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Altadena reopening reveals devastation — but community still standing – Jobsmaa.com

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As she surveyed the charred remains of the old Altadena neighborhood, Jocelyn Boyd stared in silent disbelief.

Loma Alta Park, a public swimming pool that was once a summer sanctuary for him and other blacks, was destroyed by the Eaton fire.

Standing outside a nearby community garden, her plants were mostly untouched, so she took out her phone to record a video of the seemingly random destruction.

A man walks past rows of donated shoes on a sidewalk.

Eaton fire victim Jose Medina on Tuesday unveiled donated children's shoes for fire victims returning to burned homes in Altadena. Her son-in-law, Jose Velasquez, not pictured, organized the donation.

On Tuesday, Boyd returned to his childhood home, Jan. Authorities opened the burned areas to the public for the first time since the mass evacuation on the 7th. He was on his way down Lincoln Avenue, stopping just short of a security checkpoint. There was a rifle-toting phalanx of National Guard troops checking the IDs of passing motorists.

Boyd, 57, moved from her current apartment in Pasadena with her pets, spending days worrying whether her home would be there when she returned. It was.

She felt survivor's guilt whenever her Altadena friends called to ask how she was doing, searching for the right words to convey the relief she felt to those who had lost everything.

“It will never be the same again, because a lot of people will not be able to rebuild,” he said.

Boyd, who retired after owning a mobile dog grooming business, described how redlining and other discriminatory housing policies pushed many black Altadenians into homes west of Lake Avenue. of the city.

For her and others who looked like her, Loma Alta Lake was a refuge from the lingering racism and scorching summers of the small town at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.

A woman in protective armor kneels on a pile of ashes.

Eaton fire victim Cara Marsh is overcome with emotion as she rummages through the home she and her husband shared on W. Marigold Street for valuables and memorabilia. The Marsh family plans to rebuild their home and is staying with friends in the meantime.

In the 1980s and 90s, black residents left the area, and many moved inland. Many of those who could afford to stay lived in large family homes that had been passed down through the generations, some of which were leveled in the Eaton fire.

Some of Boyd's friends were living outside campers on their burned property, worried about reports of “land grabbers” sniffing around the area. Many have already received business cards from strangers asking if they'd be interested in selling their property, some offering “pennies on the dollar” for their homes, she said.

Her message to those friends: “Stay strong. Don't sell anymore.

Records reviewed by The Times refer to residents west of the lake No evacuation warnings received Eaton until several hours after the fire started. Fanned by strong winds, the fast-moving fire burned large swaths of western Altadena, eventually destroying 7,000 structures and killing at least 17 people. Records show all victims lived west of the lake.

Even as authorities reopened roads throughout the community, it resembled a grim checkerboard of destroyed homes next to others largely spared the flames.

But amid the destruction, there were signs of recovery underway.

Utility crews worked throughout the day to restore power. Meanwhile, neighbors and officials in FEMA jackets streamed in and out of a nearby Stumptown coffee shop, which was offering free hot cups of coffee through Friday.

Next door, volunteers were handing out free food to people waiting in long lines around an empty lot.

Eaton fire victim Jose Velasquez, left, a woman donates household items in front of her burned-out garage.

Eaton fire victim Jose Velasquez, left, a woman donates household items in front of her burned-out garage.

(Alan J. Shaben/Los Angeles Times)

The night of the fire, 39-year-old Randolph Ware was in his bedroom at his grandmother's house on Glenrose Avenue when it began to fill with choking smoke. After getting his grandmother to safety, he and his uncle began watering the house's yard and fence with a hose while chasing the amount of golf balls that rained down on their block.

When the authorities turned off the water at some point during the night, he and his uncle piled dirt and dug the pipe in support of shovels to put out the fire.

Ware said he refused to leave when Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department patrols arrived and used loudspeakers to order people to evacuate.

“I'm not going to let it burn,” he said. “I'm not trying to say I'm Superman, but I did it by God's will.”

Other evacuated residents have started filtering back into the area in recent days. Among them was 30-year-old Jose Velasquez, who was manning a pop-up aid station outside his in-laws' home at the corner of Woodbury Road and Glenrose Avenue.

The station sprouted last week, and in the days since, volunteers have worked to sort through donations of clothing, disposable wipes, toys, diapers, canned goods and fresh produce, flooding in from San Francisco.

A volunteer reads the handmade signs "Free food" And "Free food."

Ruiz Linares, of the volunteer group Guardians del Muro USA, stands in the middle, waving a homemade sign he wrote with chalk. A large donation and food center has been set up for victims of the Eaton fire to return to their homes in Altadena.

“Some of the ladies drove a U-Haul full of stuff and dropped it off here,” he said, adding that many of the donated items were for people still living without gas or electricity in their homes. “Now everyone is honestly into instant noodles.”

Velasquez said she felt compelled to help after her family's home was largely spared, while other homes, including her neighbor's, were a total loss. He also looked for a way to repay the same neighbors who had been loyal customers for years at the Churro Stand that his family ran from the house's driveway. About 40 of his regulars have lost their homes, he said.

Velasquez's uncle, Jose Medina, 64, was home the night of the fire. He remembers hearing a loud boom and then realizing that a gust of wind had ripped part of the roof off the house.

“I thought the spaceship was going to crash into Earth,” he said.

On the hillside in Eden Canyon, he ran outside to find an ominous red light in the distance. Within 20 minutes, he said, the house he and his sister had lived in for 40 years was engulfed in flames.

Fearing for safety, two people stand in a row of destroyed houses.

Eaton fire victims Liz O. and Ray Ann are at the W. in Altadena. They sifted through the rubble on Marigold Street. They are staying in a hotel with their child while they wait to hear about insurance in California's FAIR program.

As the flames grew closer, Medina said he climbed onto the roof and lowered himself into his yard and his neighbors to try to put out the flames. He watched helplessly as violent tornadoes carried lava across Woodbury Road.

Miraculously, her sister's house was spared, but the flames consumed the garage where Medina slept and the tools she used for her work as an independent contractor. Several days later, Medina sifted through the burned-out garage for his miter saw and stairs, but they were all destroyed. He managed to salvage some shovels and drill bits from the ash heap.

On Tuesday, she worked at an aid station alongside volunteers like Yolanda Barra, 30, part of a congregation called Minsterio Cordero in south-central LA, which went to deliver prepackaged meals to residents. Barra said he saw this as an opportunity to give back, providing a lifeline to the church while dealing with his own struggles with substance abuse.

“Everybody's struggling, you know, but it's time for us to come together and help each other,” he said.

Times staff photographer Alan J. Shaben contributed to this report.

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