The Brief

Altadena is one of those rare places in Los Angeles County where people of many backgrounds and ethnicities have been able to afford the American Dream of homeownership.

Situated near the base of the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of downtown L.A., Altadena was known for its mixture of single-family homes, restaurants and businesses.

It’s been a sanctuary for Black residents in particular: according to census data, about 75% of African Americans living there own their homes — close to double the national rate.

So when the Eaton Fire ignited last week and tore through Altadena and parts of neighboring Pasadena, the loss was felt deeply in the community and beyond — both by those who are familiar with its history and by those just learning of it.

A brief history of Altadena

Until the 1960s, Altadena was almost an entirely white community largely because of redlining, the practice of discriminating against people in certain areas by denying them access to financial support, like mortgages. People of color and and other underrepresented communities, weren’t able to buy homes in Pasadena or parts of Altadena because of this practice.

Major societal change came during the Civil Rights Era. Racist property-use laws became unenforceable and later legal actions banned housing discrimination outright, helping end de facto practices that locked Black families out.

This contributed to a "white flight" from the area as one of L.A. County’s first middle-class communities to include Black people emerged: The Meadows neighborhood. The area is on the western edge of Altadena and was originally co-owned by abolitionist Owen Brown.

Many Black residents in Altadena were displaced when the 210 Freeway was built in the ‘60s, but local organizations continued to encourage people of color to move in. Between 1950 and 1960, the Black population rose from less than 1% to 4%.

Octavia Butler, a celebrated science fiction writer, and Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, were once residents.

The community today is 58% people of color, more than 18% of whom are Black, according to Census data.

A firefighter extinguishes the remains of a hardware store destroyed in the Eaton fire in Altadena, California, on January 8, 2025.

(

Robyn Beck

/

AFP via Getty Images

)

Major losses in a historic Black neighborhood 

The Eaton Fire, named for the canyon where it first sparked, started the evening of Jan. 7 and by Jan. 13 had burned more than 14,000 acres in Altadena and parts of northeast Pasadena, reduced hundreds of homes to ash, and killed at least 16 people.

It is one of the deadliest fires in California history. The cause of the blaze is still unknown.

Of the confirmed and identified victims of the fire so far, many are older, Black homeowners who were rocks of their communities — people who held the community’s history in their lived experience and offered support and advice to younger generations.

The loss is immeasurable.

A screenshot of an old photo of Large's grandmother Maxine Morgan outside their family home in Altadena.

(

Courtesy Porsha Large

/

LAist

)

By Friday, the flames had mostly died down in Altadena and the winds had calmed. Firefighters went block by block, mopping up smoldering hot spots in the rubble of homes reduced to charred foundations.

Porsha Large spoke to LAist last week while standing at the corner Woodbury Road and Navarro Avenue, waiting to get to her grandmother’s home nearby. She knew that the house, which she said her grandmother bought in the 1960s for under $10,000, was a total loss.

The seven family members who lived there made it out safely.

Her grandmother, Maxine Morgan, was part of a wave of Black families who moved to Altadena during the Great Migration that started in the 1910s as they fled racial discrimination in the southern U.S. She died six years ago.

“She was a single mother from Oklahoma, four kids. And, she was the first Black grocery clerk in Sierra Madre,” Large said, tears in her eyes.

Over decades, the house, which once had paper walls, Large said, became a focal point for her family and the area.

“I'd say about five generations were raised in that house,” she said, her voice breaking. “It's always been a home — I mean, to the community, like, not just our family. My grandma opened her doors to anyone that ever needed anywhere to stay….

“The community knows my grandma's house.”

And now it’s gone.

The former home of Maxine Morgan and Porsha Large's family before it burned in the Eaton fire.

(

Courtesy Porsha Large

/

LAist

)

Porsha's brother, Justin Cook, stands on the rubble of their grandmother's house in Altadena.

(

Courtesy Porsha Large

/

LAist

)

The family members found shelter in an Ontario hotel room at first, then later in a two-bedroom apartment they own in Pasadena, Large said. But that’s a temporary solution, and one that keeps them removed from the community they loved and that may never again be the same.

“That's what Altadena was, a bunch of grandmothers and grandfathers that raised us all,” said Whitney Large, Porsha Large's sister. “We didn't go to parks and play. If you were raised right here, you came to my grandma's yard, six kids at a time.

“We played football and basketball and we raced up and down the streets."

'Angry' winds 

A few blocks away, Tamara Carroll and her nephew, Akeem Mair, stood outside Carroll's one-story house. It survived the blaze. Many other houses on the same street did not.

“My neighbors three doors down... there's like six houses that were burned to the ground,” Carroll said, shaking her head.

Carroll said her parents bought the home in 1966. When the fire approached the house early Wednesday, she didn’t evacuate.

Akeem Mair, left, and his aunt Tamara Carroll outside Carroll's home. Both of their family homes survived, but they worry how Altadena will change in the rebuild.

(

Erin Stone

/

LAist

)

She said she just didn’t expect it to get so bad.

