Almost one yr after the Eaton hearth incinerated their block in west Altadena, neighbors gathered once more, greeting each other with hugs that spoke to a bond solid by shared loss.
They’d agreed to fulfill with me at the identical burned-out lot the place we’d gathered in February, and discuss once more about what they as soon as had, what they misplaced, how they made it via a wretched yr of grief and uncertainty and what they see within the months and years forward.
Of the 2 dozen homes on their stretch of West Palm Avenue, all however two had been destroyed in January. Even now, the block is a ghostly panorama of vacant properties in neat rows, like plots in a cemetery. Of the 2 homes that survived, just one has been occupied because the hearth.
“It’s like being in solitary confinement,” mentioned Robert Hilton, a retired instructor who evacuated in January however returned when he discovered that his home had defied the percentages.
Development continues alongside West Palm Avenue in Altadena on Dec. 2. In January, practically your entire 200 block of West Palm Avenue was burned down.
Hilton lives alone. Very alone. Simply him and the coyotes and the recollections of the best way issues was, again when he’d take one in all his selfmade devices throughout the road on a lazy Sunday and strum tunes whereas Steve Hofvendahl and Lily Knight hosted a farmer’s market on the entrance porch of their little yellow farmhouse.
As in February, we gathered on the “house” of Monica Koskey and Peter Kaiser, who organized a potluck. Neighbors introduced chairs and meals, together with Thanksgiving leftovers. Final time, the property was suffering from the charred stays of the Koskey home, and the scent of annihilation nonetheless hung within the air. This time, the lot had been cleared, and Koskey was keen to point out off one thing surprising.
Earlier than the fireplace, she didn’t have a pumpkin patch.
She does now.
A few the pumpkins are the scale of basketballs, with 10 or extra smaller ones making an attempt to catch up. The vine was rooted in what had been Koskey’s entrance yard and crawled to the place her home stood. In “Cinderella,” she mentioned, the fairy godmother turned a pumpkin right into a carriage, and Koskey mentioned she’s hoping her personal fairy godmother will flip “a pumpkin into my outdated home once more.”
Nonetheless the pumpkins acquired there, it was an uplifting sight, as was the greening of the mountains and foothills simply up the best way.
![]Monica Koskey stands on the debris of her home where pumpkins have begun growing](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3b077a5/2147483647/strip/true/crop/8192x5461+0+1/resize/1200x800!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F07%2F23%2F4da175844a48b45f90064a40dc87%2F1531947-me-revisiting-west-palm-eaton-fire-klb-50.jpg)
1. Monica Koskey stands on the particles of her house the place pumpkins have begun rising on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025 in Altadena, CA. In January of 2025, practically your entire 200 block of West Palm Avenue in Altadena was burned down in the course of the wildfires, leading to many members of the neighborhood making an attempt to determine learn how to rebuild. 2. Anthony Ruffin, left, and Monica Koskey, proper, embrace whereas visiting the remnants of their house that burned down in the course of the Eaton wildfires on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025 in Altadena, CA. In January of 2025, practically your entire 200 block of West Palm Avenue in Altadena was burned down in the course of the wildfires, leading to many members of the neighborhood making an attempt to determine learn how to rebuild.
That pure magnificence is among the nice attracts of Altadena, however the danger of windstorms, wildfires and floods is a part of the cut price, with local weather change elevating the menace. You see loads of for-sale indicators within the foothill communities as a result of persons are uninterested in the chance, or scared of soil contamination left by the fireplace, or unable to fulfill the price of rebuilding even when they’d insurance coverage.
However once I requested if anybody had determined to bail, not a single hand went up, though Bryan Martinez admitted that for a quick time, he wasn’t positive.
And what had been his doubts?
“Simply the inconvenience and the trouble,” he mentioned, together with a query: “Will I be capable to afford it?”
So what turned him round?
“The folks and the mountains and the setting and the quiet,” he mentioned.
Jeffrey Xiong mentioned he’s apprehensive about his dad and mom returning to Altadena. He recalled that simply after his household moved to West Palm in 2009, the Station hearth raged, destroying 200 buildings and killing two firefighters.
“I nonetheless keep in mind standing in the lounge and simply watching the mountain on hearth. That was our welcome to Altadena second,” Xiong mentioned. “My dad and mom are getting up there in age … and for them to retire on this setting will not be very comforting. We’ve had a number of conversations.”
His dad and mom, Aimin Li and Shigang Xiong, smiled, listened politely, and respectfully disagreed.
“He can’t change our minds,” Li mentioned.
They’ve lived in a number of L.A. communities, Shigang Xiong mentioned, however none like this.
“Aimin and I made a decision to return again as a result of it is a actually lovely space,” he mentioned. “Not just for the character, however for the folks.”
My introduction to West Palm Avenue got here by the use of Anthony Ruffin, a longtime social employee who was my buddy Nathaniel Ayers’ case supervisor. Ruffin and his spouse, Jonni Miller, are within the enterprise of housing homeless folks, and they turned homeless when the fireplace erased their house.
They’re surviving, as finest as they will. And they’re struggling.
“I do know I’ve damaged down and cried a number of occasions via this course of,” Ruffin mentioned. “It’s been scary at occasions, it’s been nerve-racking at occasions. … I simply determine I’m in the identical boat all people else is in.”
Neighbors collect final month within the yard of Monica Koskey’s house that burned down within the Eaton hearth.
The insurance coverage fund that pays for his or her non permanent lodging will run out in January, Ruffin mentioned, however they don’t see how they will get again into a brand new house earlier than subsequent summer season, given all of the planning and allowing and building nonetheless in entrance of them.
“I’m scared to demise,” Miller mentioned, about the potential of not with the ability to return. If their plans fall via, it might be like dropping every thing a second time.
