest firestorms gave folks a reality check It doesn t matter where you are where you live here in California there s high susceptibility to fire risks Torres noted People are realizing I should do something about this Jeff Collins Eric Wong who is studying environmental science at UCLA collects a surface soil sample from a home in the Eaton fire burn area in Altadena on Thursday April Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz Los Angeles Daily News SCNG Constituents medical has emerged as a major recovery concern As the Palisades and Eaton fires continued to burn days after first exploding on Jan the immediate concern of destroyed structures and evacuation zones shifted to a prolonged sense of vigilance over the masses physical condition impacts of the fires From air to water to soil that vigilance continues six months later and in selected aspects will be in the minds of locals for years to come The housing stock and geographical location of each fire played a part in what strength concerns developed Altadena s historic homes multiple built prior to used lead-based paint which experts mentioned determined its way into the air in the early stages of the blaze and into the town and nearby Pasadena s soil A Los Angeles County research revealed increased lead levels in soil taken from parcels downwind of the Eaton fire burn area This prompted additional soil testing from local governments such as the Pasadena Unified School District a self-testing scheme for residents and university sampling It has given me pause to think is this a school I in fact want my kids to go to PUSD parent Corrine Parker commented earlier this year The PUSD testing discovered more than half of district sites had a soil sample containing a concentration of a harmful substance which included lead arsenic chromium Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs and dioxins furans The way debris was moved also opened eyes in the region Several in local cities east of the Eaton fire and those along the coast have pushed back at agencies plans for staging and processing sites in or around local neighborhoods Six months after the fire the fervor over such sites appears to have fizzled but the moment was eye-opener for local cities Unlike a few other major wildfires in California Altadena and the Pacific Palisades proximity to so plenty of experts at the likes of JPL Caltech USC and UCLA meant more brains thinking through and researching the fires impacts and long-term ramifications It is an L A thing explained Fernando Guerra professor of political science and Chicano-Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University earlier this year There are inadequate other places in America or in the world where you have these non-governmental tools -David Wilson President Donald Trump listens to Gov Gavin Newsom after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles to confer about the fire calamity on Jan To several Newsom has positioned himself as the face of the Trump resistance movement AP photo by Mark Schiefelbein When and if California gets more federal wildfire aid remains to be seen Just a sparse weeks after the fires began and only days after his second inauguration President Donald Trump landed at LAX to take in the catastrophic damage Even before he landed California leaders were saying they d need the federal ruling body s help in the fires aftermath although just how big the ask would be wouldn t come for a sparse more weeks and Trump floated setting conditions on aid as a way to curtail certain Democratic policies in the state he loves to criticize Trump landed at LAX shook hands with Gov Gavin Newsom and vowed to give you everything you want Nearly six months later and more than four months after Newsom formally requested nearly billion in wildfire relief California is still waiting to see if the president will make good on that promise or how Newsom and Trump are in the midst of yet another smoldering kerfuffle this time over immigration enforcement and the White House has been in the midst of a tough battle to get the president s trillion tax and spending cuts bill through a divided Congress Will Trump eventually OK his political foe s billion request Will Newsom in turn have to make concessions on a voter ID law or how the state handles its water management or even immigration policies Six months out that still remains to be seen Kaitlyn Schallhorn Altadena Strong carries through to governing politics There have been attempts to change the governance of Altadena since the fires but they ve failed Instead the town population has rejected annexation talk from Pasadena wearing its independence as a badge of honor That badge has long defined the unincorporated town s go-its-own-way character Still six months after the town was pummeled the society just north of Pasadena has relied even more heavily on Los Angeles County leaders and L A County departments for guidance on fire debris clearance rebuilding fast-track permitting and economic aid Los Angeles County Sup Kathryn Barger visits with design builder Trinidad Campbell left and homeowner Margot Steuber who lost her home in the Eaton fire as construction begins for her new home in Altadena on Monday April Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz Los