Standing on the burned-down parcel where his sister once resided, Zaire Calvin spoke to a crowd of neighbors, loved ones and community organizers.
“My sister Evelyn McClendon was the very first victim found in the fire,” said Calvin. “I know that because me and my cousin came up here and found her the very next day.”
For blocks in every direction, empty lots remain where homes once stood in West Altadena.
Monday, July 7, marked six months since the most destructive fires in Los Angeles County history erupted, killing at least 30 people and destroying more than 16,000 structures in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades.
Altadena residents marked the anniversary with a vigil to honor the 18 lives that were lost in the Eaton Fire. Through prayers, songs and shared testimonies about the deceased, the community attempted to heal as they entered the next phase of recovery.
“The diversity of my community and how much love they show, and how we represent as a community, it’s so different than anybody or any place in the world,” said Calvin. “We have to stick together as a community. We have to stay united. We have to fight to make sure that we come back.”
The Road to Recovery
As the summer heat approaches and the threat of fires once again looms over the Southland, recovery is just beginning for many devastated by January’s infernos.
Some survivors have broken ground on their rebuilds, while many remain displaced or have decided to restart their lives elsewhere. Residents are navigating the lengthy and complicated process of debris removal, insurance claims and rebuilding permits.
“Local, state, and federal governments are delivering the fastest wildfire cleanup in U.S. history. Nearly 10,000 homes cleared – months ahead of schedule – because recovery can’t wait,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom at a news conference at Pasadena Community College on Monday.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers has cleared debris from more than 9,000 lots – 97% of properties in the Eaton Fire zone and 87% in the Palisades Fire zone – while nearly 1,000 properties that opted out of the government debris removal program still need to be cleared.
Around a quarter of the nearly 400 rebuild permits applied for by Pacific Palisades property owners have been approved by LA City’s Department of Building and Safety, while only around 5% of the over 900 rebuild permits submitted by Altadena residents have been approved by the county.
“Now we turn the page to rebuilding, and we’re doing it with a clear plan, strong partnerships and the urgency this moment demands,” said Newsom, outlining next steps as LA enters the “restoration phase,” with plans to lower construction costs, reduce property taxes and expedite rebuilding.
Emphasizing that recovery efforts will prioritize restoring homes and community focal points, Newsom signed an executive order intended to speed up rebuilding by expanding the Coastal Act and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions in LA, suspending local permitting laws and building codes for fire-affected homes.
LA County Supervisor Board Chair Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, also announced the county’s new “Forward: Blueprint for Rebuilding” plan.
The plan includes: waiving requirements and lowering rebuilding costs, which is expected to save the average resident up to $30K in construction costs; expediting property tax relief to provide homeowners with property value reassessments that can save them between $3,000 to $10,000 per year; accelerating permitting and inspections; and undergrounding more than 150 miles of overhead utilities.
“We’re working to restore schools, parks, businesses, services for seniors and childcare – everything that makes a neighborhood whole,” said Barger.
Community Calls for Action
Victims of the fire question whether the proposed recovery plans will be enough.
On Monday, led by the Eaton Fire Survivors Network (EFSN), hundreds of survivors gathered to demand urgent action from state and local officials to hold insurance companies accountable.
“For decades, we paid our premiums faithfully to these companies, trusting they’d stand by us if disaster ever struck,” said Joy Chen, founder of the EFSN. “Now these same insurers use delays and denials to profit from our pain and steal the future we’ve worked so hard to build for our kids.”
EFSN collected over 400 accounts from fire victims, describing how State Farm Insurance’s tactics are blocking their recovery. California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has initiated an investigation into the nation’s largest insurance provider. However, Lara approved an emergency rate hike for the company, which is estimated to owe LA fire survivors $3.5 billion.
“Families are emptying savings, maxing out credit cards and watching generations of wealth evaporate because of the failures of our insurance companies,” Chen said.
The gap between insurance payouts and the actual cost to restore a home is often hundreds of thousands of dollars. Calvin estimated the gap between his insurance and the cost to rebuild to be around $1.2 million.
“These insurance companies have taken advantage of us. It has been disrespectful, disheartening and predatory,” said Calvin. “Seventy-five percent of our Altadenians are underinsured. Even the ones who do have good insurance still can’t build back the way that they need to or want to.”
He further noted that most victims’ Additional Living Expenses (ALE), provided by insurance companies to help cover extra costs such as temporary housing while homes are being rebuilt, will soon run out.
“What happens when people don’t have a place to stay and their insurance money runs out?” questioned Calvin. “There are no options for them.”
Organizers of the Altadena vigil – LA Voice, Black Events LA, the Pasadena NAACP Branch, My Tribe Rise and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network – presented their own list of demands for elected officials to guarantee “justice, fairness and real choices for residents in the rebuilding of Altadena and Pasadena.”
The organizations called for: funds in the form of grants or no-interest loans to help cover the cost of remediation, repairs, construction and restoration; the removal of red tape for homeowners by waiving or easing permit restrictions; comprehensive testing throughout the fire zone, so that all residents can be safe from toxic contamination; remediation for all; moratoriums on selling to developers, so that the affordability and accessibility of homes in Altadena and Pasadena can be preserved; and safety for all, especially the Latino day laborers and community members being targeted by immigration enforcement.
The vigil ended with chants of “Altadena is not for sale!” and “Solo el pueblo salva al pueblo!”
Fire and ICE
“The night of the fire, there were day laborers – before any city personnel, before any county personnel – coming to clean our lots. There were day laborers coming to clear our streets so that emergency workers could actually go through and get to our areas,” said Brandon Lamar, president of the Pasadena NAACP, at the vigil.
Those same-day laborers are now being targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the mass raids that President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered in the region.
“Local government must honor their commitment to keep ICE out of our community and protect their families, who have been shattered by arrests, deportations and racial profiling,” said Lamar.
During Monday’s press conference, Sen. Alex Padilla acknowledged that immigrant labor is heavily relied upon in the reconstruction of Altadena and the Palisades.
“This is also the time … to respect and honor the contributions of so many immigrants in our communities,” said Padilla. “They’re the construction workers that we need to continue the rebuilding process for our communities. It is not the time to threaten or terrorize construction workers and their families in our community.”
Mayor Karen Bass was scheduled to attend Monday’s press conference, but instead responded to ICE activity at MacArthur Park, where a mass of armed federal officers and National Guard troops descended upon the mostly immigrant neighborhood.
Newsom called it a disgraceful “spectacle” and “theater,” further criticizing the message sent “from the polluted heart of the present United States, the polluted heart of Stephen Miller” on the six-month anniversary of the fires.
“Those National Guard men and women, who were out there protecting people, are now being used as political pawns, out there on horseback running through soccer fields in the middle of the day,” said Newsom.
The Trump administration deployed around 4,000 National Guard troops to aid and protect immigration enforcement in LA. The same units were deployed in January to aid in fire recovery and debris removal.
“The National Guard that has been federalized impacts the future of federal assistance for California,” he continued. “These are folks that are not on the job to protect you, purely for theater and antics. … Let them get back to work.”