Four months after Inferno torested Altadena, there are still some tiled rub time capsules and gut and restaurant shells lined up in the North Lake Avenue business district. Near the top of the street, Maggie Cortez’s beloved Mexican eatery stand is one of the few survivors in the town.
She and others fear that the area will remain a wasteland, but the residential portion of Altadena is moving forward with reconstruction.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was entrusted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clean up the debris of private housing, several public buildings and places of worship, but did not make commercial property.
“The removal of commercial property is the responsibility of the property owner. Currently, USACE has no challenge to carry out the removal of commercial property from FEMA,” the Army said in a statement.
Elle Patron survived the Eton fire, which destroyed many businesses and neighborhoods nearby.
The agency has signed ECC constructors for more than $668 million and will clean homes in areas affected by Etonfire, records show. So these lots are cleared at speed, but most commercial property owners are left to clear the land. And many have questioned whether they can afford when business outlooks are very dark, with unincorporated town sashes trapped in toxic frontiers.
Within El Patron, the music goes overhead as customers are carried normally. But it’s not too far to remind us of what happened in January. Across the street is the pizza location and historic church ruins, but caution tapes still cling to the trees in the adjacent park.
Cortez, 45, said that “family” customers, whose photos adorn the walls, visited the destroyed home on their way to check in and oversee corrections. However, after the first surge, the business waned. She fears the restaurant’s survival.
Cortez lives two blocks apart and knows that vision is a deterrent, especially for those who are still injured by the fire. “I can feel their pain,” she said.
The church that crosses Lake Avenue from El Patron is located in abandoned in.
Larry Hammond, a board member of the Chamber of Commerce, said there was initial confusion as to whether employers would get help in the cleanup process. Now, businesses that have reopened are facing problems with how to pull people back as the recovery continues, but people who are burning out wonder if they can reopen in areas where there are no people. All of this is a question about toxins from uncleared properties.
“The future is unknown in terms of business,” Hammond said. “No one frequented local businesses are visiting anymore.”
Altadena’s leading superintendent Kathryn Barger introduced a motion last month to help the region recover through small business loans and approve pop-up events and restaurants operating in vacant lots over the next five years to revive customers. The county announced Tuesday that businesses can apply for loans for up to $75,000, but that they will need to be made public to qualify.
Barger’s advisor Anish Saraiya said the supervisor advocated for debris cleaning to include commercial property
A truck carrying a debris shuttle down the street from El Patron outside Webster’s Community Drug Dispensary, passing through shops on Lake and Mendocino Streets. The shop and its surrounding shopping complex survived the fire, but nearby buildings burned.
Webster pharmacy owner Meredith Miller, right after the Eton fire, had to move the store from a historic building off the block. Above, she embraces her client and Altadena resident Nancy Allen.
Owner Meredith Miller said sales were down despite some loyal customers returning. She imagines the outside scenes to be useless.
“It’s only one or two businesses that have done their own cleanups. Other than that, they just sit down like it was Fire Day. People really don’t want to see it,” Miller, 71 said. “That’s because I’m upset.”
Currently, displaced people living in Monrovia and other neighbours return to Webster when they check facilities and pick up their medicines. The embrace is often shared between the customer and the mirror. Tears are shed.
In front there is a donation section for people to take toys, toothpaste, sunglasses and books. And the tote bags, t-shirts and hats were read as “Beautiful Altadena” (a phrase that the shop was created a few years ago) and one of the new community slogans, “Altadena Strong.”
Webster’s pharmacy owner Meredith Miller had to move the store from a historic building off the block following Eton Fire.
The pharmacy is a 99-year-old Altadena staple that Miller and her husband bought 15 years ago. They moved to this location a few blocks from the original site last year and are trapped in a five-year lease. Their hope is that pharmacies have exceeded that for 100 years.
“We really don’t want to give up,” Miller said. “In the end, people are coming back to the community and getting the best prescriptions they can fill here…but it’s going to take years to rebuild.”
The fire has led businesses to take on a variety of next steps. For example, Fair Oaksburger is overcoming the fire and preparing to resume in a few weeks. The hope is that customers will return, but the owner plans to build a wall in the parking lot to hide the ruins surrounding it. At the lake, the owner of a Fox restaurant cleared up the land, but did not hurry and rebuild. And under five blocks, Altadena Hardware is about to reopen a new location in town since the rental building was destroyed, but the possibilities are limited.
Miller believes home cleaning should be a priority, but says community stores, offices and restaurants also need help.
“Don’t leave us behind,” she said. “We are the business you have depended on and relied on for years.”
According to 2023 data provided by Burger’s office, around 10,500 people lived and worked in Altadena before the fire.
Gail Casburn has been living in the area since 1989. Her home on Las Flores Drive was burnt out, but the beer and wine bar survived on Fair Oaks Avenue, another business district in town. She and her husband opened the Altadena Ale and Wine House to serve the locals, but without the community there is little reason to visit. She believes the constant sight of the buildings crumbling down the streets is a deterrent.
“I have no doubt about that. Devastation is surreal,” she said.
The bar recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. Casburn said the day was surged to customers, but the place was quieter than before. Other businesses in her family – the 1881 jazz club east of Burnzone, she said, was slowing down as well.
El Patron owner Maggie Cortez is fighting for its survival months after the Eton Fire destroyed many businesses and neighbours nearby.
Mariahis will perform at the El Patron Restaurant, located in the shadow of a burning building across Lake Avenue.
In a cloudy, drizzling Cinco de Mayo, balloons assembled the entrance to El Patron when the Maria Ciband was played. The music filled the restaurant and spilled down the street.
Cortez was considering cancelling the annual event, but her clients encouraged her to move forward. “This is hope,” they told her. “This is a miracle.”
A long-time regular was gathered. Cortez greeted each with a hug, dancing to customers (her family) from their seats, delivering shots of tequila and introducing them to their granddaughter born shortly after the fire.
Outside, the aftermath of the fire was visible, and the smell of ashes remained with the arrival of the rain. But inside, the sight of destruction was covered with celebrations.
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