Rebirth. Refuge. Independence. They are themes that run through the veins of Altadena’s history.
Civil War veterans suffering maladies from battle settled here. There were the developers who envisioned a robust suburb north of Pasadena. The ranchers came. So did business types.
By the early 20th century, an eclectic mix of blue-collar workers and millionaires grew, joined by writers, artists and bohemians in this area against the foothills, between the Arroyo Seco and Eaton Canyon.
By the 1960s and 70s, Black people had found a rare haven in Altadena, 17 miles north of Downtown L.A., a rustic foothill oasis in a desert of redlining and racism of the era.
All this in a town that treasured its independence, and its distance from the seat of county government.
Fast forward to now, the aftermath of a catastrophic January day in 2025, when extreme wind fueled the hellish Eaton fire that destroyed thousands of homes, killed at least 17 people, and leveled scores of local landmarks, schools, churches and businesses.
The mammoth toll in life, in generations of property, emotionally, culturally is still mounting.
As evacuation orders lift and people return to endless rows of charred lots and rubble, there’s a question lingering in the ashy air:
Is rebirth still possible?
The answers mix hope with defiance, concern and vigilance with sadness and anger.
Hope in a recovery that maintains the dignity and character of Altadena. Defiance against the forces people worry threaten it. Concern over the departure of home insurance companies, the already happening predatory land offers, whether schools, churches, businesses will regain traction in the area. Vigilance to ensure residents are protected from such negative forces. Sadness over all that was lost.
In a town that embraced its distance from governmental authority, it is now shouting to the hilltops for that government to protect it.
Residents are concerned about what Altadena will become. Even as county and state leaders talk “rebuild” and “cutting the red tape,” they worry about what the unincorporated L.A County town will look like in the weeks and years to come.
Ultimately, hope in a rebuild with integrity fuses with worry Altadena will lose what made it unique and distinct.
Michele Zack still has hope, even as her century-old Spanish-revival-style home is now in ruins.
“It’s not going to be the way it was, but it’s possible to rebuild in a way that respects our history and culture,” said Zack, a resident of Altadena since 1986, an author who has written extensively about the unincorporated town’s more than 130-year history.
‘The way it was’
Beloved, bucolic and Bohemian at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, Altadena has long been an L.A. County community gem as culturally vibrant as it is steeped in local history.
“We’re this weird, funky, eclectic, big small town where everyone knows each other,” Cathirell’s sister, Alisha Cathirell-Tanzer said. “If you don’t know each other you know someone who knows each other.”
The 80-year-old Altadena Hardware store on Mariposa Street was a flagship touch of Mayberry. Farther north, atop Fair Oaks Avenue, artist Jirayr Zorthian, the Armenian-born, Yale-educated painter and craftsman, built his 48-acre Altadena ranch in the 1940s. Known as “The Last Bohemian,” Zorthian played host to parties at the ranch for the eclectic likes of jazzman Charlie Parker, artist Andy Warhol and Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman.
Nuccio’s Nursery was a world-famous cultivator of camellias and azaleas, on the land for nearly 100 years.
The list keeps going, from the beloved destination of Christmas Tree Lane to the Bunny Museum to Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church… .This, and many other local landmarks and destinations created an eclectic blend sprinkled amid a mix of tiny bungalows and beloved, vintage mansions.
They are gone now, charred skeletons of what by this weekend’s updated count was 9,000 destroyed structures and 1,000 damaged.
It’s here where a population off 42,000 lived and worked, 14 miles northwest of L.A.: Working-class households mixed with white-collar families, and artists found a haven.
The eclectic character that started way back when Benjamin Eaton was proving he could grow grapes and citrus with minimal water at the foothills was alive.
Scientists and engineers from the nearby Jet Propulsion Laboratory were neighbors with teachers. Drum circles echoed into the Lake Avenue air, pickleballers and dog-walkers found common green space, hikers found peace on decades-worn trails high into the San Gabriels.
This is the birthplace or hometown of many famous folk, including abolitionist Owen Brown, whose gravesite was designated a Los Angeles County Historical Landmark in December; Willa Beatrice Brown, first Black woman to earn a commercial pilot’s license in the U.S.; and in recent years, singer Marni Nixon; physicist Robert James Lang; and NFL linebacker Chad Brown.
Nearly 60% of residents in Altadena are non-white – one-fourth of them Hispanic and nearly a fifth Black, according to Census data.
