Makenna Sievertson
covers the daily drumbeat of Southern California. She has a special place in her heart for eagles and other creatures that make this such a fascinating place to live.
Published January 8, 2026 1:45 PM
A dog being sheltered at Pasadena Humane on Jan. 10, 2025. Some fire-impacted animals are still in there a year later.
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Justin Sullivan
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Getty Images North America
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Topline:
Pasadena Humane helped more than 1,500 pets and wildlife during the fire and in the aftermath, providing shelter, medical care and emergency resources. The organization also helped reunify pets and livestock with the humans who love them.
Why now: San Diego Humane Society took in more than 50 animals from Pasadena Humane to clear space during the fire, which officials said was critical for their operations during the crisis. So, Pasadena Humane returned the favor Wednesday, helping to take in dogs rescued from a recent hoarding case down south.
The backstory: Several animals affected by the fire are still in the organization’s care. They include four dogs at Pasadena Humane, as well as three cats and a guinea pig in foster homes.
Chris Ramon’s corner office at Pasadena Humane boasts a sweeping view of the San Gabriel Mountains peaking over Pasadena and Altadena.
Ramon, the organization’s president and CEO, said this week that he couldn’t help but remember what the same window looked like a year ago, when the Eaton Fire “changed our lives forever.”
“The mountains that we're looking at right now and admiring were being engulfed in flames,” Ramon told LAist. “For us as an organization, that's what kicked off one of the most devastating situations and experiences we've ever had to navigate through.”
Chris Ramon, president and CEO of Pasadena Humane, said he couldn't help but remember what this window looked like a year ago during the Eaton Fire.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Pasadena Humane helped more than 1,500 pets and wildlife during the fire and in the aftermath, providing shelter, medical care and emergency resources. The organization also helped reunify pets and livestock with the humans who love them.
Several animals affected by the fire are still in the organization’s care. They include four dogs at Pasadena Humane, as well as three cats and a guinea pig in foster homes.
“Several people who lost their homes are still trying to figure out what their next step is,” Ramon said. “We told the community, and everybody who was affected by the Eaton Fire, that we would be here and we would provide help.”
Pasadena Humane marked the one-year anniversary of the fire this week with a show of gratitude for another Southern California shelter who helped the organization weather the storm.
Pasadena officials are supporting San Diego Humane Society as it deals with a hoarding case by taking in adoptable dogs. They described it as a “full-circle moment.”
‘Unimaginable’ toll
In the first three weeks after the Eaton Fire erupted, Pasadena Humane took in about 1,000 animals that were injured, displaced and separated from their families.
Patients of all shapes, sizes and scales were welcome.
Reggie getting his paws bandaged for burns in Pasadena Humane's ICU during the Eaton Fire.
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Wren Louis Sell
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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane
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Reggie healed up in his new home after being adopted from Pasadena Humane.
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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane
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Bearded dragons were set-up with warming lamps, koi fish were placed into proper ponds and a horse was housed in Pasadena Humane’s garage when Ramon ran into its owner walking miles down Raymond Avenue.
Pasadena Humane search-and-rescue teams went into burn zones looking for animals in need of assistance. Those teams reunited pets with owners in an effort to make sure the organization had enough space for those that didn’t have anywhere else to go — including an Altadena neighborhood cat whom the residents named Skinny Minnie.
Pasadena Humane teams looked for pets and wildlife in Eaton burn zones, dropping off food and water along the way.
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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane
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The cat was brought into Pasadena Humane with severe injuries as the fire was still raging. Her whiskers were singed and her body was so badly burnt that staff “couldn't tell what color she was,” Ramon said.
They weren’t sure if Skinny Minnie would survive.
Riley arrived at Pasadena Humane's ICU with burns and smoke inhalation during the Eaton Fire.
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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane
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Riley was adopted after months of treatment, according to Pasadena Humane.
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Courtesy of Pasadena Humane
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The cat stayed in Pasadena Humane’s intensive care unit for several months, which by that time had become a makeshift burn ward.
