One Year After Devastating Wildfires, Fire Survivors and Residents Gather to Grieve, Remember and Demand Action
In solemn remembrances marking the first anniversary of the catastrophic wildfires that tore through their communities, hundreds gathered in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades Wednesday to mourn lost loved ones, honor cherished memories and call for urgent reforms.
With wounds still raw – both from the staggering loss of 31 lives and thousands of homes – attendees reflected on the enduring trauma, shared stories of resilience, and renewed pleas for the support needed to rebuild and heal.
In Altadena, about 450 people commemorated the day that changed their lives forever, when a fire in Eaton Canyon exploded into a monstrous conflagration as fierce Santa Ana winds pushed the flames toward neighborhoods. The fire killed 19 people, destroyed 9,400 homes and buildings and displaced 100,000 people who were forced to flee, sometimes in their pajamas.
Survivors shared their experiences and continuing challenges a year after the wildfires at the gathering organized by the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
Rose Robinson said she still can’t convey the enormity of her losses: Photos of her Uncle Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play on a Major League Baseball team. A suitcase used by her father Matthew Robinson, a track star who won a silver medal in the 1936 Olympic. She suffers sleepless nights haunted by dreams of people on fire, and health problems have plagued her – upset stomachs, a frozen arm.
“It’s hard,” she said. “I can’t even explain my loss.”
Ada Hernandez said she and her husband bought their Altadena home on Nov. 26, 2018 – the day her firstborn child died. The home was meant to be a symbol of survival, a refuge after unimaginable loss and a sanctuary for her son’s memories, she said.
“When the house burned, I didn’t just lose walls and furniture. I lost my last physical connection to my son,” she said. ”I lost a sense of safety and stability that home represented…losing independence, our routines, our sense of normalcy.”
She said the Salvation Army has provided an Airbnb for her family – her husband, two small children and a dog. But that support ends Jan. 14, which may force them to live in their car. She called on Southern California Edison to provide urgent housing relief for families displaced by a fire that the utility company acknowledged may have been caused by its faulty equipment.
“Advancing urgent housing relief is not charity,” she said. “It is [Edison’s] basic responsibility.”
California Community Foundation President and CEO Miguel A. Santana called on the federal government to step in with needed disaster relief assistance. Philanthropy has raised nearly $1 billion for Palisades and Eaton fire relief, he said, including $100 million by CCF.
But it’s not nearly enough. The gap between recovery resources needed and those in hand is $50 billion – requiring at least $35 billion in additional federal aid, he said.
Noting that Californians pay more in federal taxes than they receive in federal services, he said: “It’s our turn to get the federal help that we are entitled to.”
“When federal funding reaches survivors, families come home,” Santana said. “When it doesn’t, displacement becomes permanent. Government, philanthropy, business and Edison must align around one goal: help families return safely, quickly and with dignity. “
Other speakers outlined their struggles with insurance companies over claim denials and delays – and the difference that political and community pressure makes.
Joy Chen, founder of the EFSN, said her network documented nearly 500 accounts of illegal delays, underpayments and denials and brought the evidence to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger. The supervisor immediately launched a formal county investigation – and survivors like Mark Mariscal who had been fighting their insurance company for months said he suddenly got an additional check of $346,000.
State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez outlined new legislative proposals to require insurance companies to disclose to policyholders how they calculate final payout estimates and another bill that would assess a 20% penalty for illegal delays in coverage decisions.
Work began this week on a state audit on the Palisades and Eaton fires examining the prevention and response efforts, said state Assemblyman John Harabedian, chair of the joint legislative audit committee.
Later, survivors gathered in small groups to share stories, tears, hugs and laughs. Some held yellow roses of remembrance. Many brought mementos to lay down on memorial tables.
Jill Genzon brought a tile plate bearing her address number – 306 – as she tearfully recalled the warm memories of family, food and fun created in a home on East Las Flores Drive that she and her husband had worked for years to remodel. All that was left were some pots from Mexico, an Argentinian-style BBQ, an arbor and a gate.
Caryl Joseph brought a photo of her parents, who bought a two-story “big, beautiful” family house in Altadena and gave her a blessed life there. They supported her journey to college and nudged her toward nursing over art history
Gayle Nicholls-Ali is rebuilding the home she shares with her husband Rasheed. But a year after the fires destroyed all they had, she finds her mental health stresses increasing – like 80% of other survivors who reported the same thing in a recent survey by the Department of Angels. Strapped with uncertain rebuilding costs and a mortgage still owed, she found herself stressing out over a $6 gallon of milk and realizing the pan she always used to make bread is gone.
“Little things like that can totally break you,” she said. “It’s like sticking salt in a wound every time you have to go through that experience.”
In the Pacific Palisades, several hundred observers paid tribute to the dozen residents who died and the thousands who were displaced, recognized first responders and celebrated the community’s ongoing recovery efforts.
One of those 12 who perished in the wildfire was Arthur Simoneau, 69, of Topanga, who was skiing in Mammoth Lakes on the morning of Jan. 7, 2025.
He learned of the wildfire as he was driving home, and decided to try to protect the house he built that had survived a previous fire in the 1990s. A longtime hang glider pilot, Simoneau ultimately died trying to save his home, his partner Lisa Levinson said.
On Wednesday, Levinson held a white rose in remembrance of Simoneau as the lush, green Santa Monica Mountains towered in the distance. It was a perfectly clear, sunny day after weeks of rain – a stark contrast from bone-dry and windy conditions one year ago.
Levinson said the ceremony gave her a chance to “honor his spirit.”
“It’s time to remember and time to be present,” she said. “It’s also important to be here with others who lost their loved ones.”
The event was hosted by the Pacific Palisades Long Term Recovery Group (Pali LTRG) in partnership with American Legion Post 283 and it underscored the unity and resilience that have defined the Palisades recovery over the past year, said Jessica Rogers, executive director of Pali LTRG.
The event was a way to “hold space for the community and for healing,” she said.
“First and foremost, for the families who lost their loved ones, but for all of us who have so much grief and trauma that we’re processing, it’s a gift to be together,” Rogers said. “It’s together that we can heal the most efficiently. Community is our pulse. It is our heartbeat. It is what makes us want to come home.”
The ceremony included a private remembrance for families and responders that was streamed live for the public outside of the American Legion. It also featured the dedication of a “survivor flag,” the ceremonial retirement of the historic Palisades Post Office flag and the raising of a new flag. A color guard procession followed, concluding at the Village Green with a bell tribute, rung for each of the 12 Palisade residents who died last January.
Jim Cragg, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said two days after the wildfire erupted he went back to the Palisades village with another veteran. They eventually stopped to check on the American Legion and the building and the American flag were still standing.
“What did the two of us say?” Cragg remembered. “We’re military, we’re veterans. This will be our operation base. So we knew we wanted to open this building as a place for support, for materials, for hugs and tears. That’s what this building became.
Cragg said the American Legion has remained a place where residents can heal from trauma. He told a story of a woman who came into the American Legion with her children to see a picture of a past commander on the wall.
“She told her kids that this was the only picture remaining, the only record of the existence of her father,” because her family’s possessions had all been destroyed in the fire, said Cragg, also board chairman of Pali LTRG. “I want you to understand that pain. I want you to understand the tears that came from that pain.”
— Teresa Watanabe and Ben Poston