“Growing up here with the Santa Ana winds, we used to come out in the street and play,” Carroll recalled. “Me and my brothers, it’d be pitch black and we would try to see who could stand the longest without moving in the winds. But these winds were different. They were more angry.”

The winds that drove these fires deep into the flatlands were the strongest Santa Ana winds since at least 2011. Combined with an abnormally dry start to the winter, it was a recipe for disaster.

“We've never had any type of fire like this — they've always been in the mountains,” Carroll said. “We've seen fires, but nothing like this.”

William Jackson of Altadena stands at the driveway of the home where he found his neighbor Tuesday deceased in the rubble of his home on Monterosa Drive at on January 9, 2025 in Altadena, California. "I keep calling his name, Victor, Victor. He died with the water hose still in his hands." Jackson said.

(

Gina Ferazzi

/

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

)

Carlos Martinez, who lives a street over from Carroll, said despite the orders to evacuate he stayed as flames burned around his home. Ultimately, his home survived.

“I got 30 years living here, I worked for this house,” Martinez said as he stood outside his home last week. “I wasn’t going to let it burn to the ground.”

His wife, Ana Martinez, said the house is much more than just property.

“This is where my two kids were born and my third was almost 5 when we moved here,” she said. “This is our home. So it means everything. Everything.”

Juan Carlos Martinez and his son Manolo try to put out a fire that burned down their neighbor's home in Altadena. They decided to stay overnight to protect their home, which is safe for now.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

A promise to retain Altadena’s roots and character

At a community meeting about the Eaton Fire on Sunday afternoon, residents said they worried their community will change into something they don’t recognize when and if residents can rebuild.

In recent decades, rising prices have already changed the demographics of many of these neighborhoods.

Carroll’s nephew, Akeem Mair, who lives in the Meadows neighborhood with his 94-year-old grandmother, said he worries the fire will only accelerate that, deepening inequality.

“ We already had people start moving out of here because of the prices,” Mair said. “But now the fire…so it's just…I don't know. I don't know.”

L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, promised the community she wouldn’t let that happen, saying, among other things, that she would promote policy to prevent developers from replacing single-family homes with luxury condos.

“This is not a transient community, so I’m going to be looking at what we can do to protect those that are going to be priced out,” Barger said. "I’m going to speak with the governor to…suspend legislation that’s made it easy for developers to build dense condominiums…so that we can maintain Altadena the way it belongs.”

Altadena residents pour water onto neighboring properties.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

At least 100 people were at the meeting at Pasadena City College.

“We’re not gonna let what happened in Lahaina happen in Altadena,” Barger promised, referring to the situation after the 2023 fires in Hawaii, which became the deadliest in modern U.S. history.

Displaced people from that largely working and middle-class enclave have been fighting what’s been called “climate gentrification” since then.

Even for those who didn’t lose their homes, there’s a lot of uncertainty about whether they’ll stay.

 "My intention was to continue leaving this home to the next generation,” Carroll said. “But I honestly have to say, this has changed my thought process. Although the house didn't burn down, it's going to be a lot to repair it. It's gonna be very, very difficult for people to become whole again.”

Take accountability and move forward.

Those were the two points Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore hit repeatedly when speaking with LAist’s Larry Mantle this week.

On taking accountability, Moore said hazardous conditions and decisions made before the Palisades Fire erupted a year ago meant “our firefighters never had a chance” to arrest the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.

On moving forward, he emphasized that reform is already in the works.

“Things have changed since the Palisades Fire, and we're going to continue making big changes in the Los Angeles Fire Department,” said Moore, who was selected for the LAFD top job by Mayor Karen Bass in November.

Here are three takeaways from the interview, which aired on AirTalk on Tuesday.

1. Staffing decisions hampered fire response

The LAFD uses a so-called pre-deployment matrix to set firefighter staffing levels ahead of high-risk weather.

According to the department’s after-action report, however, staffing levels on the day the Palisades Fire began fell short of the LAFD standard for extreme weather conditions. The National Weather Service had warned of low humidity, high winds and dry vegetation, what it calls a “particularly dangerous situation.” It’s the highest level of alert the agency can give.

Despite the high risk, the LAFD report said the decision not to deploy more firefighters in advance was in part made to save money.

Moore said Monday that the department has updated its policies to increase staffing for especially hazardous conditions, but he said he doesn’t believe additional resources would have stopped a fire of the magnitude that leveled the Palisades.

To suppress that kind of fire, he said, the department would need to pre-deploy resources across the city’s vast geography — to places like Baldwin Hills, Franklin Canyon, the Hollywood Hills, the Palisades, Porter Ranch and Sunland-Tujunga.

Moore said the department has already made new policies to call for more resources when the Weather Service issues a “particularly dangerous situation” alert.

2. LAFD is mostly an urban firefighting department

Moore referenced a key finding of the after-action report regarding a lack of training in wildland firefighting, which contributed to confusion and struggles to effectively utilize resources during the fire.

Wildland fires pose a number of challenges that are different from what firefighters face in urban environments. Those include the need to coordinate a large number of resources over vast areas, all while dealing with fast-moving flames that can rapidly tear through dry plants and structures.

