Home » ‘Is this real?’: Three generations of Altadena family lose homes in Eaton fire – Jobsmaa.com

‘Is this real?’: Three generations of Altadena family lose homes in Eaton fire – Jobsmaa.com

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A week after the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena, the scope of the disaster is beginning to come into focus, but for one multigenerational family it still feels unreal.

Three generations of Daniel Stone's family lost three homes in the fire. Countless memories and photos are gone, but like many homeowners in Altadena, that grim reality still feels like a nightmare.

Rose bushes and a wooden deck outside a house in Altadena.

Rose bushes and a wooden deck outside Daniel Stone and Brian Davila's home in Altadena were destroyed in the Eaton fire.

(Daniel Stone)

“It's weird that we can't go home,” he said. “It doesn't feel real. When you go to sleep and wake up, you're like, 'Is this real?'

The hillside neighborhood was smoldering, leveled, unrecognizable and off-limits to local residents, with 16 people confirmed dead and more expected to be found as emergency officials search the wreckage. More than 4,700 structures were destroyed, thousands of families displaced, and in some cases uprooting generations from the communities they had called home for decades.

Danielle Stone and Brian Davila embrace at their friend's house in Hacienda Heights.

Danielle Stone and her husband, Brian Davila, embraced Thursday at their friend's home in Hacienda Heights.

(Ringo Siu/For The Times)

Danielle (“Danny”), 37, and her husband Brian Davila, 35, bought their first home in 2022 on Wapello Street, a half-mile from where hiking trailheads lead into the Altadena Mountains, and about a mile from her childhood home. The house where her parents now live.

It was important to her to put down family roots in Altadena, where her parents raised Stone and her sister, while her grandmother raised six children. All three houses are within two miles.

A year after they moved in, Stone and Davila welcomed their daughter, Melina. It was the house where she learned to walk, and every morning they pointed out the nearby mountains from the wooden deck.

“We used to take Meli out and call them Meli's Hills because it was such a beautiful sight,” Stone said.

A woman gags as she watches pictures of her damaged house on a laptop with her husband.

Danielle Stone reacts as she and husband Brian Davila look at pictures of their damaged home on a laptop at a friend's home in Hacienda Heights on Thursday.

(Ringo Siu/For The Times)

But on the evening of January 7, when Santa Ana winds blew into the foothills, the scene took a turn for the worse as the fire burned in Eaton Canyon.

There was little time to think that night. Like many in the foothills community, the couple packed their essentials. They called her father, Rene Stone, to come and assess the situation. They tried to get the daughter to sleep.

Davila told his wife she had to pack as if she wasn't going to see the house.

“But even though I'm saying that, I'm thinking with that mentality … you still don't believe it,” he said. “A lot was lost because I honestly thought in my heart that I would come back home.”

Stone and Melina went to her parents' house about a mile away on Terrace Street, thinking they would be safe to head southwest. Her father and Davila stayed behind to water their house and wooden deck.

As they left the house on Wapello Street, Stone silently waved goodbye to the house as the mountains of Meli glowed red with fire and smoke.

The remains of a burned house on Terrace Street in Altadena.

The remains of a home at 101 W. Terrace St. in Altadena are shown Thursday.

(Ringo Siu/For The Times)

Her parents' house also lost power and became a cell phone service point. She tried to sleep with her daughter in her parent's bed, and her parents offered to sleep in the room.

Early in the morning, the fire approached her parents' home, which was filled with smoke.

The air outside was thick with ash. They loaded Melina into a carrier and tried to save her with a blanket, but the routine of getting her into the car was fraught with terror as the firestorm approached.

It was clear the family had to leave, but Stone's 89-year-old grandmother, Helena Montanez, took a moment to move out of her 60-year-old home on Glenrose Avenue. She resisted the idea. Stone's mother, Dana Stone, wanted to make sure everyone got out together. The family's roots in the San Gabriel Valley stretch back more than 100 years, when Stone's great-grandmother, Andrea Gonzalez, opened a small grocery store in Pasadena.

Sometime around 3 a.m., a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy announced on a bullhorn that it was time to evacuate, Montanez regretted.

Eventually, the family fled in a caravan of cars, stopping to regroup at Caltech in Pasadena, where Rene Stone worked as an equipment mechanic for more than 35 years. The family, including Montanez, moved to Dávila's sister's house in Hacienda Heights.

All three family homes were destroyed in the fire, the family learned Wednesday, along with countless other homes.

A toddler at his grandparents' home in Altadena.

Melina Davila's home at her grandparents' in Altadena was destroyed in the Eaton fire.

(Daniel Stone)

Dani Stone understands what has happened — the neighborhood that has been her family's generations is gone — but that reality doesn't jibe with her memories: family vacations at her grandmother's house, walking barefoot on her front lawn, hiking trails, or the time she and Davila spent with her parents during the pandemic, eventually paying for the house they would buy. Try saving.

Her family's story, along with the rest of Altadena, is one of working-class people taking refuge in LA County and building a community for their Latino and black neighbors.

“My grandmother sacrificed and did everything she could to build a safe house for her and her family,” he said. “My parents, you know penny for penny, worked hard to do everything they could to make a safe home for me and my sister. To Brian and me.”

Dávila, the son of Nicaraguan immigrants, and Stone want to do the same for their daughter.

No doubt Stone's family wants to rebuild in Altadena because their home on Wapello Street had a rose garden that they hope to replant. Melina's middle name is Rose, named after Pasadena and Davila's grandmother, Rosita.

“It's so beautiful,” Stone recalled of the image. “That's one of the reasons we fell in love with the house.”

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