Skinny Minnie endured the invasive medical treatments used to tend to her wounds, later revealing a gentle personality, seeking cuddles and scratches from caretakers or veterinary staff, Ramon said.
After months of treatment, the cat was reunited with a pair of Altadena residents.
San Diego Humane Society took in more than 50 animals from Pasadena Humane to clear space during the fire, which officials said was critical for their operations during the crisis.
So, Pasadena Humane returned the favor Wednesday.
Sebastian was among the dogs Pasadena Humane took in from San Diego Humane Society on Wednesday.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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Sebastian is available for adoption at Pasadena Humane as of Thursday.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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It welcomed nine dogs from San Diego to free up resources as the organization deals with a large-scale hoarding case. A tenth dog was also expected to arrive, but was adopted.
Nina Thompson, San Diego Humane Society's director of public relations, told LAist the organization was bursting at the seams caring for 725 dogs before 40 more were rescued from an apartment in La Mesa.
The organization's four campuses were already operating well over capacity before the 40 dogs and puppies were removed from the 500-square-foot home, according to Thompson.
"This transport is a huge help," she said.
Pasadena Humane took in nine dogs from San Diego Humane Society while it deals with a large hoarding case.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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San Diego Humane Society officials say the transfer will free up space and resources so staff can focus on animals involved with the hoarding case.
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Makenna Sievertson
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LAist
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The San Diego dogs are available for adoption at Pasadena Humane as of Thursday. Two of those dogs have already found their forever homes, according to the organization.
Aiko Offner
is a freelance writer and was a 2025 LAist summer intern.
Published January 9, 2026 5:00 AM
After the Palisades Fire, mudslides and other issues kept Pacific Coast Highway closed, affecting businesses all along the coast.
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Myung J. Chun
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Getty Images
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Topline:
A year out from the Palisades Fire of January 2025, life’s not fully back to normal — and especially not without some of our favorite restaurants.
Why now: Some restaurants in Malibu and the Pacific Palisades have reopened and would love your support. Others have pivoted to a new form, such as catering.
Read on ... for a list of which are open, rebuilding and closed.
A year out from the Palisades Fire of January 2025, life’s not fully back to normal — and especially not without some of our favorite restaurants.
But some are open, catering in a different form, or have reached some closure.
Here’s a list of affected restaurants that are open (and would love your support), those still rebuilding and some that remain closed.
Reopened
Gladstones
Open, outdoor seating only
17300 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades
Gladstones is still serving its staple seafood — but only outside, under the stars and very warm heaters. The restaurant isn’t taking reservations now, so you can walk in anytime between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Gladstone’s is still renovating its insides from the damage from the fire and flooding that followed.
Rosenthal Wine and Bar Patio
A patio at Rosenthal Wine's new location.
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Courtesy of Rosenthal Wine
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Open in a new location, limited hours Kanan Dume Road and W. Newton Canyon Road, Malibu, 90265
Rosenthal Wine Bar and Patio is open at a new location on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Open since mid-August, they’ve been putting on events, comedy shows and concerts. They are also open to groups and parties to rent out any day of the week, and Mark Applebaum, Rosenthal marketing director, hopes that they can return to seven days a week in the new year.
Tramonto
Catering and delivery services
Tramonto has turned to catering and delivery services from a kitchen in Santa Monica. They had served Italian food in Malibu for 10 years.
“We love Malibu, and it’s not like being in Malibu,” said owner Wilfredo Posadas.
But now those in the Malibu community and beyond can try their pasta from the comfort of their own home or at a catering event.
Duke’s
Duke's signature sculpture of Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku, covered in debris and mud.
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Jimmy Chavez
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Duke's Malibu
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Open for private events Grand reopening expected in February 21150 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu
Duke’s hopes to have its grand reopening in February. A planned partial reopening was delayed because of construction.
“You open one can of worms, and there’s three cans underneath it,” said Jimmy Chavez, Duke’s general manager who has been handling the remediation process.