Residents say it’s the town’s very diversity that makes it strong, and a reason fueling the efforts to make sure in whatever rebuild comes retains that character.
“It has many strands,” Zack said, reflecting on Altadena’s as kind of “refuge” for so many over the years. “It’s not characterized by one thing. It is more the fact that so many groups have lived in relative harmony that makes it special.
“I mean look, there’s the artists, there’s the bohemians, there are the musicians, there’s the creative people … . There are many Altadenas. But somehow the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts.”
In a town that treasures its distance from the county seat and a kind of “live free or die” mantra, it’s not surprising that residents have long pushed back on attempts to annex wholesale portions of it to Pasadena.
It likes its “unincorporated” status, it’s more relaxed government structure, and history where the town itself was not as “planned” as its incorporated neighbors.
The future
A sense of defiance is emerging amid the calls for “build back.”
It’s not that it won’t build back, it’s a question of how.
With her Pasadena home shown on the news the night of the fires, Emily Zeug was taken aback to receive a call from a real estate developer the very next morning asking if she wanted to sell her property.
“We thought it was scummy,” she said, disgusted that developers are already trying to exploit the tragedy of the fires by getting bargains.
“My husband just hung up on them,” she said. “We’ve gotten a few calls since then.”
That’s part of the reason Zeug joined around 25 other protestors on a recent Saturday afternoon, in the south end of Altadena, hoping to send a message that their community will not be broken up.
“We want to rebuild,” said Mijanou van der Wood of Altadena, who lost her home in the fire. “We want to protect and we’re going to defend Altadena.”
Carrying signs stating “Altadena: Not for Sale,” protestors gathered at the corner of North Lake Avenue and East Woodbury Road., shouting in unison “Defend and Rebuild!”
The questions are ubiquitous.
Will insurance claims be accepted? Can people afford to rebuild? Will corporations buy up lots? And what kind of impact will it all have on housing costs?
“We’re already having to flex the muscles we don’t have to assert ourselves to say ‘no, no, the voice of our community will be heard in this process.’” – Connor Cipolla, Altadena Town Council
Victoria Knapp, chair of the Altadena Town Council, was blunt: The fires have irreparably changed the landscape for the displaced families.
“Someone is going to buy it and develop who knows what on it. And that is going to change the character of Altadena,” Knapp said to the Associated Press, adding that those with fewer resources will be disproportionately hurt.
Zack warned that while actions taken by the county and Gov. Gavin Newsom to streamline the rebuilding process will be helpful, the community must be aware of the unintended consequences.
“That sounds good, and it is good for people who live here and are insured and they want to rebuild, but it’s also good for developers who might come in and get their projects greenlighted at the same time,” Zack said.
On Friday, more then 100 people gathered at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pasadena to hear stories of losses, hopes for the future and to discuss how to ensure that affected Black and Latino residents can continue to be homeowners.
“Our No. 1 is preventing speculators from preying on us and our land,” Pastor Kerwin Manning of Pasadena Church on Washington Boulevard said. Manning, worries for the future of his Black community, as well as other people of color that populate it.
“We’ve got to rebuild in a way that protects our common home and (cultural) climate. We’ve got to support every resident impacted by these fires, regardless of immigration status,” he said.
Manning, a fire victim who has 18 families in his congregation affected by the fires, said many fear they’ll be pushed out of the neighborhood.
Longtime Altadena resident Fay Austin, one of the speakers who shared her harrowing story, has lived an independent life since she was 20. Now, at 88, she’s learning to ask for and accept help from others after losing her house to the Eaton fire.
Like many others, Austin and Manning said they have seen people price gouging following the fires because people need quick housing options more than ever.
“In (Arcadia), they want me to come out there, but it’s $4,200,” in monthly rent, Austin, an Altadena resident since 1977, said. “I don’t have that. I’m limited with funds.”
Jasmin Shupper, founder and executive director of the Greenline Housing Foundation, which since 2021 has sought to reverse the effects of racism in housing, has already been thinking about the future for people in situations like Austin and Manning.
From its founding in 1887 through the 1920s, Black Americans settled in Altadena from Georgia, Texas, and other states, establishing generational legacies that remain today.
Altadena’s large Black population grew more in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of redlining in Pasadena. Their descendants stayed. The Black home ownership rate in Altadena is almost double the national average, Shupper said.
Shupper has already advising residents to talk with a trusted nonprofit or real estate professional before deciding to sell.