Angeles Daily News SCNG First District L A County Supervisor Kathryn Barger the unofficial mayor of the unincorporated area has emerged more powerful a central figure during the problem and perhaps for years to come The buck stops with her commented Michele Zack the town s historian and long-time resident who lost her ranch home in the Eaton fire We have been relying on the county Connor Cipolla a member of the advisory Altadena Town Council disclosed cooperation with county state and federal support have taken the top step in recovery We are not working closer with the city of Pasadena he declared saying a proposal by Councilmember Tyron Hampton for annexation was rejected I have no interest in being a part of the city of Pasadena He announced the fires have solidified the unincorporated group s working relationship with Barger and the county in general I am happy with the way the county is responding However Zack emphasized the region lacks planning authority and the Town Council has no real power She is very interested in a Rebuilding Authority plan put forth by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and approved last week that sets up land-use planning land banking and financing mechanisms in fire areas pending buy-in from those cities communities That kind of action is needed Zack revealed Steve Scauzillo Destroyed homes from the Palisades Fire in the Alphabet Streets neighborhood of Pacific Palisades CA on Monday January The wind-whipped fire destroyed at least acres and destroyed thousands of structures This image is a composite of multiple aerial photos Photo by Jeff Gritchen Orange County Register SCNG Insurance costs spike statewide Whether you live in Whittier or Yreka six month later after the Palisades and Eaton catastrophes you re bound to feel the effects of the Los Angeles County wildfires when paying for homeowner insurance Premiums already were skyrocketing before January s firestorms thanks to a series of deadly conflagrations over the past decade that consumed almost million acres Then came the L A County fires which destroyed about homes buildings and other structures As of May home and building owners had filed more than insurance proposes And carriers had paid out at least billion That burden will fall on consumers as well as private carriers Two key events are spreading those costs statewide Five weeks after the fires began the California FAIR Plan which provides bare-bones fire coverage to customers who can t find insurance elsewhere ran out of money That triggered a billion assessment essentially passing the hat among licensed providers to cover the FAIR Plan s insists The private companies in turn are allowed to pass on half of those costs to their customers everywhere in the state Then State Farm the state s largest insurance company requested a urgency rate hike to cover wildfire losses and stop its financial deterioration Ultimately State Farm won approval for a increase which will add per year to its typical homeowner premium one consumer group estimated Jeff Collins The wind and flames were biblical Houses of worship are responding in kind Biblical in their flames and fury the fires inspired faith communities in L A and Altadena their paths to respond in kind Six months later they ve held on to that response amid the headwinds of recovery Amara Ononiwu director of fire aid and relief for the -member Clergy Group Coalition in Pasadena declared faith leaders were at the Pasadena Convention Center evacuation shelter comforting evacuees within hours of the center opening In all in the Eaton footprint at least churches burned in the blaze and pastors lost their homes Gone are historic structures such as the Altadena Area Church and St Mark s Episcopal Church as well as Hillside Tabernacle of Faith and thriving Black public and Altadena Baptist Church a landmark at the corner of El Molino Avenue and Calaveras Street since Rev Tom Eggebeen interim pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church poses in the main chapel of the Pasadena church on Thursday April Rev Eggebeen invited the Altadena Locality Church which was destroyed in the Eaton fire to share their space Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz Los Angeles Daily News SCNG What remained are relics of faith a painting and a mural discovered after the fire at Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center a statue of the Fortunate Virgin Mary standing unscathed in the backyard of George and Jennifer Magallon s Altadena home What has stayed are the people meeting at borrowed spaces for now LIFT International and Altadena Neighborhood worships at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena joining the congregation of LIFT International Church which moved there from its Altadena building weeks before the fire Masjid Al-Taqwa founded by African American Muslims in the late s celebrated Eid al-Adha at New Horizon School in Pasadena It has also been using the Jackie Robinson Locality Center and hope to settle into a semi-permanent location soon The congregations of Lifeline Fellowship Christian Center and St Mark s have exposed host churches too Days after the fire Pastor Connie DeVaughn of Altadena Baptist Church reminded the faithful that God doesn t change when everything around us