However, Duke’s has been open for private events in their Ocean Room, which has gotten the community together and supported many core staff members. Regulars can expect to see nearly a brand new restaurant after a year of construction, but hopefully, some familiar faces as well.
Palisades Garden Cafe
Open 15231 La Cruz Drive, Pacific Palisades
The Garden Cafe has been open since March. While it may no longer be the easy stop after tennis lessons, it still serves its breakfast all day and wagyu burgers.
Prima Cantina
Open
15246 W. Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades
Prima Cantina has been open since July, available for sit-down eating as well. It’s one of three restaurants open in the area right now, alongside the Garden Cafe and Chipotle across the street.
Closed
Moonshadows
The site where Moonshadows was in Malibu, seen in January 2025.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Permanently closed
Moonshadows closed after nearly 40 years of serving Malibu. However, you can still find traces of their fine dining at sister restaurants the Sunset and Ca Del Sole, which are owned by the same people. If you yearn for the pumpkin tortellini or the spicy ahi tuna tartare, the Sunset is able to satisfy that craving.
Casa Nostra has not started rebuilding yet. They are a long way from a decision on that, said a manager at the Westlake location. They haven’t ruled it out, but for now, they are focusing on their Westlake location.
Jacob Margolis
has covered the Palisades and Eaton fires since Day One.
Published January 9, 2026 5:00 AM
Nature is bouncing back
Topline:
Nature moves fast, especially when there are large patches of open soil, sunlight and water to feed recovery. And recovery is what we're starting to see — both in good and bad ways — a year after fires tore through the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains.
Why it matters: The destruction of last year’s January fires was devastating. Not just in how they leveled more than 16,000 structures and took at least 31 lives, but also how they stripped bare landscapes that many Southern Californians had become familiar with and had found solace visiting for decades.
What's next: Time will tell whether invasive or native plants will have the upper hand. But some early signs are encouraging.
Read on ... to see and learn about what's sprouting in Southern California's mountains.
The destruction of last year’s January fires was devastating. Not just in how they leveled more than 16,000 structures and took at least 31 lives, but also how they stripped bare landscapes that many Southern Californians had become familiar with and had found solace visiting for decades. Hillsides that we’d long seen covered in dense green chaparral and coastal sage scrub were turned to ash, with the charred carcasses of native plants left behind.
However, nature moves fast, especially when there are large patches of open soil, sunlight and water to feed recovery. And recovery is what we're starting to see — both in good and bad ways.
“Recovery begins in the first growing season,” said Jon Keeley, research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
On recent trips to the Santa Monica and San Gabriel mountains, where the Palisades and Eaton fires burned a year ago, the signs are sprouting.
Manzanitas and oaks are regrowing from the bases of large plants that burned. Smaller, fast-growing showy pentstemon, hairy yerba santa and the pustule-causing poodle-dog bush are thriving now that competition has been removed.
But so are invasive plants like wild oats, bromes and mustard, which account for some of the green up.
What's growing?
A year after the fires, here are the plants you can see in the Eaton and Palisades burn scars.
Invasive Spanish brome growing in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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A year after the Eaton Fire, new growth is sprouting from the base of badly burned plants.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Poodle-dog bush, often found on post-fire landscapes, grows in the San Gabriel Mountains in December. Don't touch!
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Pines scorched by the Eaton Fire near the Mount Wilson radio towers in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Oak resprouts from the base of a larger plant that burned in the Eaton Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Penstemon growing in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Dried out brome in the Eaton Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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California sagebrush sprouts in the Palisades Fire burn scar in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Invasive plants are popping up in rocky, often disturbed areas along trails burned by the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Lupine seen growing in the Santa Monica Mountains in December.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Goldenbush pops up among filaree in the Santa Monica Mountains in December 2025.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Whether invasive species or natives take root long term depends on a variety of factors, including the age of the plants when they burned and how soon the area burns again, Keeley said.
Some of the Palisades Fire area hadn’t burned in about 60 years, according to state records, which may mean healthy native-plant recovery over the long term.