Zack, Shupper and other Altadena leaders said they too have heard about developers offering to buy property from families who’ve lost their homes.
To try and curb that, Newsom issued an executive order last week, which makes unsolicited undervalued offers to purchase property from homeowners in specific zip codes unlawful for the next three months.
Shupper noted that investing in rebuilding on a property will increase its value and people will lose money in the long run if they sell now.
“Don’t be fooled. Don’t be deceived and don’t feel desperate, because you don’t have to sell,” Shupper said. “There are people and organizations to help you.”
Zack said the rebuild offers an opportunity to improve the community and build back stronger.
This would include building more sustainably, with fire mitigation in mind and making Altadena into a model for recovery.
“Altadena is a lot more than houses. It has a culture, it has a history, it has people,” Zack said. “And if there’s real political will and we can manage, we’re a pretty contentious place. But if we can manage to get some sort of consensus and get the political backing of Kathryn Barger, I think that we could do something really great in Altadena that could be a model of recovery.”
‘If we don’t, who will?’
Many in the area say political leadership will be key.
Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, whose district encompasses much of the fire’s footprint, said she has challenged county department heads to come up with bold ways of thinking about getting people back in their homes.
She commended Newsom for streamlining the process through executive orders, which included suspending California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review.
Newsom also announced that five major financial institutions will offer mortgage relief for property owners affected by the fires.
Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo have committed to offer impacted homeowners a 90-day forbearance of their mortgage payments, without reporting these payments to credit reporting agencies, and the opportunity for additional relief.
Barger said the timeline is not a year, but rather weeks. She said plans are in the works for debris removal, streamlining the approval process at the county level and connecting with universities about having architects assist families.
“If we don’t, who will? If I don’t, who will?” Barger said. “I am letting the firefighters fight on the frontline and I’m going to fight the bureaucracy.”
But even more local leadership will be vital, residents said.
“We’re already having to flex the muscles we don’t have to assert ourselves to say ‘no, no, the voice of our community will be heard in this process,’” said Connor Cipolla, member of the Altadena Town Council, an advisory board to the supervisor.
Barger and county officials said this week during a news conference that planning is already underway to create a master plan for Altadena.
L.A. County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said this means preparing properties for people to restore their homes on them and it includes planning around utilities.
Cipolla’s house survived the fire but four other council members lost their homes.
“The fastest thing to build is probably a bunch of drop-in homes that look exactly the same that would ruin our community forever,” Cipolla said. “We really need to find a balance of expediting homeowners rebuilding and the outside interest of others trying to capitalize.”
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, represents a large swath of the area devastated by the Eaton fire, said her focus will be on making sure federal disaster relief dollars make it to the people who need it most.
Already, she has pushed FEMA to provide more clarity in the application process, which has left residents thinking they were denied when in reality they just needed to provide more information.
Chu also said finding out the causes of both the Eaton and Palisades fires will inform the response moving forward.
“We have an enormous role to play in helping the people of the district who are the survivors of this disaster at this time which is the lowest point in their lives,” Chu said. “They have nothing and so they are turning to us for guidance.”
In the recovery from the devastating 2018 Camp fire in Butte County, homeowners and renters grappled with everything from insurance claims to debris removal. There, elected officials used their power to connect people with necessary resources, along with writing legislation.
Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City), the state’s Republican minority leader, said he advocated for resources including debris removal programs (more than 3.6 million tons of debris and contaminated soil were removed from the Camp Fire footprint in the nine months following the fire) along with funding to rebuild destroyed irrigation systems.
He said long-term recovery efforts should focus on securing insurance claims and working with government agencies and nonprofits
‘It can still be home’
There are templates for rebuilding after such epic catastrophes. Experts say leaders will do well to study the recovery of places like the town of Paradise, in Butte.
The Camp fire, which started because of a downed PG&E power line on Nov. 8, 2018, burned more than 153,000 acres, destroyed 13,500 homes and killed 85 people, effectively leveling Paradise and some surrounding communities.
The fire displaced around 50,000 people in Butte County.
“We still got a pretty town,” said Steve Crowder, the mayor of Paradise. His daughter’s Altadena home had been destroyed by the Eaton Fire. “It’s not like it was; it will never be like it was. That was the first thing I heard from (my daughter) was, ‘I don’t think we can go back there cause it’s never going to look the same.’ And she’s right. It’s never going to look the same, but it can still be home.”