changes How you react is fine for you so there are those who are energized after a dilemma passes and that s wonderful and there are people who are so impacted they just have to come and mourn I say Be in that space of where they need to be Pasadena Jewish Temple members meet at First United Methodist Church in Pasadena and when the new school year begins its Louis B Silver Religious School will be based at Frostig School closer to its old neighborhood Its site is cleared now and church leaders are working on rebuilding plans leasing a long-term space surveying its stakeholders and welcoming its new permanent rabbi in August Faith leaders have stated all along that their church isn t a building Even as they hold on to hope six months after calamity members of the Clergy Society Coalition are showing up to vigils and rallies to address another emergency immigration raids around the Valley The Rev Mark Chase of All Saints Church in Pasadena reported that is what it means to love your neighbor It was true for a literal fire and true six months on What we do matters Keep showing up -Anissa Rivera Tenants impacted by the current fires attended a rally outside of Los Angeles City Hall before the council discussed an eviction moratorium for renters affected by the current fires along with a one-year freeze on rent increases Jan Photo by David Crane Los Angeles Daily News SCNG Rents are surging across L A County The Jan firestorms created a ripple effect throughout Los Angeles County s rental domain driving up lease rates by the biggest margin among U S cities for two consecutive months Perhaps households were displaced by the Palisades and Eaton fires More than lost their homes in the conflagrations Thousands more couldn t return because smoke damage and toxins left their residences uninhabitable The fires triggered a frenzy among fire casualties to find alternative housing generating bidding wars among the newly homeless and opportunistic price gouging among landlords By February rent rise for a Los Angeles County house more than doubled to the biggest increase among U S metro areas that month according to real estate details firm Cotality formerly CoreLogic By comparison the national average that month was The increase was greater part pronounced in high-end rentals because of the types of households that were impacted reported Cotality Chief Economist Selma Hepp February saw the price of top-tier rentals jump vs nationwide The county s rent progress was the nation s biggest again in March Overall rent progress for a house subsided to by April the largest part latest figure available but that was still times greater than rent hikes a year earlier The increases have also spurred concerns about rent-gouging and given rise to efforts to quell it Users on Reddit and Instagram would search rentals around L A and Ventura Counties on Zillow zeroing in on suspicious listings that seemed to show the illegal amount of increase in rent costs after the fires They d then review these listings to crowdsourced spreadsheets like that of the Rent Brigade a self-described group of Angelenos who are tracking rent cost information to address the housing situation As a supplement to state law a prohibition against rental price-gouging was extended for days by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors June The board voted to extend current limits on rent increases for motels hotels apartments condos and single-family houses in the county in order to protect tenants tens of thousands of whom are still in temporary housing after displacement by the fires Jeff Collins and Gladys B Vargas A mural by artist Pamela Key is seen on Wednesday June on her father Charlie Hogarty s home on Mendocino Street in Altadena where a few homes survived the Eaton fire Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz Los Angeles Daily News SCNG Survivors are contemplating a return while others have left Where have all the people from Altadena gone Specific moved to rentals in Pasadena Alhambra Glendora or La Verne And specific preferred to get away farther away putting distance between them and the ruins of the Eaton fire exactly six months ago Far from the haunting reminder of a home and a population that once was but are no more Jennifer and George Magallon are renting a house in Palm Springs about miles from east of Altadena the place they called home for the past five years before Jan swept that away It s hard when you live with that constant reminder began George Magallon on Wednesday July Here in Palm Springs it has helped us to reset We moved to get away from it all to get our minds away from it to get away from the smell to get away from all of it he announced For us we needed this On the TV news the biggest story is the temperatures of the day People in town are chatty and the conversations are not about fires or insurance companies It s that friendliness that is very refreshing he revealed as well as the margaritas at Tommy Bahama on North Palm Canyon Drive They d ask people at eateries where is the nearest Trader Joe s They d get responses he mentioned unlike in Los Angeles County where people are in their own bubble To find the nearest grocery store they d just get in the car and drive until they identified one skipping the GPS A real estate