Walking the area recently, I saw native California sage brush, goldenbush and long leaf bush lupine, with some invasive grasses mixed in.
The Santa Monica Mountains, photographed from Mullholland Drive, on Jan. 21, 2025, just weeks after the Palisades Fire.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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In December 2025, the Santa Monica Mountains are green again, though non-native grasses fill quite a bit of the open space.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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Higher up in the San Gabriels, where the Eaton Fire burn scar has some overlap with the Bobcat (2020) and Station (2009) fires, native plants that have weathered repeated blazes may struggle to recover.
“If the fire occurs in areas that had burned within the last 15 to 25 years, then there's a good chance you're going to lose species," Keeley said. "And if you lose those species, they're replaced by non-native grasses.”
When fire occurs too frequently, native plant seedbanks can be destroyed, making recovery unlikely.
“ We've looked now at 65, 75, something like that, sites around the state over five years, and the pattern is pretty common,” Keeley said.
The nonnative grasses that replace native shrubs can often dry out and catch fire more easily than heartier natives. Shortening the interval between when wildfires can spread across a landscape, further challenging recovery. It’s a pattern that’s been documented across California — from the deserts to the mountains to the coastal hillsides.
Hope for native plants — and hard work
Even where invasive species have taken over, the hard work of conservation can help bring back natives. But fire is an ever-present threat, as Tree People learned.
For the past four years, the environmental conservation organization has been working to help reestablish native species near Castaic Lake. The work was arduous, with volunteers removing invasive plants across a 25-acre site and planting native oaks. And they were seeing good progress — until Jan. 22, 2025, when the Hughes Fire charred more than 10,000 acres, including their work area.
Oak sprouts from the base of a slim trunk in March 2025.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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A young oak puts out new growth in September 2025.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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“We brought the team out, and everyone was just kind of speechless,” said Alyssa Walker, Tree People’s associate director of conservation.
The site where they’d planted thousands of trees and worked for years was devoid of green.
But they didn’t give up. They watered seedlings they thought had the best chance of survival.
It's working.
They’re seeing the best recovery in areas where they did the most invasive plant clearance, Walker said. The baby oaks have also done remarkably well, as fire-adapted oak trees often do. And sawtooth golden bush, sunflowers, yerba santa and sugarbush, among others, are all making a comeback.
In the areas that had a lower density of invasive prior to the fire, native chamise can be seen regrowing about a year after the Hughes Fire.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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In an area dominated by invasive annual plants, invasive plants have come back.
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Alyssa Walker
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Tree People
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“We've seen things grow back, if not to their existing size, like beyond,” Walker said.
Native plants in areas that had a higher density of invasive plants before the fire are growing slower because of all of the extra competition.
What about mountain lions?
This uncollared mountain lion's habitat appears to be east of the 405 Freeway. Video captured on the morning of Sept. 7, 2019, shows it chasing P-61 in the area east of the freeway.
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National Park Service
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Recent data gathered by the National Park Service in the Santa Monica Mountains area shows that since the Palisades Fire, at least one mountain lion, P-125, appears to be avoiding the burned area.
How other mountain lions are behaving is not yet clear, but the Woolsey Fire — which burned nearly 100,000 acres, including in the Santa Monica Mountains — offers insights into lion behavior after large fires.
After that 2018 fire, mountain lions favored areas that hadn’t burned and still had dense vegetative cover they could use to stay hidden and stalk deer, according to tracking data gathered by the Park Service over 15 months after the Woolsey Fire.
The fire squeezed the territorial cats into even smaller areas that are already fragmented by urban development.
“When you look at their post-fire behavior, because so much of the Santa Monicas were burned … they engaged in some riskier behaviors than they may have beforehand,” said Seth Riley, chief wildlife ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
That included crossing roads, one of the deadlier activities for mountain lions in Southern California. As was the case with P-61, who lived in the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.
