One yr after two of probably the most damaging wildfires in California’s historical past erupted simply hours aside, survivors commemorated the day in Altadena and Pacific Palisades with a combination of anger and somber remembrance.
On the American Legion veterans put up within the Palisades, tons of gathered at a military-style white-glove ceremony to pay respects to the 12 households who misplaced family members within the Palisades hearth.
Simply down the road, an excellent bigger crowd shouted the rally cry “They allow us to burn,” to demand complete catastrophe planning, reduction for households working to rebuild and accountability for presidency missteps that they are saying enabled the catastrophe and have slowed the restoration.
In Altadena, survivors congregated on the Eaton Hearth Collaborative’s group heart with a transparent message: They weren’t backing down within the struggle to return residence.
“This yr has been the toughest yr of our lives,” mentioned Pleasure Chen, govt director of the Eaton Hearth Survivor Community. “Unimaginable grief. The 31 individuals who died that day, and the tons of who’ve died prematurely since. Dwelling misplaced. Jobs misplaced. Incomes misplaced. A way of security and id stripped away.”
Within the night, Atladenans plan to collect at a beloved family-owned burger joint that miraculously nonetheless stands amid a sea of empty heaps. The restaurant, Truthful Oaks Burger, reopened an outside kitchen for residents and restoration staff simply weeks after the fireplace and has turn into a lifeline for the neighborhood.
Jessica Rogers, who misplaced her residence within the Palisades hearth and has since turn into the manager director of the Palisades Lengthy-Time period Restoration Group, which organized the remembrance ceremony, mentioned that individuals are nonetheless processing what occurred during the last yr.
“The 5 totally different phases of grief — you possibly can really feel them. Typically individuals can really feel them virtually all on the identical time,” she mentioned. “There isn’t a proper or fallacious solution to course of grief. Everyone processes it in their very own approach, at their very own pace and their very own time. And a few must do it at residence, behind closed doorways; others must do it very vocally, out in public.”
Pacific Palisades resident Julia Citron, proper, cries along with her mom, Lainie, in Palisades Village on Wednesday. The Citrons misplaced their residence within the hearth. “It was the one home our kids knew,” mentioned Lainie Citron.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Very totally different communities, the Palisades and Altadena share comparable frustrations — with insurance coverage firms, authorities companies and catastrophe scammers. However on Wednesday, they directed their wrath on contrasting targets. In Altadena, activists are centered on actual property speculators and Southern California Edison, suspected of triggering the Eaton hearth. Within the Palisades, anger continues to mount in opposition to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the town’s Hearth Division and state companies.
Contained in the Palisades Legion Submit, the 11-year-old daughter of Jim Cragg, the Submit’s former commander, handed white roses to the households of fireplace victims. Certainly one of these was a member of the family of Rory Sykes, who perished within the blaze, who advised Cragg: “He would have liked this.” Each held again tears.
The households then led tons of of Palisadians ready outdoors — many carrying “They Let Us Burn” T-shirts — in a procession right down to a small group park, the place the legion had positioned 13 memorials: One for every sufferer, and one for the various uncounted lives misplaced within the hearth’s wake.
In a second of silence, Palisadians known as out the names of family members who had died within the aftermath. Many sobbed.
Researchers estimate the January fires resulted in upward of 400 extra deaths in L.A. County past the official dying toll.
1. Steve Salinas shields from intense warmth as he hoses down a neighbors rooftop on Sinaloa Ave. because the Eaton Hearth continues to develop, January 8, 2025. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances) 2. The view from the identical rooftop, one yr later. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Instances)
“Individuals burned alive of their houses. There was no one going to get them,” Kathleen Boltiansky mentioned by tears as she watched the ceremony.
Boltiansky, who misplaced her home within the hearth, deliberate to attend the “They Let Us Burn” rally after the service. “Public security ought to be merchandise No. 1 — if they can’t present public security, what are they doing?”
Simply throughout the road, Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Begin the Hearth” performed over a loudspeaker as protesters gathered in entrance of the burned husk of the historic 1924 Enterprise Block Constructing.
