When Alex Ballantyne was 18 years old, he was recently kicked out of his foster home and was wondering where to go next.
Over the next few years, he felt anxious and displaced as he stumbled through a series of short-term stays, sometimes clashing with friends and sometimes settling in apartments and rooms for elderly foster children outside the state’s social safety net. It will increase.
But everything changed in the summer of 2022, when Ballantine was 22 years old, when he reunited with his biological uncle and aunt, who opened up their Altadena home to him.
The remains of a book belonging to Alex Ballantyne’s grandmother lie in the ruins of his extended family’s home.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“It was the first time I felt like I was in a place where I was wanted and welcomed,” said the now 25-year-old former foster youth. He grew up primarily with his grandmother, Ballantine said, because her longtime partner was abusive. At the age of 12, he was placed in a foster care facility. Most of the foster families he lived with were kind, but a part of him always felt like a guest, walking on eggshells and having to prove his worth. spoke.
But with her aunt and uncle in Altadena, Ballantyne said she truly felt at home for the first time in her life.
But that long-awaited sense of belonging has been upended once again. This month, the fast-moving Eaton Fire destroyed his family’s Altadena home and more than 9,000 other buildings.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had nothing,” Ballantyne said this week as she surveyed the remains of her home. “When I was 18 years old, I was homeless and walking around with a Lowe’s box full of stuff. It’s been really easy compared to that. …At least I have a family now, so this is a soft landing. I feel like that.”
He lost almost all of his clothes, possessions, and mementos, but he’s just glad his family made it out alive. He and his aunt and uncle are currently staying with relatives in Santa Clarita, along with another aunt who also lost her home in the fire. He said it was packed but he couldn’t complain.
Alex Ballantyne lost almost all of his clothes, belongings and mementos, but he’s grateful his family escaped the Eaton fire alive. He and his uncle and aunt are currently staying with relatives in Santa Clarita.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“I’m so grateful that everyone is alive,” Ballantine said.
The night the fire broke out in Eaton Canyon, about five miles from her home west of Altadena, Ballantyne checked evacuation maps, checked local news and watched the flames outside. At first, he wasn’t worried.
However, within hours the situation began to change rapidly.
“Around 9 o’clock we started seeing flames,” Ballantine said. He knew dangerous winds were expected in their area – electricity had already been shut off – and both his aunt and uncle had mobility issues so they wanted to be extra careful. That’s what I was thinking. He advised his uncle and aunt to leave, even though there were no neighborhood warnings or evacuation orders at this time, but the uncle was worried about looters.
“I was adamant that I wouldn’t go back unless I had to,” Ballantyne recalled.
So Ballantine offered to monitor the county’s Genesis app, which maps emergency alerts, to see if he could leave when directed. He prepared his pet and prepared to stay up all night.
But there were no warnings or evacuation orders issued for hours. Around 2:30 a.m., he got up to check the front door and was greeted by a wave of smoke and panic.
A drone image of western Altadena, where residents were ordered to evacuate hours after the Eaton Fire exploded.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“We no longer had to look all the way east to see the fire. It was coming closer and closer,” Ballantyne said. “We’re scrolling and scrolling to see if we can evacuate.”
But there was no warning in his area west of Altadena, and there was no warning for another hour. This delay is a major concern for local authorities.
“It looked so close that you couldn’t tell there was a fire because the smoke was blocking everything,” he said. He said his room began to fill with smoke and then the entire house began to fill with smoke. He desperately searched for the latest information on the evacuation so he could convince his uncle of the need to evacuate, but as of 3:20 a.m. there was still no warning.
Finally, minutes later, and hours after neighbors in eastern Altadena were ordered to evacuate, residents were ordered to evacuate. So Ballantine immediately sprang into action. I woke up my aunt, helped her into her wheelchair, put the pets in the car, and told my aunt. Uncle, they were leaving.
Despite the orders, my uncle hesitated because he didn’t see any police officers or firefighters ordering people to leave. So Ms. Ballantine made the difficult decision to leave him behind, knowing that she could not hesitate for the sake of her aunt and herself.
“My eyes were burning at this point,” he said. “There was smoke in my eyes, smoke in my nose, smoke everywhere.”
He and his aunt fled to a parking lot in Pasadena, and luckily his uncle joined them a few hours later. His car was covered in ash and the paint was melted. His gray hair and clothes were burnt. He said he narrowly escaped as the flames engulfed his house, but woke up when a neighbor called him after seeing his house on fire.
Alex Ballantyne walks through his extended family’s home, which was gutted in the Eaton fire.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
“It was a very close call for him,” Ballantine said. “If he had missed that call, or if he had called later, he probably wouldn’t be here.”
This week, Ms. Ballantine walked through the rest of her first home, which truly felt like home, pointing to where her room once was and a bookshelf filled with special reading material from her grandmother. I found a burnt page. He noticed the remains of his desk, his twisted bed frame.
A huge charred branch fell on top of a large mass of gray rubble, crushing a broken and melted computer monitor.
“I was thinking maybe I could find parts for computers,” he said, shaking his head. The chimney is the only part of the house that still stands tall.
Ballantine pointed to two peach trees along the road that were completely burnt. In the backyard, I can barely see the tools that are in my uncle’s garage. All that remains of the garden fence are the metal posts.
In addition to losing family photos and memorabilia, Ballantine kept reminding herself that material things can be replaced over time.
“I think a lot of my adaptability comes from being in foster care for so long,” said Ballantine, who has moved more in the past 20 years than most people do in a lifetime. . For better or worse, he said the experience helped him “adapt, make decisions, and not get into tough situations.”
He said he won’t let this setback derail his plans to graduate from college. He will be in the minority among former foster youth who plan to graduate from college.
“I’ve had my moments of sadness and grieving, but at some point you have to accept it and just move on,” Ballantyne said. “It’s like, ‘Okay, what do we do now?'” What’s the next step? ”
He’s already used his savings to buy new clothes, but now he’s considering whether he’ll need to rent a room for his final semester at Pasadena City College. It doesn’t seem practical to commute from Santa Clarita during rush hour every day, he said. A GoFundMe was set up by friends to help him get back on his feet and prepare for a potential move as he plans to transfer to a four-year university in the fall to study business.
Much remains unknown about his family home. His aunt says they are sorting out insurance issues and will need some accommodation to be able to access transitional housing. But no matter what, she says she will always have space in her home for her nephew. Alice Grevilius, Ballantine’s aunt, said if he wanted to.
Living together worked well for all of them, she said. Ballantine helped out around the house and cared for them as needed, and they provided him with support, encouragement, and a stable home. Grevilius said he didn’t realize how difficult things would be for him after graduating from high school, but he was glad to finally be able to go back to school and works with youth through several local nonprofit organizations. He said that he continues to support the upbringing of children.
“I think he really chose a direction that worked for him,” said Grevilius, 63. Gave him guidance and insight. …Al is very smart and talented and I want to see him succeed in life. ”
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