P-61 crossed the 405 Freeway in the Sepulveda Pass, which is the first and only time that Riley and his colleagues had seen one of their collared lions cross that freeway. When the male lion reached Bel Air, he encountered another male lion, which chased him up a tree. Twenty minutes later, P-61 was killed by a car — crossing the 405 Freeway again.
Of the 11 lions that Riley and his colleagues were tracking around the Woolsey Fire, three died. P-61 was one.
P-74, they assume, got caught in the fire. Another, P-64, who lived in the Simi Hills and fled when the fire came through, was found dead two weeks later with badly burned paws. He chose to head back into the burned area instead of fleeing into neighborhoods full of people, Riley said.
When will normal return?
The Santa Monica Mountains, bisected by Mulholland Drive, about a year after the Palisades Fire. The area on the left was burned by the fire, while the area on the right, full of native vegetation, has not burned since 1944, according to Cal Fire records.
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Jacob Margolis
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LAist
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I met Lawrence Szabo from Venice on a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains in mid-December. He was looking out across a canyon that had started to green up after heavy rains. We were just down the way from an oak tree that serves as a landmark for hikers and cyclists.
“ I've always viewed that oak tree as kind of my chapel,” he said. “I think that's what was the heaviest part of the fires. Not knowing whether it was still there. And then, when I turned the corner the first time and I saw it there, it pulled a tear, and I felt like we could keep going.”
Over the next 10 years, assuming invasive plants don’t take over, native plants will repopulate and spread. And in several decades our hillsides could once again be filled with the dense and beautiful chaparral and coastal sage scrub many of us grew up with.
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Monica Bushman
produces arts and culture coverage for LAist's on-demand team. She’s also part of the Imperfect Paradise podcast team.
Published January 9, 2026 5:00 AM
Rapper and musician Taboo with his daughter Jett Gomez.
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Courtesy of Taboo
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Topline:
“Stand Strong” grew out of conversations rapper and musician Taboo and his then 8-year-old daughter Jett had the night the Eaton Fire broke out, while the family stayed the night in a hotel with their two dogs, not knowing the fate of their Pasadena home.
The context: Best known as a member of the Grammy-winning hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, Taboo is originally from Boyle Heights, but has lived in Pasadena with his wife and children since 2017. Before that, they lived in Altadena for 10 years.
When the Eaton Fire broke out and his family had to evacuate, Taboo says he and his daughter "needed a better way to use our time than to just sulk," so they started talking and decided to write a song.
Read on ... for more about how "Stand Strong" came together and how it's connected to an effort to give back to the Altadena community.
“ Nightmare, uncertainty, turmoil, chaos.”
Those are the words that Jimmy Gomez, aka Taboo, told LAist he’d use to describe the night the Eaton Fire broke out, when he and his family had to evacuate their home.
Best known as a member of the Grammy-winning hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas, Taboo is originally from Boyle Heights, but has lived in Pasadena with his wife and children since 2017.
For 10 years before that, Taboo and his family also called Altadena home. Two of his sons went to the elementary school at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, which was destroyed in the January 2025 fire.
”We were all trying to get down from our area, and it was kind of like gridlock. We had never witnessed that before as a family, let alone in our community,” Taboo says of the evacuation. “We saw the fire right on the mountaintop [in the San Gabriel Mountains] and we made amends to say goodbye to our house.”
Writing ‘Stand Strong’
“Stand Strong” grew out of conversations Taboo and his then 8-year-old daughter Jett had while the family stayed the night in a hotel with their two dogs, not knowing if they would have a house to go back to. (Ultimately, their home was spared. They returned a month later, but had to replace nearly everything inside because of smoke damage.)
The two also collaborated on a song called “Más Melodía,” for the third season of DORA, the reboot of Dora the Explorer, on Paramount+, which Taboo and Jett guest starred in. But Taboo says this time was “more speaking from the heart, a little bit more of a testimonial that my daughter wanted to advocate for the youth.”
That’s why Taboo says the song starts with a spoken-word introduction by Jett, “ because she set the tone for this whole song,” he explains. “She's like, ‘I just wanna talk from the heart, dad, and say what I'm feeling and just be there for my friends.’”
