PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – One year after two major wildfires tore through opposite sides of Los Angeles County, recovery for thousands of families remains 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 the Pacific Palisades and nearby Malibu, flames burned for 31 days, scorching 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 are grappling with contaminated properties, displacement and the slow return of normal life.
“I’ve seen silver linings all day long,” said Nicole Gyarmathy, who has returned to the area near her former apartment to replant flowers one year after the fire.
“Anything that I can do to help bring back health and what used to be here; If it’s planting flowers and trees and cleaning up the trash,” Gyarmathy said.
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For her, the small acts help process loss and offer hope to others returning to empty lots.
“People are coming up here to visit their lots that are empty,” she said. “They see that, and it just brings them hope that, ‘Oh yeah, no, we’re not being left behind.’”
Across the Palisades, recovery has been uneven. On the anniversary of the fire, residents marked the moment with protests and memorials, underscoring lingering anger and frustration.
Ken Ehrlich, an environmental lawyer who lost his home in the fire, said he remembers arriving to find only remnants of what once stood.
“We pulled up right on Sunset… hysterically crying and screaming at the site of our still smoldering property with only the chimney standing,” Ehrlich said. “I literally screamed that we need to get out of here right now.”
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Ehrlich’s property is now nearing construction after months of uncertainty. According to a December Los Angeles Times analysis, fewer than 14 percent of homes destroyed in the Palisades have received permits to rebuild. Even some homes that remain standing are unlivable due to smoke, ash and asbestos contamination.
“The threat is real… it’s a big problem,” Ehrlich said. “I mean, people are dealing with it all over the place.”
Still, a piece of heavy machinery now sits on his lot, a sign that rebuilding is finally underway.
“I’m really excited to move forward and build,” Ehrlich said. “I want to come back to the neighborhood. It’s who we are, and I don’t want to go anywhere else.”
“My hope is standing here,” he added. “My hope is wanting to come back to my home, wanting my family to come back, looking to the future, and really wanting the Palisades to come back better and stronger than it was before.”
Across the county in Altadena, the Eaton Fire unfolded under extreme conditions. Crews were already stretched thin battling the Palisades fire when 90-mile-per-hour winds grounded aircraft and caused the blaze to explode.
Brian Childs stood on his cleared property this week, where no house and no debris remain… just land, quiet and waiting.
“It’s all you see, it’s black smoke going about 100 miles an hour and flames all around you,” Childs said of the night the fire began.
His home stood for most of the evening before it was suddenly gone.
“I sat right down across the street for about 15 minutes, called my wife and said, it’s gone,” Childs said. “And she was devastated.”
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According to city and county data, just 10 homes have been rebuilt in Altadena so far. Childs hopes his will be next. His plans are complete, and permits are 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.”
Though not everyone in Altadena has that option. Many of those who lost homes were renters, and some are displaced a year later.
“The housing need remains deeply, deeply urgent,” said Palin Ngaotheppitak. “We still see applications every day, from folks who are 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 ran from the fire with her children last year and is still awaiting progress on her own home, but 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 the community ties are so strong,” she said. “We’re really looking out for our neighbors here. We are in this together.”