They’ve a home in the intervening time, Ruffin and Miller mentioned, however not a house.
“House is the place you’re feeling snug,” Ruffin mentioned. “So in that sense, I’m homeless.”
Ruffin had lived on West Palm since he was a bit of boy, and staying on that block is a matter of satisfaction and household historical past. His dad and mom purchased there as a result of a lot of the remainder of L.A.’s actual property market was off-limits to Black folks, however west Altadena’s doorways had been open.
Miller remains to be incensed that west Altadena acquired late evacuation warnings and restricted firefighting providers as the fireplace unfold. Eighteen of the 19 Eaton hearth deaths occurred in west Altadena, and roughly two-thirds of the victims had been Black.
Knight and Hofvendahl had been the one two within the group who mentioned they’re not but positive they’ll return, and Knight cited the emergency response as one cause.
“I don’t trust that they’re going to unravel the issues that brought on a lot hassle for western Altadena,” she mentioned.
As actors closing in on 70, Knight and Hofvendahl suppose the business has modified in ways in which would make it possible for them to dwell in Oregon or Washington and work from there.
“I’ve been ready since my 20s to have the ability to begin over, and do I need to blow that?” Knight mentioned. “It’s actually form of thrilling to consider a complete new life at our level. … We don’t must be in Los Angeles anymore for what we do.”
And but.
Hofvendahl turned enthusiastic about gardening in Altadena, the place he turned their double lot into an orchard, with greater than 150 fruit timber, a lot of them exotics. Finger limes, pomelos, pawpaw and sapote, to call a handful. After pondering the fireplace had destroyed just about your entire orchard, he started seeing indicators of life, and figures about two-thirds of the timber may survive if he invests the time to meticulously graft stalks onto rootstock.
1. Oranges develop on the remaining fruit timber after the Eaton wildfires affected Steve Hofvendahl’s house on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 in Altadena, CA. In January of 2025, practically the whole lot of Steve Hofvendahl’s property burned down together with a lot of his fruit timber. 2. Burned flower pots after the Eaton wildfire is seen within the yard of Steve Hofvendahl’s house on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025 in Altadena, CA. In January of 2025, practically the whole lot of Steve Hofvendahl’s property burned down together with a lot of his fruit timber. 3. Small shoots develop from the bottom of a Peter’s Honey Fig tree
Steve Hofvendahl stands among the many remnants of his fruit timber that had been burned by the Eaton hearth.
“I spent each weekend up right here all via the summer season watering, as a result of plenty of stuff got here again, and I don’t have it in me to simply let it die,” Hofvendahl mentioned.
He’s unsure if poisonous soil could be an issue, however he’s positive of 1 factor. The best way that backyard and the porch market turned a centerpiece of the block was “one of many nice inventive acts of my life, and I didn’t even know we had been doing it. We had been simply expediently making an attempt to unravel the issue of — what can we do with all this fruit?”
“I’m positive Altadena will do stuff like that once more,” he mentioned. “I’m positive this neighborhood will do stuff like that.”
However no matter what he and Knight resolve, what occurred as soon as earlier than will all the time exist in a way. It’s a part of the bond that made a set of modest properties a thriving neighborhood, and the residents have caught collectively because the hearth, utilizing a textual content chain to share recommendations on assets and rebuilding methods, frustrations, hopes and fears.
They’ll now carry that cherished previous into an uncharted future.
“I virtually really feel like we’re pioneers, like we’re coming again with our little coated wagons,” Koskey mentioned. “To see what it’s going to appear to be is form of cool. You don’t have that chance fairly often.”
This time, she mentioned, they’ll have the benefit of fire-hardened properties to restrict danger.
Ruffin and Miller had vowed to rebuild their conventional house precisely because it was, however in fascinated with beginning anew, they’ve as a substitute settled on a contemporary design with massive home windows and extra pure mild working via the home.
Maxwell Could, who has been coming again to the road a few times weekly to verify on issues, mentioned he and his spouse, Lauren Ward, will “flip the kitchen and eating room round” and add a toilet.
Lauren Ward, left, and Maxwell Could stand on the remnants of their house that burned down in the course of the Eaton hearth.
They adorned their empty lot for Halloween, as did Ruffin and Miller (a skeleton nonetheless stands within the entrance yard carrying an “Altadena Robust” T-shirt, and he’s about to get a Santa hat). Could and Ward additionally adorned for Christmas, and we walked down West Palm to see their handiwork.
A giant pink bow — ”such as you get once you purchase a automobile,” Could mentioned — hangs on a deodar tree that survived, and a miraculously wholesome orange tree is loaded with ornaments. A small lemon tree, as soon as thought useless, is coming again robust.
“Coming right here makes us really feel snug, and like we’re house once more,” Could mentioned.
The residents know there are extra making an attempt occasions forward.
“As a lot as we attempt to create space for hope,” Koskey mentioned, she fears going through Christmas “not having the ornaments and decorations that my son made or that had been from my childhood … I’m frightened of how that can damage. Christmas so quickly adopted by Jan. 7, I’m afraid of, and need to cover from how a lot it could damage.”
She neatly summed up the cycles of what they’re going via — what everybody, finally, goes via.
“Ache, hope, loss, life.”
The parkway strips on the nook had been crammed with yellow marigolds that had been planted to honor loss and welcome restoration. They struck me as daring symbols of defiance and resilience.
A block away, 4 younger boys walked alongside West Palm, coming from the course of the park Ruffin used to play in as a boy. They had been chattering innocently and mentioned they’d been to the cookie retailer on Lincoln Avenue and had been headed house, to a home that survived.
It was essentially the most regular, hopeful sight conceivable.
