Over the final 12 months, the Los Angeles Instances revealed numerous letters to the editor associated to the Eaton and Palisades fires. They’ve included messages of solidarity, expressions of grief, frustrations over the hearth response and restoration, and calls for for accountability, all of them revealed as L.A. and its residents proceed to unravel precisely what occurred.
As we approached the one-year mark, I checked in with some Instances readers who had letters revealed over the final 12 months to see what has modified and what hasn’t. What are their ideas on the restoration efforts? What questions concerning the response and restoration stay unanswered? What has given them hope in these difficult months? How can Los Angeles keep away from devastation on this stage sooner or later? And in the event that they misplaced their houses, how is their rebuilding going?
In response we acquired emotional reflections of loss, gratitude for the resilience of L.A.’s communities and, nonetheless, requires solutions and accountability. They function a reminder {that a} 12 months later restoration is way from over, however Californians press ahead nonetheless.
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To the editor: On Jan. 7, 2025, my house, my belongings and my neighborhood had been lowered to ashes. My preliminary feeling was shock. How might I’ve lived so precariously on the sting for 35 years in my little paradise?
Hearth had by no means crossed Sundown Boulevard from the mountains, my husband, the native, advised me so many occasions and once more the morning of the Palisades fireplace. When the hearth was within the mountains and the smoke turned troubling, he advised me to come back to his workplace in Santa Monica. If I had actually believed we had been in peril, in fact I’d have introduced my cats.
Just a few hours later, we received an evacuation discover and we desperately tried to get again to rescue our cats, however legislation enforcement blocked each roadway. I misplaced all hope. We watched our house burn in footage from a neighbor’s Ring digicam earlier than their house burned as properly.
What was misplaced? Picture albums that may by no means get replaced, going again to generations of my immigrant ancestors. My marriage ceremony album from pre-digital days. My kids’s artwork and our diaries. My grandmother’s self-portrait. My neighborhood the place I served on many boards and walked into city and into the mountains each day. My false sense of safety.
What remained? Unbelievably, my cats. An incredible rescue nonprofit, Viva Rescue, captured my two cats on video earlier than really rescuing them weeks after the hearth. That they had been returning to the rubble of our house each evening. The reunion with my cats on the veterinary ER in Santa Monica was like getting again items of my damaged coronary heart.
Our security deposit field someway survived the overall destruction of our financial institution. In it was my great-grandmother’s ring, introduced from Russia as she escaped pogroms.
Additionally our temple, Kehillat Israel on Sundown, someway remained untouched.
What was gained? Perspective and freedom from possessions. Everyone knows we will’t take it with us. However solely dropping virtually every thing straight away can actually carry this consciousness house. And surprisingly, this sudden realization introduced my husband and me a way of aid and freedom. We now know for positive that we aren’t our possessions and that every one we actually want is one another.
Lisa Kaas Boyle, Nashville, Tenn.
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To the editor: There was a lot that has come out over the previous 12 months that tells us that the devastation of this hearth might have been prevented. Folks throughout the nation want to look at the “Paradise Deserted” brief documentary on YouTube by Rob Montz.
The Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty on the time of the fires and now must be drained once more, for the reason that Los Angeles Division of Water and Energy can’t work out tips on how to change the reservoir cowl with out emptying it. And the top of the LADWP nonetheless has a job?
What’s occurring with the federal assist of $40 billion that Gov. Gavin Newsom requested for?
Why can’t the L.A. Metropolis Council work out tips on how to waive the allow charges for the Palisades houses that had been misplaced? Mayor Karen Bass really helpful this, however it’s as much as the Metropolis Council. The county waived charges for Altadena.
Insurance coverage corporations gladly took our premiums and agreed to particular protection. Now that we’ve got misplaced every thing, why aren’t they paying us?
Why can’t gross sales taxes be waived on rebuilding supplies?
FireAid raised greater than $100 million for restoration efforts. Once I watched the live performance, I used to be hopeful that these funds can be distributed instantly to fireside victims, contemplating the varied profiles featured all through the night of affected households. As a substitute, the cash was funneled to varied nonprofits (some with CEOs incomes six-figure salaries), leaving many victims outraged.
We really feel fortunate to be a part of the Alphabet Streets neighborhood of the Palisades, the place individuals are coming collectively to assist each other and plenty of houses are already beneath development, together with ours. We are able to’t wait to get again house.
Jill Smith, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Firstly, I wish to thank and congratulate the Los Angeles Instances particularly for the continued, typically in-depth protection of the Eaton and Palisades fires and their aftermath, and for documenting the struggles of the hundreds of newly homeless survivors.
For these of us making an attempt to stand up from the devastating lack of our beloved Altadena houses and neighborhood, the common information protection has been a significant supply of ethical assist, in addition to info. We have to know that we aren’t forgotten and that the better neighborhood nonetheless cares. It sustains us.
Much more, witnessing the overwhelming outpouring of assist in these fast weeks after the calamity (and since) that got here from scores of volunteering residents and organizations all through L.A. County and past has been so stunning and inspirational. The kindness of strangers made survivors really feel beloved, valued and never alone. These acts of generosity proceed to today.
