A mail carrier lost everything in the Eaton Fire. Along his route, people are rallying for him

For nearly 40 years, U.S. Postal Service mail carrier Thomas Carter has treated his job as as a community service. Along his route in Pasadena, he knows everyone’s names, asks about their children, knows who’s remodeling and, for some of them during the pandemic, was their only in-person contact.

“It's amazing how you get the route and people respect you as just delivering mail,” he said. “You watch kids born, you watch them grow up, and things like that. So you become a part of the community.”

Thomas Carter sees the team at Hambleton and Macfarlane Orthodontics for the first time since he lost his home in the Eaton Fire. The team was waiting for his arrival to give Carter a gift.

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Thomas Carter and Kimberly Junmookda hug in Altadena recently.

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That community was forever changed Jan. 7 as the Eaton Fire bore down on Altadena. Carter — who lived near Loma Alta Drive and Fair Oaks Avenue with his wife and children — and his family evacuated with some of their belongings.

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But all that’s left of their home, which they owned for 32 years, is a charred metal door and their pool. Everything else is ash.

Yet Carter is already back to delivering mail to the residents whose homes survived the hopscotch of destruction. It's been heartening, he said, to come back and see how people respond.

“You get used to talking to coworkers and talking to people on the route about their lives, and so you know some of the things you have in common and you talk about some of these things,” Carter said. “And then something like this happens and all of a sudden everybody's looking at you, and so it's humbling.”

Thomas Carter sorts mail at a corporate office mailroom Jan. 30.

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The night of the fire

The day the fire started, Carter was thinking about buying a new cover for a car he was restoring. The one he had was ripped.

"The winds had just torn it up," he said. "So I'm laughing to myself, saying I got to get a car cover, because it's just ripped this thing to shreds.”

He never did get the car cover. That evening on his drive home, a friend called to say he heard about a fire in Altadena. Carter wasn’t immediately worried, though — with Mt. Wilson on one side and JPL on the other, he assumed his home would be safe.

Then his wife called: She was packing up to leave with their two children. They weren’t under evacuation orders yet, but the high winds were getting to be too much.

Carter knew this fire was different when he saw it on his drive home.

"Normally the fires were along the ridge and they were usually up higher," he said. "But I could see this right behind our house and really realized it was a few blocks away.”

Carter’s family evacuated to a hotel in Rosemead, later learning that they lost their home. The car he was restoring was a hollow, burned out shell.

Carter was restoring a car, which along with his home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

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Community rallies around beloved mailman

When Rory McKenna and Kimberly Junmookda, who live along Carter’s route, found out their beloved postman lost his home, they rallied the neighborhood.

They knew Carter wouldn't ask for help.

So Junmookda printed a flier, knocked on doors and told neighbors what happened.

Rory McKenna and Kimberly Junmookda organized a fundraiser for Carter and in the process learned about his connection with other neighbors.

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“ We started to get donations coming in, and it was really satisfying to see all the names, little amounts because we're a renter community,” Junmookda said.

More than 200 people in the neighborhood have donated.

Through this process, she has also connected with other neighbors and learned about their interactions with Carter.

 ”When we first moved in he was like one of the first people to introduce us to the neighborhood and welcome us, and I've never had that ever in my life from a mailman,” said Chris Sikora, who lives near Junmookda. “When my wife gave him our save the dates, he came running back to the house to say, ‘Oh my God, I didn't realize what these were. I'm so happy for you guys.’”

Junmookda and McKenna are organizing fundraiser this weekend at a local boba shop.

They will raffle donated items from small businesses in the area to raise money for Carter and two other neighbors who lost homes.

Carter, with a truck full of mail to be delivered, said he and his wife have been in awe of people's generosity.

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“It's our way of showing Thomas that we care,” Junmookda said.

Carter and his wife have been in awe of everyone’s generosity.

“ That's just the beauty of this,” he said. “Out of all the devastation, the beauty of people.”

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