The Brief

On a recent morning, Steve Lubanski was cleaning and sorting out items of what remained of The Bunny Museum on Lake Avenue.

Most of the building is gone, although the front gray wall remains. It's along that wall where Lubanksi placed pieces that survived the fire. His goal: to signal to passersby where the museum once stood, and where it will return.

“ It's not structural anymore,” he said of the remaining wall. “You can't build with it, but I want to leave it up and it'll be an homage to the previous building.”

The Eaton Fire destroyed the world’s largest bunny collection — more than 60,000 items — housed at the Altadena museum. But Lubanski and his wife Candace Frazee are already planning its comeback.

Collecting thousands of bunnies

Lubanski and Frazee still light up when they tell the story of how they began their collection.

When they were dating, Frazee began calling her now-husband “honey bunny.” The couple later began gifting each other bunny items as a token of their love. The exchange became a daily ritual, amassing into an assortment of thousands and thousands of items. Their gifts to each other, together with donated pieces, made up the museum's extensive collection.

Steve Lubansky and his wife Candace Frazee are the cofounders of The Bunny Museum. They also lived on the property that was burned down by the Eaton Fire.

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Brandon Killman

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LAist

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They first put bunny items on display at an exhibit held in 1998 at the home where they lived in Pasadena. Nearly a decade later, their collection had outgrown that space and they moved to the Altadena location that was destroyed in the Eaton Fire. Over the years, the museum garnered recognition from the Guinness World Records, The Smithsonian and the Los Angeles Almanac.

On the museum’s Instagram, the couple photographed visitors with their bunny swag or their own collectibles — from tattoos to plush toys. Frazee also shows me what they call the "bunny bump," a Bunny Museum greeting that involves a peace sign or bunny ears and a fist bump.

The "bunny bump" is the official greeting of the museum.

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Courtesy of The Bunny Museum.

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The couple aimed to create a fun, unique experience with a salon-style display — curated exhibits that spanned top to floor. A Christmas tree with bunny ornaments, keychains, plates, paintings, parade floats were all housed there. They also kept bunnies — real living, breathing ones — that made it out during the fire.

When they open again the couple say they’ll have an area of the museum permanently dedicated to the fire.

“ We can't forget about what happened,” Lubanski said.

Trying to save The Bunny Museum

The duo were glued to the news on Jan. 7 as Altadena went up in flames. The fire didn’t seem all that close for most of the evening. Then the power went out.

Frazee began packing up their most important items, including the live bunnies. They tried to save as much as they could — the phrase “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” pops into Lubanski’s mind, he said.

The couple said they never received an emergency alert. Still, after midnight, as neighbors evacuated, they said the neighborhood was empty.

There was a fire hydrant next to the museum, which was also their home, but Lubanski said when firefighters came by it was dry.

So he grabbed a household hose and tried to wash down the area ahead of the fire arriving. The smoke and the wind was so bad that the couple could barely see anything in front of them, but they remained for as long as they could.

He gave up in the morning and believes the building likely went up in flames shortly after.

The museum was destroyed, the apartment building next door was seemingly untouched.

The next steps

The day I visited Lubanski and Frazee, a woman and her young daughter were dropping off bunny items, including Easter decor. Frazee showed them what was left of the collection, away from the dangerous parts of the rubble.

 ”The love has been incredible,” she said. “We'll come up to the debris and in the morning find a (toy) bunny sitting right there in the driveway. Like somebody cared enough to come up and donate.”

Museum cofounder Steve Lubansky cleans the remaining front wall where they plan to rebuild The Bunny Museum.

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Brandon Killman

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LAist

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They have a storage container sitting on the side of the lot, where they’re packing anything from the debris that they can.

The couple is also receiving personal donations. Frazee said that anything donated to the museum, the couple cannot use for themselves. Amazon and other stores’ gift cards have gone a long way, she said.

“It's just so weird how you lose everything,” Frazee said. “It's like we're shopping every day.”

At the museum, they’re trying to prevent enormous destruction again.

When the museum doors reopen — they hope in about three years — the structure will look different. The couple is planning to build with fire resistant materials and remove vegetation around the building.

“Nothing that could burn,” Lubanski said, “we’re over that.”

They hope to have a soft opening as soon as the building is rebuilt to showcase the new space to the public and supporters. Later, they’ll start designing their bunny exhibitions and everything that comes curating and running a space.

Lubanski and Frazee, who have yet to find permanent housing, are grateful to have the aid they’ve been given, but “it’s never enough,” she said.

Watch the video

Temporary mailing address to send bunny items:

The Bunny Museum
2335 E Colorado Blvd.
Suite 115 PMB 350
Pasadena, CA 91107

Five news reporters and two members of the military who were invited to an event at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California were briefly detained at gunpoint by security officers who thought they were gate crashers, according to local news reports.