Paradise is six years into rebuilding its town — it was actually the fastest-growing town in the state in 2023, with a population increase of more than 16%. During this rebuild, leaders have improved evacuation procedures and set prospects for building fire-wise communities.
Former L.A. City Council member and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, whose districts spanned from the San Fernando Valley to the Westside and were heavily impacted by the Northridge quake, said lessons can be gleaned from past recoveries.
Strong political leadership, aligned support with state and federal governments, and honest are key ingredients.
“What our current mayor and the board of supervisors can do, is say ‘we’re here to help. We’re here to clean out the drain that blocks progress,’” he said. “But don’t overpromise and underdeliver. Underpromise and overdeliver.”
As Paradise began to rebuild, the population consisted of about 80% locals and 20% from out of town. But six years later, the split looks 50-50, Crowder said, in part due to lower cost housing and local schools attracting young families. The population is currently around 11,000, a fair step toward its pre-Camp Fire total of 26,000.
In his eyes, though, this doesn’t yet add up to a “rebuild.”
“Newspapers and TV places … everybody wants to ask about Paradise and I get it,” Crowder said. “They ask, ‘Well, how do you feel now that Paradise is rebuilt?’
“And I’m like, ‘What do you mean? We’re not even close to being rebuilt. This is a 20-year rebuild, and that’s going to be a shock for people when it comes to that reality.”
‘You see a storm coming’
Dartanion Cathirell II will be watching.
Cathirell runs the Altadena Baseball Academy and his family has owned homes in Altadena for generations.
There are more than 40 families in the baseball academy and Cathirell said three-fourths of the families lost everything.
He spent more than an hour fighting fires on his street Wednesday morning, Jan. 8, the day he now remembers as “like hell fire flying all over the place.”
It was a firefight with meager tools — a combination of hoses and buckets, usually filled with baseballs and softballs — that ultimately kept the homes near Mar Vista Avenue and Morada Place from burning as flames and embers swirled around him.
The battle helped save his own and neighboring homes.
But just over a week after the Eaton fire ravaged Altadena, Cathirell said he’s not too hopeful about the prospects of what’s to come during the rebuild.
“A lot of the people aren’t going to come back,” Cathirell said. “And you know that’s going to kind of change the makings of what made Altadena.”
The realities of the marketplace, Cathirell said, mean dollars and cents win out over the heart.
“You see a storm coming and you just know you can’t prevent it,” Cathirell said.
‘Moving with intention’
While homes and businesses have been the main focus in the immediate aftermath of the destruction, Altadena’s diverse ecological fabric has also been devastated.
Nina Raj, founder of the Altadena Seed Library, said the fire has damaged the natural resources in developed areas as well as in the wild lands.
Raj started a seed donation drive to help reseed Altadena yards and greenspaces that were lost in the fire. She said anyone impacted by the fire is welcome to pick up donated seeds to spread in their communities.
Talk of streamlining and urgency give Raj pause.
“I hope that we’re moving with intention when it comes to the way that we’re building, and I’m really concerned that Newsom has suspended environmental building regulations right now,” Raj said.
While she’s encouraging people to spread seeds within the developed area of Altadena, she said people should not sow seeds in Altadena’s wild lands. Raj said it would take a year or so to asses which areas have not naturally bounced back and need assistance.
“We really won’t know anything until we can just wait and observe how the Earth is responding to this crisis,” Raj said.
‘We’re going to try’
Raj’s seeds are a metaphor for a larger rebirth, a recovery of a town that Zack wants to be around for.
She celebrates people “of goodwill and talent” that has the potential to help bring the town back from the ashes in a dignified way, true to the Altadena she’s long written about.
“We’re hoping that with leadership, that we’ll be able to create guidelines for rebuilding, that developers will have to respect or they wont’ be welcome to invest.”
Before the fire, she and her husband had certain aspirations for their golden years.
“We thought we could run away and buy a house in France. But I don’t think that would be as satisfying as being part of the rebuilding, frankly,” she said.
Amid the ashes that her own home is now part of, she has hope in the rebirth of Altadena.
Can a successful rebuild happen?
“We’re going to try. The task is massive,” Zack said. “It’s overwhelming. “It’s daunting.”
“But we’re going to try.”
Writers Anissa Rivera, Jarret Liotta, Victoria Ivie, Ryan Carter and Michael Weber contributed to this article.