Jocelyn Boyd stared in quiet disbelief as she gazed at the ruins of the Altadena neighborhood where she once lived.
Loma Alta Park, which once housed a public pool that served as a summer refuge for her and other black residents, was destroyed by the Eaton Fire.
Standing outside a nearby community garden, where the plants were largely untouched, she pulled out her phone to record video of the seemingly random destruction.
Eaton fire victim Jose Medina on Tuesday distributed donated children’s shoes for fire victims returning to their burned homes in Altadena. His nephew Jose Velasquez (not pictured) organized the donation.
On Tuesday, Boyd returned to her childhood home, and authorities opened the burned area to the public for the first time since the mass evacuation on January 7. Boyd was driving down Lincoln Avenue when he stopped just before a security checkpoint. There, a group of National Guard soldiers armed with rifles checked the IDs of passing motorists.
Boyd, 57, who was forced to leave her current home in Pasadena along with her pets, spent several days wondering if she would find a home there when she returned. it was.
Every time Altadena’s friends call to ask how she is, she feels a pang of survivor’s guilt, searching for the right words to convey the relief she feels to those who have lost everything. Ta.
“The situation will never be the same again because many people will not be able to rebuild,” she said.
Boyd, who retired after running a mobile dog grooming business, described how redlining and other discriminatory housing policies forced many black Altadenas into homes on the west side of Lake Avenue. Lake Avenue once served as the Mason-Dixon Line, separating West Altadena from the city’s historically mostly white east side.
For her and others like her, Loma Alta’s pool served as a refuge from both the lingering racism of the small town in the San Gabriel foothills and the sweltering summers.
Eaton fire victim Carla Marsh is overcome with emotion as she and her husband search for valuables and memorabilia in their West Marigold Street apartment complex. The Marsh family plans to rebuild their home and are staying with friends until then.
In the 1980s and ’90s, gentrification forced Black residents out of the area, and many moved further inland. Many of those who could afford to live lived in large family homes that had been passed down through generations, some of which were destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
Some of Mr Boyd’s friends were living in campers on the burnt property and were concerned about reports of “land grabbers” sniffing around the area. Several people have already received business cards from strangers asking if they are interested in selling their property, with some even offering their homes “for $1,” he said.
Her message to these friends is: And don’t sell. ”
Records reviewed by the Times show residents on Lake’s west side did not receive evacuation warnings until hours after the Eaton Fire broke out. The fast-moving blaze, fanned by strong winds, burned large swaths of western Altadena, ultimately destroying 7,000 structures and killing at least 17 people. Records show all the victims lived west of the lake.
Authorities have reopened roads across the region, but the situation remains a dire checkerboard pattern of destroyed homes next to those that largely escaped the fire.
But even amidst the destruction, there were signs that recovery efforts were making progress.
Power company workers were out all day trying to restore power. Meanwhile, neighbors and officials wearing FEMA jackets frequented the nearby Stumptown Coffee Shop, which was offering free hot coffee until Friday.
Next door, volunteers were handing out free meals to people waiting in a long line that snaked through an empty lot.
Eaton fire victim Jose Velazquez (left) hands donated household items to a woman in front of his burnt-out garage.
(Allen J. Scherben/Los Angeles Times)
On the night of the fire, Randolph Ware, 39, was in the bedroom of his grandmother’s house on Glenrose Street when choking smoke began to fill the room. After driving Grandma to safety, he and his uncle began watering the house’s garden and fence with a hose while chasing down embers the size of golf balls that had rained down on their block.
When authorities shut off the water at some point during the night, he and his uncle ditched the hose and used shovels to mound dirt to put out the fire.
Ware said he refused to leave even though a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department patrol unit drove by and used a loudspeaker to order residents to evacuate.
“I didn’t intend to burn out,” he said. “I don’t want to say I’m Superman, but it was God’s will that made me that way.”
Other evacuated residents have also gradually begun returning to the area in recent days. Among them was Jose Velazquez, 30, who was manning a pop-up relief station outside his mother-in-law’s home on the corner of Woodbury Road and Glenrose Avenue.
The station was launched last week, several days after volunteers sorted through donations of clothing, disposable wipes, toys, diapers, canned goods, fresh produce and more that came in from as far away as San Francisco.
Luis Linares, from the volunteer group Guardianes del Muro USA, stands in the median, waving a handmade charcoal sign. A massive donation and feeding center has been set up for Eaton Fire victims who have returned to their homes in Altadena.
“A woman drove a U-Haul full of supplies and delivered them here,” he said, noting that many of the donated supplies were for people who still didn’t have gas or electricity in their homes. he added. “Honestly, everyone is eating instant noodles now.”
Velazquez said she felt she had to help because her family’s home largely escaped damage while other homes, including one next door, were a complete loss. He was also looking for a way to give back to his fellow neighbors who had been loyal customers for years at the churro stand his family operated from their driveway. Nearly 40 of the regular customers lost their homes.
Velazquez’s uncle, Jose Medina, 64, was home the night the fire broke out. He remembers hearing a loud thud and later realized it was a gust of wind that had blown off part of the roof of his house.
“I thought the space shuttle was going to crash into Earth,” he said.
He ran outside and spotted an eerie red light on the hillside of Eaton Canyon in the distance. Less than 20 minutes later, he said, the fire broke out across the street from the home he and his sister had lived in for 40 years.
Eaton Fire victims Liz Orr and Leigh Ann scavenge through debris on W. Marigold Street in Altadena. They are staying in a hotel with their child and are waiting to hear about insurance from California’s FAIR plan.
As the flames grew closer and closer, Medina said he climbed onto his roof and began hose down his yard and his neighbor’s yard to try to contain the flames. He watched helplessly as strong gusts of wind carried the embers down Woodbury Road and ignited a palm tree in his neighbor’s backyard.
Miraculously, his sister’s house was spared, but the flames destroyed the garage where Medina was sleeping and the tools he used to work as an independent contractor. Over the next few days, Medina scoured the burnt out garage for angle saws and stepladders, but they were all destroyed. He managed to recover several shovels and drill bits from the ash pile.
On Tuesday, he was working at a relief station with volunteers like Yolanda Barra, 30, a member of a South Central Los Angeles congregation called Minesterio Cordero, who drove by car to hand out prepackaged meals to residents. I came. Barra credited the church with providing a lifeline as he worked through his battle with substance abuse, and said he saw this as an opportunity to give back.
“Everyone is struggling and now we need to come together and support each other,” she said.
Times staff photographer Allen J. Scherben contributed to this report.
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