The introduction says, in part, “When you’re a kid, you just want to live the kid life, but last year was a really hard time. During the fires, I would hear about friends and families losing their homes.”
The rap that follows includes questions about who should be held accountable for the Eaton and Palisades fires. Taboo shared a version of the rap in an interview with LAist last July.
Taboo says writing the song with Jett was cathartic.
“We needed a better way to use our time than to just sulk,” he says. So they started ping ponging ideas off of each other, “ And it just became something really fun because [...] when you're in a moment of chaos and disorder and dismay and uncertainty, you need to find ways to take your mind off of it. And fortunately, Jett and I found that.”
Involving community and giving back
The final version of the song’s chorus also includes words and vocals by artist Angelica Nicole, and voices of some of Jett’s friends and members of Pasadena’s Mayfield Senior School choir who were also affected by the Eaton Fire singing, “Pasadena strong, Altadena strong, stand strong.”
“We just created this beautiful mosaic of sound and testimonial,” Taboo says. “ The most powerful component to the inspiration of this whole healing song was her being a kid, me being an adult with no answers and just feeling so vulnerable.”
This week, one year after the fires broke out, Taboo and Jett performed “Stand Strong” at “A Concert for Altadena,” benefitting the Altadena Builds Back Foundation. The song’s release is also part of an initiative designed to raise funds for a local middle school softball team.
Café de Leche was one of the Altadena mainstays lost in the Eaton Fire.
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Courtesy Café de Leche
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Topline:
Although some of Altadena’s restaurants have reopened since the Eaton Fire of January 2025, those whose structures were destroyed face a different set of challenges.
Hurdles: What stands in the way of rebuilding? Costs, logistics and new building requirements.
Why now: At the one-year anniversary of the Eaton Fire, many restaurants remain uncertain about how and even whether they will reopen.
Read on ... to hear from several Altadena restaurateurs.
Altadena one year after the Eaton Fire finds itself in the space between a memory of what existed before and the unknown of where the town will be once it’s rebuilt.
For restaurants that survived and those that didn’t, the unknown could last a while.
“We’re acknowledging that we’re part of something that is going to be much longer and an extended period of uncertainty,” said Randy Clement, co-owner of West Altadena Wine and Good Neighbor Bar with his wife and partner, April Langford.
With the town still years away from recovery, it’s that uncertainty, as Clement explains, that is particularly hard for the Altadena business community. Having lost its local customer base, businesses no longer can rely on the seasonal ebbs and flows. For businesses whose structures were destroyed in the fire, this uncertainty extends into decisions to rebuild.
Fox’s on Lake Avenue served diner-style dishes like buttermilk pancakes, a winning house veggie burger and homemade pies. It was the kind of place you went to feel at home. (In fact, the building had been converted from a house into a restaurant.) Co-owners Monique King and Paul Rosenbluh, who own Little Beast and Cindy’s in Eagle Rock, remain undecided about rebuilding.
Fox's before the fire.
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Courtesy Fox's
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Fox's after the fire.
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Courtesy Fox's
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“Resources are thin, and our property’s footprint is small,” King said, “so a costly rebuild for a tiny restaurant carries many considerations. We’re in a holding pattern until we decide what’s best.”
King and others said rebuilding is not necessarily straightforward. Businesses that operated in older structures may need to update layouts to comply with newer regulations. Construction and materials come with high expenses, as does permitting, and a host of other factors. Another question mark is whether a business was adequately insured before the fire.
While businesses agreed the top priority is resettling residents, there are limited financial resources to help commercial structures that were destroyed.
Determined to rebuild
Up the street from Fox’s sat Café de Leche, a coffee shop owned by Anya and Matt Schodorf.
“As painful as the loss was, and still is, we never had any doubt about returning,” Anya Schodorf said.
Café de Leche owners Anya and Matt Schodorf before the fire.