The department found in its report that fewer firefighters were trained in fighting these wildland fires in recent years and that “leaders struggled to comprehend their roles.”

Some leaders in the department had “limited or no experience in managing an incident of such complexity,” the report said. And some reverted to doing the work of lower positions, leaving high-level decision-making positions unfilled.

“What we're doing now is really furthering that training and reinforcing that education with our firefighters so that they could be better prepared,” Moore said on AirTalk.

3. Changes to the after-action report

Early versions of the after-action report differed from the version released to the public in October, a fact that was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The Times also reported that Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, who wrote the report, wouldn’t endorse the final version because of the changes.

Moore acknowledged to the L.A. Board of Fire Commissioners at a Jan. 6 meeting that the report had been watered down.

“It is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership in that final report,” Moore told the commissioners. “This editing occurred prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can assure you that nothing of this sort will ever again happen while I am fire chief."

Some changes were small but telling. A section titled “Failures” later became “Primary Challenges.”

Moore told LAist that changes between versions “ made it easier for the public to understand,” but an LAist review found the edits weren’t all surface-level.

In the first version of the report, the department said the decision not to fully pre-deploy all available resources for the particularly dangerous wind event “did not align” with their guidelines for such extreme weather cases. The final version said that the initial response “lacked the appropriate resources,” removing the reference to department standards.

The department also removed some findings that had to do with communications.

One sentence from the initial version of the report said: “Most companies lacked a basic briefing, leader’s intent, communications plan, or updated fire information for more than 36 hours.” That language was removed from the final report.

LAist has asked the Fire Department for clarification about why these assertions were removed but did not receive a response before time of publication.

Olympic organizers announced Tuesday that registration to buy tickets will run through March 18, with sales beginning in April. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said that locals will get the first bite at the apple.

The registration period opens 7 a.m. Wednesday.

" Our host city communities here in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to be a part of a local presale," Hoover said outside the Coliseum while surrounded by Olympic athletes from Games past. "With our thanks and as part of our commitment to making sure that those who live and work around the games, where the games will take place, can be in the stands and cheer in 2028."

Olympic organizers also provided more details on ticket prices for the first time. One million tickets will sell for $28 a pop and around a third of tickets will be under $100, according to LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman.

That means the majority of tickets to the Olympic Games will run into triple digits. If the World Cup is any indication, some tickets could get astronomically pricey.

Interested fans can go to LA28.org to register. Those who are selected will get an email with a time slot to purchase tickets.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors took a step toward banning ICE from unlawfully operating on county-owned property and to post signage designating those spaces as “ICE Free Zones.”

The board unanimously approved the motion at Tuesday’s meeting, directing staff to draft the policy.

The draft could include requirements for county employees to report to their supervisor if they see unauthorized immigration activity on county property.

The city of Los Angeles passed a similar order last July, which strengthened protocols that prohibit ICE from operating on city-owned property. The agenda staff report points to an “ICE Free Zone” ordinance passed by the city of Chicago in October.

Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis co-authored the motion.

Horvath said the county will not allow its property to be used as “a staging ground for violence caused by the Trump administration."

Solis added that their action as a board could have a ripple effect on other city councils and local governments.

“Even though it's taken us this long to get here …I think it's really important for our communities to understand what we're saying is you don't have the right to come in and harass people without a federal warrant,” Solis said. “And if you use our property to stage, then you need to show us documentation as to why.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in an X post that the county cannot exclude federal agents from public spaces.

"Anyone who attempts to impede our agents will be arrested and charged, including county employees," Essayli said in the post. "We have already charged more than 100 individuals for similar conduct."

Since June, ICE raids have ramped up across the nation, heavily targeting certain immigrant communities like those in Los Angeles.

The motion directs the draft to include language that prohibits all types of ICE operations on county land, including staging and mobilizing without a warrant.

The motion cites an incident on Oct. 8, when county officials say federal agents raided the Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in San Pedro, arresting three people and threatening to arrest staff.

The motion also requires that the county post 'Ice Free Zone' signage on all of its properties.

Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center of Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told LAist the policy is enforceable under Fourth Amendment case law.

“You have to make sure that when you post that signage … that means that you routinely, or semi-routinely, assess who's coming in to the property, so that you can control access,” Perez said. “But if ICE shows up with a warrant, with a subpoena, then all bets are off, and they can enter into the property and do what they need to do.”

Perez said the county has moved “incredibly” slow on this issue.

“It's embarrassing that the county is moving six months later, given how we've been facing violent, aggressive, invasive and illegal raids now for so long here in Southern California,” Perez said, adding that local governments have not been fast or creative enough in protecting immigrant and refugee communities.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, one of the region’s largest immigrant advocacy groups, supports the motion.

"We do not want our county resources being used for federal immigration enforcement activities, which disrupt, uproot, and terrorize our communities,” Jeannette Zanipatin, policy director for CHIRLA, said in a statement. “It is important for all public spaces to be really safe for all residents.”

County staff have 30 days to draft a plan to implement the new policy.