Rally organizer Jeremy Padawer, who misplaced his residence within the Palisades hearth, took the stage. “The times of gaslighting ought to be over,” he known as out.
Padawer requested the viewers to lift their fingers if their residence burned or stays contaminated.
Lots of of fingers shot up.
Josh Lederer, clutching a “They Let Us Burn” banner, described how he, his spouse and 2-year-old daughter moved 5 instances for the reason that hearth and are nonetheless unable to return to their residence amid fights with their insurance coverage firm. He’s glad his baby is simply too younger to essentially perceive what’s happening.
“You are feeling, when there’s an emergency, your metropolis’s going to be there to guard you, and we had no one,” mentioned Lederer, 42. “And since then, we’ve had no one serving to us. All we get is lip service from Karen Bass and Newsom that it’s anyone else’s fault or we’re making an attempt to revenue off this. We’re not making an attempt to revenue off something. We wish our lives again.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonald, left, speaks with Mayor Karen Bass after a non-public ceremony the place they remembered the fireplace victims with religion leaders, LAPD officers and metropolis officers as flags have been lowered outdoors Metropolis Corridor.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Instances)
When ABC 7 Eyewitness Information requested Bass if she thought the “They Let Us Burn” rally is how residents ought to commemorate the one-year anniversary, she dismissed the occasion.
“I don’t assume so,” she mentioned. “However once more, I believe there are people who find themselves profiting off this, and that’s what I discover very despicable.”
Padawer mentioned he had invited Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom to the rally to take heed to survivors and settle for accountability, however neither joined.
A spokesperson for Newsom’s workplace mentioned the governor would meet immediately with survivors in Los Angeles this week. Bass began the day at a non-public vigil on the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, then presided over a flag-lowering ceremony at Metropolis Corridor to honor the victims.
Jessica Rogers with the Palisades Lengthy Time period Restoration Group, third from left, hugs Marina Shterenberg, who misplaced a liked one within the Palisades hearth, throughout a group ceremony in partnership with the Palisades American Legion Submit 283, marking the one yr anniversary of the fireplace on January 7, 2026. The ceremony honored those that misplaced their lives within the hearth, together with Mark Shterenberg.
(Christina Home/Los Angeles Instances)
A number of elected officers attended the American Legion ceremony — together with state Sen. Ben Allen and county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath — however just one attended the rally too: Metropolis Councilmember Traci Park. She stepped on stage on the rally in a far much less somber tone than on the memorial.
“Let’s finish this tradition of half-assed options,” she mentioned — additionally noting that there have been “some of us” who “didn’t need me to return right here right now.”
“What occurred on Jan. 7 was catastrophic failure and to faux in any other case is simply insulting,” she advised the group. “You didn’t think about what occurred, and you’re proper to be offended.”
In Altadena, a coalition of lawmakers, survivors and advocates on the Collaboratory group heart set the tone for the second yr of restoration.
Not too long ago, a survey from the nonprofit Division of Angels discovered that greater than 7 out of 10 Altadena residents stay displaced from their houses. Almost half have exhausted their financial savings, and over 40% have taken on private debt to outlive, mentioned Miguel Santana, co-founder of the nonprofit.
Amongst them are individuals like Ada Hernandez, who owned a Nineteen Fifties residence on Mountain View Avenue along with her husband, Miguel, the place they lived with their 5-year-old son, Mason, 2-year-old Sadie and 14-year-old canine Bentley. They moved into their residence in 2018, on the identical day she misplaced her firstborn son. However within the hearth, she mentioned, she misplaced each bodily reminiscence of him, together with his neonatal intensive care unit pillow and handprint.
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Now, the ache has compounded as her household has been compelled to maneuver 3 times during the last yr. They’ve spent the final two months in an Airbnb with assist from the Salvation Military, she mentioned, however that runs out subsequent Wednesday.
“We really feel forgotten,” Hernandez, 37, mentioned. “We really feel like we’re at a standstill.”