agent notified him he had five other customers from Altadena and two from the Palisades George has grown children who live in L A County Jennifer and her husband go back once a week she to her massage and Botox business in Pasadena and he to their empty lot to care for their trees I have lemon trees avocado trees and peach trees I give them water and they are happy I feel like that is my obligation he declared Six months later the Magallons aren t the only ones Thousands are waiting to return and rebuild And several are contemplating whether to return to the Eaton and the Palisades burn zones Steve Scauzillo Six months later Denas more intertwined than ever While very different places Altadena and Pasadena have unfailingly been connected both geographically and culturally Decisions in both communities having ripple effects into the other However they ve arguably never been more intertwined than in the last six months since the Eaton fire struck both As a large number of functionaries and residents have commented since the blaze a fire knows no city boundaries or political differences Another refrain from local leaders is the focus on referring to both areas as just Dena In the Pasadena Unified School District both Denas are represented in the schools and families under its jurisdiction According to the district the fire impacted about half of district staff and of its students In that moment the fragility of what we ve built together became very clear PUSD Board President Jennifer Hall Lee disclosed during the annual State of the Schools address Schools neighborhoods and communities They are strong but they are not invincible What keeps them going is our shared care and commitment Five campuses either burned down or suffered severe damage in the Eaton fire Altadena Arts Magnet survived the fire but its students also needed to be relocated due to the proximity of the destruction to the campus Pasadena campuses have become temporary homes for displaced students and questions still remain about the long-term plans for those students whose schools no longer exist in the same way they did prior to Jan Instructional coach Lauren Partma Principal John Maynard and Pasadena Unified School District Sup Elizabeth Blanco welcome children back to Don Benito Fundamental School in Pasadena on Wednesday Jan as PUSD continues to bring students back to school after the Eaton fire closed the district Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz Los Angeles Daily News SCNG Decisions made by the district about when to return students where they returned and how to handle the future that is clouded by financial problems caused strife among families simultaneously grappling with losing everything Just on every level PUSD we have felt as a family they ve shown us that they don t care about the safety of kids parent Alexis Brooks mentioned earlier this year In just over a month students of the Dena school district will return for a school year still swirling with uncertainty and a new understanding of how close Altadena and Pasadena truly are David Wilson Inspections of the Southern California Edison transmission towers alleged to be responsible for igniting the Eaton fire above Altadena and Pasadena continued on Thursday March Crews climbed the Eaton Canyon transmission towers looking for evidence that could ultimately determine the company s liability Photo by Dean Musgrove Los Angeles Daily News SCNG Scrutiny on utilities has deepened Six months later there s an acknowledgment among Southern California Edison executives that the Rosemead-based utility s equipment may have ignited the blaze That acknowledgement dovetails with broader scrutiny and awareness in Southern California on the role that utilities are playing in giant fires In April Pedro Pizarro president and CEO of Edison International the parent company of Southern California Edison communicated investors that the utility s equipment could be what ignited the mammoth Eaton fire in lieu of other evidence He added that the company likely would suffer important financial losses if unveiled liable given that no other feasible cause of the blaze has been identified The evidence on that cause has been stacking up over the months so much so that dozens of plaintiffs have consolidated their proposes against the utility into one occurrence alleging that sparks from the lines or current from an exposed grounding wire made contact with the brush They also criticize SCE for not de-energizing all the power lines in Eaton Canyon after the utility was warned days ahead that powerful winds were coming By May helicopters were assisting SCE workers in the dismantling of an idle transmission tower central to the inquiry into the cause A leading theory is that a tower that had been dormant for more than years became reenergized in the high winds through a phenomenon called induction Southern Californians are already feeling the impact of the scrutiny on the utility For one the utility pledged to rebuild infrastructure damaged in the devastating fires including major efforts to underground its lines And as the region moves into the heart of summertime the utility is warning customers that it expects to increase the number of power shutoffs this summer to reduce the danger of wildfires Ryan Carter