I’m proud to be a resident of better Los Angeles. GoFundMe revealed a examine not too long ago exhibiting that in 2025, Los Angeles was the highest giving metropolis within the U.S. I imagine it. The goodness within the hearts of our individuals right here lifted me up.
Within the face of the horrific cruelty being enacted by the present president of this nation and his enablers, figuring out we will depend on one another, our neighbors, for compassion and assist means the world.
Walter Dominguez, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Concerning the Palisades fireplace, I’m very disillusioned within the Los Angeles Hearth Division. Realizing that Temescal Canyon is extraordinarily prone to brush fires, it ought to have taken higher care in ensuring that the Lachman fireplace was absolutely extinguished. I place many of the blame on then-Hearth Chief Kristin Crowley.
I don’t blame Mayor Bass for the town’s response. Nonetheless, I do assume she was overwhelmed and lacked the mandatory expertise in dealing with a serious emergency.
Concerning the Eaton fireplace, the emergency response system was clearly not ready. Alerts had been delayed for hours on the top of the hearth. There ought to be extra transparency as to what occurred and, if needed, leaders of the emergency command workers and the county board of supervisors ought to be held accountable.
As a result of Altadena is an unincorporated space, I’m involved that residents and companies within the space won’t obtain the sources they deserve. The American Planning Assn. and a activity pressure led by UCLA have made a number of suggestions. I simply hope the county and others take heed of them.
Talking broadly concerning the state’s response, it’s not clear that the Division of Insurance coverage is appearing in the perfect curiosity of shoppers and policyholders. Insurance coverage corporations ought to not less than partially cowl prices for brush clearance, constructing resilience, higher landscaping, and so on.
The present invoice mandating landscaping buffers must also be reconsidered. The jury remains to be out on whether or not barring vegetation in a five-foot zone round buildings is the perfect strategy. My landscaper has advised me that if every thing is well-watered and the lifeless brush is eliminated, then it ought to be superb. I noticed examples of this with the Eaton fireplace.
Stewart Chesler, Granada Hills
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To the editor: Virtually a 12 months after the Palisades fireplace torched Malibu on Jan. 7, 2025, a November survey carried out by the Malibu Rebuild Process Pressure, which I chair, exposes a neighborhood nonetheless smoldering in purple tape. With 70 householders voicing their “largest want,” greater than half fixated on permits: “A allow so I can go house,” one begged. “Expedite the allow course of,” echoed others, slamming “delays” and “pointless geo evaluations” that “price residents and the town thousands and thousands of {dollars} and months and months of time — they’re pointless and should be eradicated.”
Frustration boils over in feedback: “It’s prison that Malibu has solely authorized three permits. In the meantime, the Palisades has houses which are preparing for occupancy,” one fumed. “Cease transferring the goalposts,” one other demanded, decrying “completely different necessities” and “super-expensive modifications” to unaffected property like driveways and retaining partitions.
Monetary woes compound the ache: “Takes too lengthy to get a allow, how are we going to pay lease after we run out of insurance coverage cash? … We’re paying $15k a month.” Aged voices add heartbreak: “At 83, I believe crucial factor for me is time. Can I end this venture earlier than I’m not right here anymore?”
Regardless of metropolis pledges to streamline — waiving charges, including case managers — progress lags. As of late December, solely 22 rebuild permits have been issued for Malibu’s 720 destroyed buildings, far behind Pacific Palisades. This isn’t restoration; it’s neglect.
Malibu’s historic sluggish development mindset has compounded the woes. Metropolis Corridor should lower the tape, favor residents over forms and ship on guarantees. As one respondent urged, “Streamline every thing.” Malibu deserves to rise from the ashes — now.
Abe Roy, Malibu
This author is chair of the Malibu Rebuild Process Pressure.
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To the editor: A lot has modified since my household evacuated our Altadena house through the Eaton fireplace. The realm is full of empty heaps, development and salvage vehicles. Many individuals are nonetheless with out secure housing as they battle insurance coverage corporations that deny or slow-walk claims (my household was displaced for eight months).
As we rebuild, Los Angeles County is lacking a chance to create a safer, climate-resilient neighborhood.
Public works crews have bulldozed mature bushes that slowed embers, protected houses and cooled neighborhoods throughout more and more scorching summers. Regardless of the botched, lethal evacuation of West Altadena, the county is allowing new houses with out up to date evacuation plans. It’s offering scant sources for home-hardening or rooftop photo voltaic, which might cut back the price of burying energy traces and remove the necessity for methane gasoline traces.
However the largest missed alternative belongs to the state. These efforts require funding.
Whereas Altadenans are shouldering skyrocketing constructing and insurance coverage prices, the world’s largest oil corporations — whose air pollution generated the local weather chaos contributing to those and different climate-fueled disasters — received off scot-free.
California must make polluters pay their justifiable share. The Local weather Superfund payments, Senate Invoice 684 and Meeting Invoice 1243, would require these company polluters to speculate a small share of their large earnings in reasonably priced clear vitality. This may assist our state combat the local weather emergency, higher put together for the subsequent catastrophe and decrease family payments. This laws has broad, bipartisan assist from Californians. The Legislature should cease dragging its toes and go a Local weather Superfund invoice.
Maya Golden-Krasner, Altadena
This author is deputy director of the Heart for Organic Variety’s Local weather Legislation Institute.
