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In the living room of Altadena’s two-bedroom apartment, Rosa Ramirez sat alone on the sofa, staring at the smoke-dyed ceiling.
In the corner of the room, boxes and bags filled with clothes, towels and blankets were not packed with blankets that were not tainted with smoke from the Eton fire.
“I slowly go through things and see what I need to throw away,” she said. “I have to replace my child’s mattress and some furniture will have to go eventually, but I haven’t done it yet.”
Rosa Ramirez and her 17-year-old daughter will show off their burned apartment in Altadena on Monday.
Until a week ago, Ramirez and her family were staying at the hotel, bouncing off the city into the city after Inferno evacuated them in January. However, the money was drained and costs to rent elsewhere, so along with other tenants I returned to the burn zone and the apartment the insurance company deemed “unmanned.”
Ramirez’s family is one of about 12 people who say they live in the building, some for nearly two months without gas service, and encourage them to use a portable stove to heat the water and bathe. Some units require smoke repair, and at least two apartments have holes in the ceiling from fire service.
In addition to their list of anguish, families, including children and seniors, say their apartments are surrounded by burnt-out homes, destroyed carports and burnt vehicles.
“The people who live here are people who can’t go anywhere. They don’t have the money to stay in a hotel or a car,” said Brenda Lopez, who shares a two-bedroom with the six-person family. “Because we have to be here [out] Stubbornness. ”
Residents say they have repeatedly asked Regency Management Inc. to repair their apartments. Instead, they alleged that the repairs were delayed, and tenants were retaliated with power closures, preventing the company from attracting services and threatening to start a rent bill again.
Residents gather in apartments and some residents say they live in Altadena with little or no utility.
Regency Management Legal Consultant Jesse Carrillo challenged those accusations.
“We are working with all our affiliates and insurance companies to restore our services,” he said. “As you can imagine, all agencies are currently facing widespread demands, which has led to delays in response times.”
Carrillo said no one on the management team has stopped power or requested rent since the fire.
“We encouraged all the deposits and money paid in a month if residents chose to move,” Carillo said. “Some residents occupy the units, but we didn’t charge rent and did not make any such requests.”
Carrillo said damage to the electrical line has generated power for some residents and new switchgear panels must be replaced before power can be restored. He said he hopes it will be completed soon.
He said clearance was required from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Los Angeles County Construction and Safety Department before the gas company could restore gas services. He said county officials are waiting for the company to give final approval.
The view from the apartment’s balcony is one of the devastation in the aftermath of the Eton Fire.
Tenants also denounce the pile of debris surrounding the two-storey beige and brown stucco building, and are asking county officials to remove them.
To bring awareness to their living conditions, residents established Group Tenant Committee 403 this week, scheduled a press conference at 5pm on Thursday to discuss the issues they faced in their apartments. Fearing that they will be kicked out during renovations, they suggest modifying the three units at once.
Supporting the group is the National Day Laborer organizational network known as Ndlon, which has recently begun working with residents to address concerns. The group hopes to do so will shed light on other properties that have similar issues with burn zones.
Advocacy Group executive director Pablo Alvarado says the 47-unit complex has around 60 people living in the 47-unit complex. He said his family did not have the credit history or proof of income needed to rent elsewhere. Some were working nearby, while FEMA was staying at the hotel, which was too far away.
Inevitably, some families returned to live in burned areas, and Alvarado said he wanted state and local officials to find and prioritize those facilities to remove dangerous debris.
“The priority for the authorities is to clean up where people come back,” he said. “We don’t want our families to be evicted.”
Residents sort items in Altadena apartments where residents live with or are not present at all.
Colonel Eric Swenson of the U.S. Engineer, an agency that helps remove fire debris in the county, said the list of priorities has some places where people seem to live. He said a burnt-out detached house around the apartment would put the area on the list.
According to a map of damaged homes in the county, the apartment is surrounded by more than a dozen destroyed homes. Some of these lots are lined up to remove debris according to the debris removal map.
Swenson urged residents with health concerns to reach out to local public health officials, asking for patience as his crew worked at record speeds to remove wreckage from thousands of property in the county. He reminded the property owner that there is a deadline at the end of the month to sign up for debris removal. People can log on to the county website and sign up.
Carrillo said the management company has submitted an application to the county to remove carport debris.
“We’re waiting now [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s] “This removal is important due to the potential fire hazards posed by EV batteries and must be completed before further work begins.”
He said the application is in the final review phase.
Brenda Lopez said she and her fellow tenants noticed a more responsive tone from their management company after the National Day worker organization was involved. The group is committed to putting pressure on the company to do more, she said.
“The people who live here are people who can’t go anywhere. They don’t have the money to stay for a hotel or car. [out] Stubbornness. ”
– Brenda Lopez
Brenda Lopez says that the people living in Altadena apartments are mostly low-income families and have children with some special needs.
Lopez said the building’s residents are almost hardworking, low-income families, with some having special needs children. Some, including herself, work in the services industry, manufacturing and construction, she says, while some people share apartments to get it.
“We barely make it, and we are a family of [six]She said.
Lopez, who left Las Vegas for Altadena, said he moved with his family after the New Year. She sleeps in the living room with her 5-year-old daughter Mileydis and shares a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with her parents, siblings and sisters.
She said the family was evacuated around 3am after the fire broke out on the evening of January 7th. I returned to my apartment two weeks later when the evacuation was lifted as there were no other options. Lopez said there is running water and electricity. She said the neighbor in the courtyard had no electricity.
Lopez said a small number of families lived in the complex at the time, but now there are at least 12 people back and she is thinking about coming back more.
Carrillo said misunderstandings and misinformation contributed to misconceptions between the company and the tenant.
Mattresses and other discarded items are stacked outside the apartments where residents live in Altadena.
Last month, when residents began asking questions about their cleaning efforts, the management team posted a copy of the letter to FEMA from the company’s insurance company, claiming the building was “uninhabitable” and that it would take 60-90 days for tenants to be allowed to occupy the unit.
Following the letter, a March 7 notice was posted on the door on March 7, saying that cleaning efforts on the four units will begin on March 12. Others said it did.
Carrillo as of Wednesday, at least 42 units have been cleaned and cleaned by an authorized environmental company, with three units expected to be repaired on Friday.
He said at least one unit was affected by the fire, two could be exposed to flames, while the rest experienced smoke damage.
He said the FEMA letter was an example of a misconception that occurred in the building. He said the letter was posted to help residents at risk of losing aid from federal agencies.
“We handed that letter to someone who could be in a position or in a difficult position where FEMA is cutting funds. [the tenant] We can prove they are out of unit now,” he said. “There was this misconception that we were going to call the police.”
In another example, the tenant said employees at Gas Co., Ltd. in Southern California said they have no plans to restore services to the building as demolition is scheduled.
Children play in a complex surrounded by burning houses.
“We have no plans to destroy this property,” Carrillo said. “Our only goal is to fully restore the property so that tenants can safely return home.”
Sitting in her living room, Ramirez said all she wanted was for things to return to normal. For a moment she stood up and took a walk in the kitchen, passing her daughter’s turtle. The daughter, turtle, survived the heavy smoke that filled the apartment while the carport outside the unit was burning. Outside, her daughter spoke to a friend.
At the kitchen counter, a stainless steel pot sat on a portable electric stove that Ramirez used to heat into the tub. She cried quietly, leaning against the fridge.
“I’m sad, I live like this,” she said, wiping her tears.
When her daughter came in she realized she was crying.
“¿Estas Bien, Mama?” she asked. “Are you okay, mom?”
Ramirez smiled and nodded.
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