Bass and Newsom have touted L.A.’s restoration as one of many quickest in trendy California historical past. Bass, particularly, factors to her work in reducing purple tape on the Division of Constructing and Security, which is reviewing and signing off on the rebuilding plans. However to many survivors, restoration nonetheless feels painfully sluggish.
Avaristo Serrano helps construct a house on Highview Avenue, one yr after the Eaton hearth.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
As of December, L.A. County had issued rebuilding permits for about 16% of houses destroyed in Altadena, and the town of L.A. issued permits for slightly below 14% for the Palisades, The Instances discovered. Many whose houses survived the fireplace however have been contaminated by smoke and ash are nonetheless preventing with their insurance coverage firms to remediate their houses. Many houses in Altadena stay contaminated even after remediation.
Mark Mariscal, a longtime Altadena resident, mentioned he confronted months of delays by his insurance coverage firm however, with assist from the Eaton Hearth Survivors Community, lastly acquired a test within the mail. He turned emotional as he remembered the lives misplaced and every thing that transpired since Jan. 7.
“It’s only a battle, a very good one as a result of we’re fairly certain we’re by no means shifting once more,” he mentioned. “After we construct this home the way in which we would like it, we’re not shifting once more. Except I’m despatched as much as my larger energy.”
For a lot of survivors, discovering a way of peace of their therapeutic journeys one yr into restoration has proved troublesome with out closure. Investigations and studies into the failures that led to and exacerbated the disasters have left residents with extra questions than solutions.
In October, federal investigators introduced the Palisades hearth appeared to explode from a small brush hearth nonetheless smoldering from every week prior. Ongoing litigation has steered that Los Angeles Hearth Division leaders restricted their firefighting strategies to guard delicate vegetation on the request of California State Parks, and investigations by The Instances discovered that leaders ordered firefighters to go away the location despite the fact that it was nonetheless smoldering and subsequently lined up their errors.
In the meantime, emergency officers did not problem evacuation orders for west Altadena, a traditionally Black enclave, till 5 hours after the fireplace started to engulf houses within the neighborhood. An investigation by The Instances discovered that at the same time as the fireplace progressed far into the west facet of city, the vast majority of Los Angeles County Hearth Division assets remained elsewhere.
“So many alternative layers of errors needed to be made for this to happen,” Padawer advised The Instances. He mentioned the rally was meant to focus on each the “gaslighting” and “options that may assist our neighbors come residence.”
The Palisades Lengthy Time period Restoration Group, in partnership with the Palisades American Legion Submit 283 hosts a group ceremony with white glove presentation of flags for the households of these misplaced, marking the one yr anniversary of the Palisades hearth on January 7, 2026.
(Christina Home/Los Angeles Instances)
Sue Kohl, president of the Pacific Palisades Group Council, mentioned she had combined emotions early Wednesday as reporters gathered for a information convention on the barren entrance garden of what’s going to be her new residence on Iliff Avenue within the decimated Alphabet Streets neighborhood.
Building on her two-story residence — surrounded by empty heaps — is effectively underway. However she has no recollections right here, she mentioned. It’s not the place the place she lived for 32 years and raised 5 youngsters and three stepchildren.
The anniversary, she mentioned, is “like emotional ping pong. You wish to be optimistic. However on the identical time — I imply, go searching. At the least now you see lots of development.”
Many survivors say a hope for the longer term is the one factor that motivates them. In 5 years, or perhaps ten, Rogers seems to be ahead to all of the little issues that make the Palisades the Palisades.
“I’d wish to see youngsters working down the streets fortunately. I’d like to listen to them, see them on their bikes, watch the youngsters hang around at CVS, within the parks. I’d wish to see all Angelenos from all components of Los Angeles again up in our mountain climbing trails,” she mentioned.
“That will deliver me lots of pleasure, to see our faculties thriving once more, and I’d like to complain in regards to the 3 p.m. site visitors — the youngsters’ pickup time from faculties within the village,” she mentioned. “That’s what I’d wish to see come again in our group as quickly as attainable.”