The incident happened Monday ahead of an invitation-only groundbreaking for a new training facility for missile operators at the federal airfield near Santa Barbara, Calif. Reporters from Noozhawk and KEYT were among those detained, and both outlets published articles detailing the detainment.

In a statement to Noozhawk, a Space Launch Delta 30 Public Affairs spokesperson called the incident a breakdown in communication.

“Vandenberg Space Force Base is experiencing an increased number of unauthorized entry attempts,” the statement said. “Every potential unauthorized presence must be treated as a legitimate threat until proven otherwise. While we recognize this may have been unsettling, the security of the base and its personnel is our priority.”

The reporters and military members were part of a convoy being escorted onto the base by uniformed public affairs staff in a government minivan when they were suddenly ordered out of their vehicles with their hands up, according to news reports.

Officers pointed guns, sirens were sounded and barricades went up at the gate entrance, KEYT reported.

The two military members assigned to the base — one enlisted and one a junior officer — were handcuffed and placed in base vehicles, while the civilians were ordered to sit on a curb, Noozhawk reported.

The reporters for outlets also including KSBY-TV and the Santa Maria Times/Lompoc Record were held for more than 30 minutes, causing them to miss the event. All were let go without further incident.

“We respect the military’s need to provide security for the base,” Tom Bolton, Noozhawk’s editor in chief, said in a statement Wednesday. “But clearly what occurred was unfortunate and unnecessary, and potentially dangerous, as firearms were drawn.”

Bolton said he hopes to have a conversation with base leadership later this week to review what happened in the hopes of preventing a similar occurrence in the future.

As severe wildfires burn across the Western U.S., California has adopted the toughest rules in the country to help protect communities from burning. Homeowners in wildfire-prone areas will be required to limit plants within five feet of their house, a protective measure that wildfire experts say can help prevent homes from igniting.
Research shows that dry, dense vegetation around buildings can cause wildfires to spread. In extreme conditions, high winds carry a deluge of tiny, burning embers far beyond the fire itself. When those embers get caught in vegetation, they can ignite, spreading flames to nearby buildings and homes.
Wednesday's vote by the California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection comes after years of debate and delays. The state originally considered rules that would have restricted all vegetation within five feet of a house, aside from well-maintained trees. That generated pushback from some communities, concerned about losing greenery in their gardens and the cost of yard maintenance.
California regulators ultimately struck a compromise about plants allowed within the five-foot zone, known as Zone Zero. Lawns, flowers and non-woody plants up to 18 inches tall will be allowed, unless they are located directly under the roofline of a house. Trees will be allowed, though branches must be trimmed five feet away from a structure. The rules will apply to new construction right away, but will be phased in for existing structures, affecting almost 2 million homes in high-risk areas.

State regulators say the rules reflect the new reality of more extreme wildfires, driven in part by rising temperatures from climate change. More than 57,000 homes and buildings have been destroyed in California in the last decade, according to state regulators.

"California's faced an existential crisis that has affected our health, that has affected our finances related to our ability to buy and sell homes, to insure homes and has put us in a very precarious place," testified Yana Valachovic of the University of California Cooperative Extension at Wednesday's hearing, who also advised the state on the new rules.

Growing tensions across Western states

California's debate reflects growing tensions across the Western U.S. about how communities should prepare for wildfires. Wildfire experts warn even fires that start in open, wildland areas can quickly become urban fires, destroying thousands of homes in neighborhoods that residents never thought were at risk, like in the 2025 Los Angeles fires. This summer, more than 800 homes were destroyed in Spokane, Wash., by three wildfires that burned through dense neighborhoods.
Across several states, homeowners in public meetings have said wildfire regulations threaten private property rights, reduce urban wildlife habitat and require costly maintenance.
"You are about to approve a set of regulations that will cost millions of California homeowners tens of billions of dollars," testified Dave Lefkowitz, president of the Mandeville Canyon Association, a community group in the Los Angeles hills. "The math is insuperable."

Vegetation management rules were recently defeated in both Oregon and Washington after strong public pushback, including misinformation that spread online. Some community groups wanted regulators to wait for more scientific research on wildfire spread.

Research shows plants can increase risk

In experiments, researchers have shown that even green plants can ignite in the dry, windy conditions of an extreme wildfire. Analyses of past California wildfires have also shown that homes with vegetation predominantly within 6 feet of the exterior walls were at higher risk of being lost. Managing vegetation also creates "defensible space" for firefighters, providing better access for defending a structure.

