A week after the Eaton Fire in Altadena destroyed thousands of homes, the scope of the disaster is beginning to become clear, but for one multigenerational family it’s still surreal.
Daniel Stone’s family, spanning three generations, lost three homes to the fire. Countless memories and photos have been lost, but like many Altadena homeowners, the horrifying reality still feels like a dream.
Rose bushes and a wooden deck outside Daniel Stone and Brian Davila’s Altadena home destroyed by the Eaton Fire.
(Daniel Stone)
“It feels weird not being able to go home,” she said. “It doesn’t feel that real. You fall asleep and wake up and you think, ‘Is this real?’
The area, located in the foothills, is smoldering, flattened, unrecognizable and closed to locals, as 16 people are confirmed dead and emergency authorities search for wreckage. More people are expected to be discovered. More than 4,700 structures were destroyed, thousands of families were evacuated, and in some cases multiple generations were uprooted from the communities they had called home for decades.
Danielle Stone and her husband Brian Davila embrace Thursday at a friend’s house in Hacienda Heights.
(Ringo Chiu/For the Times)
Danielle (“Dani”), 37, and her husband Brian Davila, 35, bought their first home on Wapello Street in 2022. Wapello Street is about a half-mile from the start of a hiking trail that winds up a hillside in Altadena, and about a mile from my childhood home. The house where her parents currently live.
It was important to her to have her family’s roots in Altadena, where her parents raised Stone and her sister and her grandmother raised six children. All three homes are within two miles of each other.
The year after moving into their home, Stone and Davila welcomed their daughter, Melina. It was the house where she learned to walk, and the wooden deck that looked out each morning to the nearby mountains.
“The scenery was so beautiful that we took Mary out and called them Mary’s Mountains,” Stone said.
Danielle Stone reacted Thursday at a friend’s house in Hacienda Heights as she and her husband, Brian Davila, looked at photos of their damaged home on a laptop.
(Ringo Chiu/For the Times)
But the scene turned terrifying on the night of January 7, when Santa Ana winds blew through the foothills and sparked a fire in Eaton Canyon.
I had little time to think that night. Like many others in foothill communities, the couple packed their essentials. They called her father, Rene Stone, to assess the situation. They even tried to put their daughter to bed.
Mr. Dávila told his wife that she had to pack her things as if she would never see the house again.
“But even though I say that, I think in that mindset… you still don’t really believe it,” he said. “I lost a lot. Honestly, in my heart, I thought I was going to go home.”
Stone and Melina drove to her parents’ home on Terrace Street, about a mile away, thinking they would be safe if they moved further southwest. Her father and Ms. Davila stayed behind to drain the house and wooden deck.
As he left his home on Wapello Street, the Merry Mountains glowed red with fire and smoke, Stone subconsciously said goodbye to his home.
The remains of the home at 101 W. Terrace St. in Altadena were unveiled Thursday.
(Ringo Chiu/For the Times)
There was a power outage at her parents’ home, and cell phone connections became unstable, forcing her family to gather information in the dark. She tried to sleep with her daughter in her parents’ bed, but her parents offered to sleep in the living room.
By early morning, smoke was filling the air and it was clear the fire was moving closer to her parents’ home.
The air outside was choked with ash. They placed Melina in a carrier and tried to protect her with blankets, but the daily ride of her into the car was filled with fear as a firestorm approached.
It was clear the family had to leave, but it took some time to convince Stone’s 89-year-old grandmother, Helena Montanez, to leave their home of 60 years on nearby Glenrose Avenue. She opposed the idea. Stone’s mother, Dana Stone, wanted everyone to leave together. The family’s roots in the San Gabriel Valley go back more than 100 years, when Stone’s great-grandmother, Andreita Gonzalez, opened a small grocery store in Pasadena.
Around 3 a.m., a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy announced over a loudspeaker that it was time to evacuate, and Montanez relented.
Eventually, the family fled in a caravan of cars, stopping to regroup at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where Rene Stone has worked as an equipment mechanic for more than 35 years. The family, including Montanez, moved to Davila’s sister’s house in Hacienda Heights.
The fire destroyed all three family homes, as well as countless other homes, family members said Wednesday.
Melina Davila is at her grandparents’ home in Altadena, which was destroyed by the Eaton Fire.
(Daniel Stone)
Dani Stone understands what happened. The area where her family lived for generations has disappeared. But the reality doesn’t match her memory. Whether it’s family vacations at their grandmother’s house, walking barefoot in the front yard, or hiking trails, she and Dávila are spending time with their parents during the pandemic and thinking about the home they’ll eventually buy. Tried to save money for.
Her family’s story, like others in Altadena, is one of working-class people finding refuge in Los Angeles County and creating communities for their Latino and Black neighbors.
“My grandmother made sacrifices and did everything she could to build a safe home for herself and her family,” she said. “My parents worked hard to save every penny and do everything they could to create a safe home for me and my sister. For Brian and me.”
Davila and Stone, the sons of Nicaraguan immigrants, hope to do the same for their daughter.
There is no doubt in Stone’s mind that his family wants to rebuild in Altadena. He has a rose garden at his home on Wapello Street and would like to replant it. Melina’s middle name is Rose, named after Pasadena and Davila’s grandmother Rosita.
“It’s so beautiful,” Stone said, recalling the photo. “That was one of the reasons we fell in love with this house.”
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