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PACIFIC PALISADES, California. – one year later two large forest fires devastated opposite sides of Los Angeles County, the recovery of thousands of families is still far from complete.
The fires started just hours apart and burned for a month, killing 31 people and destroying more than 16,000 buildings across the county. In Pacific Palisades and nearby Malibu, flames burned for 31 days, burning 37 square miles and destroying more than 6,000 structures, most of them homes. In Altadena, the Eaton Fire alone destroyed more than 9,000 buildings.
Today, many survivors are still waiting for permits to rebuild, while others face contaminated property, displacement, and a slow return to normal life.
“I’ve seen positives all day,” said Nicole Gyarmathy, who returned to the area near her old apartment to replant flowers a year after the fire.
“Anything you can do to help bring back the health and what used to be here, if it’s planting flowers and trees and cleaning up the trash,” Gyarmathy said.
MY HOUSE ALMOST BURNED IN THE PALISADES FIRE. THE ALLEGED ARSONIST IS NOT THE ONE I BLAME
Burned homes are reduced to skeletal silhouettes days after the Palisades Fire devastated the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. (FOX News)
For her, small acts help process loss and offer hope to others returning to wastelands.
“People come here to visit the lots that are empty,” he said. “They see that and it gives them hope to say, ‘Oh yeah, no, we’re not going to be left behind.'”
Across the Palisades, the recovery has been uneven. On the anniversary of the fire.Residents marked the moment with protests and tributes, underscoring lingering anger and frustration.
A protest sign calling for the resignation of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appears on a demolished lawn a year after the wildfires. (FOX News)
Ken Ehrlich, an environmental lawyer who lost his home in the fire, said he remembers arriving and finding only remains of what was once standing.
“We stopped right on Sunset… crying and screaming hysterically at the spot where our property was still burning and where only the chimney was standing,” Ehrlich said. “I literally screamed that we had to get out of here right now.”
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The Ehrlich property is nearing construction after months of uncertainty. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis from December, fewer than 14 percent of destroyed homes in the Palisades have received permits to rebuild. Even some houses that remain standing are uninhabitable due to smoke, ash and asbestos contamination.
A sandbag rests on a construction site as homeowners begin rebuilding in Pacific Palisades. (FOX News)
“The threat is real… it’s a big problem,” Ehrlich said. “I mean, people are dealing with this everywhere.”
Still, there is now a piece of heavy machinery on his lot, a sign that rebuilding is finally underway.
“I’m really excited to move forward and build,” Ehrlich said. “I want to get back to the neighborhood. It’s who we are and I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
“My hope is here,” he added. “My hope is to want to come home, to want my family to come back, to look to the future and really want the Palisades to come back better and stronger than before.”
Across Altadena County, the Eaton Fire developed under extreme conditions. Crews were already stretched thin fighting the Palisades Fire when 90 mile per hour winds grounded planes and caused the fire to explode.
Brian Childs was on his cleared property this week, where there are no houses or debris left…just dirt, quiet and waiting.
“That’s all you see is black smoke going about 100 miles an hour and flames all around you,” Childs said of the night the fire started.
His house remained standing for most of the night before it suddenly disappeared.
“I sat across the street for about 15 minutes and called my wife and said, ‘He’s gone,'” Childs said. “And she was devastated.”
ONE YEAR AFTER THE LA FIRES, CALIFORNIA HAS STILL NOT LEARNED THE LESSON
According to city and county data, So far only 10 homes have been rebuilt in Altadena. Childs hopes his is next. Their plans are complete and permitting is moving forward.
“This is part of my family’s legacy,” he said. “I want to be able to leave this to my kids and hopefully their kids.”
Although not everyone in Altadena has that option. Many of those who lost their homes were renters and some are displaced a year later.
“The need for housing remains deeply urgent,” said Palin Ngaotheppitak. “We still see requests every day, from people living in their cars a year after the fire.”
Beacon Housing, a local nonprofit, is building long-term housing for low-income fire survivors.
Ngaotheppitak fled the fire with her children last year and is still waiting for progress on her own home, but she says helping others is essential to the community’s recovery.
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“I think it’s even more important for a place like Altadena where community ties are so strong,” he said. “We’re really taking care of our neighbors here. We’re in this together.”