After the Eaton and Palisades Wildfires, a Sense of Loss

More than six weeks after the Eaton wildfire ravaged her Los Angeles community, Altadena resident Diana Lee was still cleaning up ashes that had blown into her house, grateful she’d resisted an urge to cancel her home insurance for the year.

Although her home was damaged by the fire, “It was nothing, nothing compared to what other people have suffered,” Lee says, noting that about a dozen nearby homes had burned down. “I feel like I lost my community.”

Lee, 63, and her longtime neighbors had fled in terror during the early hours of Jan. 8 as the air filled with smoke and wildfire embers sparked nearby.

“The only thing that we could see,” she recalls, “was the fingers of the fires that were sprouting everywhere.”

More than 16,000 homes, commercial properties and other structures were destroyed as the Eaton and Palisades fires tore through communities in the Los Angeles area. The fires killed at least 30 people, according to the Los Angeles County government. Tens of thousands more were displaced,

In the months that followed, AARP and other organizations have scrambled to help older residents, many of whom lived in their own homes or in care facilities. The residents of more than 50 care facilities were evacuated to shelters during the fires, says Laura Trejo, director of the Los Angeles County Aging and Disabilities Department.

“It was massive,” she says. “The most I had ever experienced in 35 years of doing this was maybe two or three.”

Relief agencies step in

During and after the fires, local officials worked with the Red Cross and other relief and community organizations to set up shelters and disaster recovery sites where residents could find information and resources to begin rebuilding their lives.

Residents relied on the Red Cross; due to the Eaton, Palisades and other nearby fires, more than 18,000 overnight stays were provided as of early February, the organization said. In addition, the Red Cross and partners distributed relief items to more than 21,500 households and provided more than 150,000 meals and snacks.

AARP, which raises awareness about emergency preparedness, also was on hand to help, providing a list of government and nonprofit resources and launching a fraud prevention campaign as scammers began targeting fire victims. In January, AARP Foundation — a charitable arm of AARP — created a relief fund for fire victims. It raised $500,000 in just over 24 hours and then matched it — providing more than $1 million to help relief organizations on the ground.

By late March, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Small Business Administration had made more than $2 billion available to disaster survivors, in the form of grants and low-interest loans to homeowners, renters and businesses.

The financial figures are just a fraction of the losses. A March report from UCLA said total property and capital losses could be between $76 billion and $131 billion.

Meanwhile, Trejo says her staff made more than 12,000 calls to the department’s clients — many of whom live alone. “We wanted to make sure they knew that somebody was concerned about their well-being,” she says.

That included calls to members of the department’s destroyed Altadena Senior Center, a gathering spot for Lee and her friends who are known as the “Ladies of the Round Table.”

“When we heard Altadena Senior Center was on fire ... we just started crying,” Lee says. The women now visit another location in a neighboring community and keep in touch to share information about resources.

“Still, we are right there for each other,” says Nelly Head, 70, whose 100-year-old Altadena home burned down. Using some of her insurance money, Head and her family are renting a home for the next year while they make plans to rebuild.

As March began, Altadena resident and AARP volunteer Jacqulene Cole, 73, was counting the days until she could return with her 9-year-old boxer to her home, where she had lived since 1994. By late February, the electricity was back on and restoration crews had finished cleaning the smoke damage. But there was no running water (it came back later in March).

“You don’t really realize all the little daily things you take for granted until something like this happens, whether it’s a wave to your neighbor, or a hello—or just being able to use water,” she says. ■

Julie Rasicot, a writer and editor in Montgomery County, Maryland, writes regularly for the Bulletin.

WILDFIRE RESOURCES

AARP and other organizations are offering updates and relief services for people damaged by the 2025 Southern California wildfires.

• AARP states.aarp.org/california-wildfire-resources
• California Department of Social Services cdss.ca.gov/disaster-help-center
• State of California ca.gov/LAFires
• LA Disaster Relief Navigator wildfires.betterangels.la
• Federal Emergency Management Agency fema.gov

Also of interest:

• Portraits from the LA Wildfires: Older Adults Face Loss, Uncertain Futures But Still Find a Glimmer of Hope
• Essay: I Was All Alone Fleeing the LA Fires. Would Anyone Take Me In?
• L.A. Wildfires: How to Get Help and How to Help
  
  4 Things a Disaster Preparedness Expert Has in Case of Emergencies