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Courtesy Café de Leche
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Anya and Matt Schodorf, where Café de Leche once stood on Lake Avenue.
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Courtesy Café de Leche
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“Of our multiple locations, this was the only building we owned. It was the majority of our income and a magical place,” Matt Schodorf said.
In November, to much community excitement, the couple shared design renderings of their prospective rebuild, as they ambitiously push toward returning.
“We’re eager to offer a space for the community to gather and heal together,” Anya Schodorf said.
Altadena restaurants that were destroyed
Minik Market, 2507 Lake Ave.
Rancho Bar, 2485 Lake Ave.
Side Pie, 900 E. Altadena Drive
Pizza of Venice, 2545 N. Fair Oaks Ave.
Little Red Hen, 2697 N. Fair Oaks Ave.
Cafe de Leche, 2477 Lake Ave.
Fox’s, 2352 Lake Ave.
Amara Kitchen, 841 E. Mariposa St.
Everest, 2314 Lake Ave.
Major challenges
Other businesses' futures are less certain.
On Mariposa Street, half of the small shopping strip known as Mariposa Junction was lost in the fire. The structure housed the beloved Altadena Hardware store and the daytime cafe Amara Kitchen.
Paola Guasp owns Amara, which has another location in Highland Park. The Altadena shop was popular among locals, with its bright welcoming space and tables outside for enjoying a sunny Altadena day.
“After the fire, we immediately transferred staff to our Highland Park location. We’ve been putting our energy there and growing our catering business,” Guasp said.
Amara Kitchen before the fire.
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Courtesy Amara Kitchen
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Amara Kitchen after the fire.
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Courtesy Amara Kitchen
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As for getting back to Altadena, it may be a long road.
“Our landlords are amazing and want to see the space thriving. We’re just so far away from rebuilding, so it’s hard to say what the future looks like,” Guasp said.
Over on Fair Oaks Avenue, Jamie Woolner, co-owner of Pizza of Venice, also lost his business. With a long list of creative pizzas and salads, Pizza of Venice, or “POV” as locals called it, was a classic neighborhood spot.
Woolner’s now-97-year-old grandfather built the structure in 1962, and Woolner owned and ran the business for 12 years.
“The restaurant was finally turning into the dream we’d always envisioned for it, and then the whole place burned down,” Woolner said.
Since the fire, Woolner has reflected on if and how the business could return, but rebuilding is a long and expensive project.
Altadena and Pasadena restaurants that were damaged and have reopened
Guillaume Patard-Legendre and his wife and partner, Darcy Ballister, run Altadena’s much-adored Pain Beurre bread popup that draws on Patard-Legendre’s French background and baking expertise.
In February 2024, the couple moved from France to Altadena, where Ballister grew up. That July, Patard-Legendre started Pain Beurre from his in-laws’ ADU.
“The business was dedicated to Altadena,” said Patard-Legendre, who saw a local opportunity for French-style baked goods.
Pain Beurre quickly took off, growing a dedicated fan base. The Eaton Fire destroyed Ballister’s parents’ home, including the ADU where Patard-Legendre and Ballister lived and operated the business.
Without a traditional brick-and-mortar shop, Patard-Legendre was in a unique situation.
In March, World Central Kitchen extended an olive branch, helping him restart, including offering baking space at a local commissary kitchen.
“Their help was such a gift when we had nothing,” he said. “I felt like I was in the movie Pretty Woman at the restaurant supply store. World Central Kitchen has been so supportive. We couldn’t have restarted without them.”
Resilience
A unanimous sentiment among businesses a year after the fire is an undying love for Altadena and reverence for the community’s resilience amid ongoing tragedy.
“The mass scale of loss is still unbelievable,” said Guasp, of Amara Kitchen.
“People lost their homes, along with 20, 30, 40 years of their lives. Some people lost their lives,” Fox’s King said.
Yet as King and fellow owners’ hopes and dreams for returning show, no one has lost sight of what brought everyone there to begin with. Altadena, King said, is “just a remarkably special place.”