California has long been at the forefront of wildfire policy, pioneering regulations that other states have adopted. For almost 20 years, California's wildfire building codes have required homes to use fire-resistant materials for construction. A handful of other states recently adopted similar codes. Research shows that while there are no guarantees a house will survive a fire, protections are strongest when homeowners address both building materials and vegetation. Even in some of the most severe wildfires in recent years, some homes made it through.
California regulators say the widespread regulations are needed because voluntary measures don't provide enough protection. Communities are safest when all homeowners comply, since one home with dense, dry vegetation can spread fire to its neighbors. Insurance companies in California are also required to provide discounts to homeowners that make their homes more fire-resistant.

New rules depend on inspections

While California's new rules provide more flexibility for homeowners, some wildfire experts say they don't go far enough, given that any combustible material next to a house could pose a risk. The new vegetation rules will be enforced by local fire departments and state agencies that do home inspections every year. Those inspectors will bear the brunt of educating homeowners and ensuring compliance.
"I want the board to understand what this compromise asks of local inspection programs," Todd Lando of the Central Marin Fire Department testified at the hearing. "A clean Zone Zero is a five-minute inspection with one question: Is anything combustible within five feet? Easy for the homeowner to understand and take action on." Lando says the new rules will involve more conditional judgements by inspectors, opening up debate with homeowners that could affect compliance.

California regulators say inspectors will focus on educating homeowners at first, before compliance becomes mandatory. For existing homes, the new vegetation rules will go into effect in 2029 at the earliest.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Clemente Larraín, a doctoral student from Chile, chose his program at UCLA because it offered subsidized childcare on campus. His young daughter was enrolled for free, giving him the peace of mind to focus on his studies.

Now, the university has thrown a wrench in those plans.

In an email to families enrolled in UCLA’s Early Care and Education program, Darnell Hunt, executive vice chancellor and provost, announced two university-run childcare centers will close at the end of the 2026-27 academic year because the university has determined “the program is not sustainable.”

“ For international students, this is the worst news because we don't have networks here," Larraín said. "We don't have family. Some of us have some friends, but not too close to just trusting them to our kids.”

He earns around $3,000 a month working on campus, which he said barely covers his rent, forcing the family to dig into savings. Meanwhile, his wife is waiting for a work permit so she can start to bring in additional income.

Having to find full time care for their daughter is causing immense stress.

“ This obviously changed radically the experience of the graduate students with family at UCLA,” Larraín said.

Limited childcare options for parents

The announcement comes as a changing landscape is making it harder for parents to find childcare across California. A new report by the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at UC Berkeley found that the rollout of a new grade for 4-year-olds in the state’s public schools is having unintended consequences for childcare businesses. Those businesses have typically cared for children 5 and under but are now losing more children to transitional kindergarten.

Between 2019 and 2025, about 1,100 preschools have closed across California.

Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, an associate professor of Asian American studies at UCLA, has two children enrolled in a UCLA-run childcare center, which she said costs her around $6,000 a month — and that’s at a subsidized rate.

“Having a high-quality, safe, reliable childcare option for my children just allows me to do my job as a UCLA professor, which includes research and publishing, but also teaching and mentorship of undergraduate and graduate students,” Gandhi said. “I'm really not sure how I'll be able to do that job if I don't have adequate childcare next year.”

Gandhi said the only alternative she has for her daughter is Bright Horizons Westwood, which is part of a large chain of childcare facilities across the U.S.

“ But to be honest it doesn't have as good of a kind of teacher-child ratio as [UCLA's Early Care and Education] does, and it has a super long wait list,” she said.

LAist has reached out to the childcare facility to ask about its waitlist, teacher-child ratio and rates.

Earlier this year, Gandhi said, tuition at UCLA’s Early Care and Education program increased by 4%, Gandhi said. At the time, UCLA also announced it would eliminate “all food program services (which includes all meals, baby formula and food, milk and snacks), discontinuing support for diapers and formula, not backfilling vacant positions, and other cost reducing measures.”

After families protested, the university backed down.

‘Disconnected from its mission’

Yvonne Yang, an assistant clinical professor at UCLA in psychiatry, called it "callous and heartless," even "cruel" that the university decided to close down the childcare centers.

“It means to me that the university has completely become disconnected from its mission and basically lost its soul and is focusing only on profits,” said Yang, who is also a physician and researcher at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center.

Yang said she’s now competing with all the families enrolled in the UCLA program for the limited childcare options available on the west side.

 ”When our kids were young and still breastfeeding, moms are welcome to just walk up to the daycare and to feed our kids during the workday, which is so much better than having to pump,” she said. “It's just a way of maintaining that connection with your kids so early in that transition.”

Having the childcare center on campus allowed her to integrate having a family life and being a professor, she said.