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

A slow leak from a chemical tank smeared an orange cloud across the sky of a Southern California neighborhood on Tuesday, but authorities said they quickly got it under control.

Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Aaron Katon said authorities responded to a business that makes cleaning products after receiving a call shortly before noon about the cloud. Police evacuated a nearby middle school as a precaution, Katon said.

They do not yet know what the chemical was, but all shelter-in-place orders have been lifted, he said. The regional air quality management district has deployed staff to the area to investigate, said Connie Villanueva, a spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The company, Shepard Bros., could not immediately be reached for comment.

Three company employees reported minor respiratory irritation and declined further treatment, Katon said.

The leak occurred in the city of La Habra near a mix of residential neighborhoods and industrial warehouses about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Anaheim.

Keary Godinez, who works in a nearby restaurant, said she saw what appeared to be a dark yellow cloud spread across the sky. The 20-year-old said she watched students across the street board buses to evacuate, but police told her the eatery could remain open.

“It looked like pollen dust,” Godinez said, adding she didn’t detect a smell from the cloud. “It just kind of smeared in the sky and started going away.”

La Habra Mayor Jose Medrano had urged residents to shelter in place and said some streets were being evacuated.

Luis Gomez, who manages a nearby pickleball program, said earlier Tuesday he saw the cloud, called police and was told anyone within a mile radius of the location was under an evacuation order.

The Los Angeles Lakers will unveil a statue of former coach Phil Jackson outside their downtown arena next year.

The Lakers announced the plan Tuesday to honor Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships and seven NBA Finals appearances during two stints totaling 11 seasons as their head coach.

The statue will be unveiled April 9 before the Lakers’ home game against Minnesota.

After his famed tenure leading Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to six championships, Jackson joined the Lakers in 1999 and immediately began another era of major success for the 17-time NBA champion franchise.

His first three teams in Los Angeles won championships behind the dynamic duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, and the Lakers added two more titles in 2009 and 2010 led by Bryant and Pau Gasol. His Lakers also made the NBA Finals in 2004 and 2008.

Jackson set the Lakers franchise record for coaches with 610 victories while leading his teams to the playoffs in every year of his tenure, which ended in 2011.

“Phil Jackson defines championship basketball for a reason,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “His masterful approach to coaching brought out the best in some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. After he accepted my dad’s invitation to join the Lakers, Phil’s unmatched creativity and commitment to excellence restored our championship legacy, bringing five titles and setting a standard of excellence for generations to come. It is a great joy to be able to mark that achievement with the statue he so richly deserves.”

Jackson will be the ninth person associated with the Lakers to be honored with a statue in Star Plaza outside their arena. He joins Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bryant, O’Neal, broadcaster Chick Hearn and former coach Pat Riley, whose statue was unveiled earlier this year.

Jackson’s 11 championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. The North Dakota native and former New York Knicks forward is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.