‘Devastating': Wildfire ravages historic Black community in Los Angeles

Al Jazeera

16-01-2025

Los Angeles, California – Bill Threadgill picked through the ashes of his home in Altadena, California, where he lived for 15 years, pulling out copper pipes and setting them aside to sell.
Only his chimney and two porch pillars remained standing, but nothing else. A wildfire had burned the whole structure to the ground.
Even before flames swept through the area, his family had struggled to make ends meet. 'We've been stretched financially,' Threadgill, a handyman and caregiver, said through his N95 face mask.
On January 7, the Eaton Fire ignited in the nearby mountains, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate. Fanned by hurricane-force winds, the fire damaged or destroyed more than 5,700 structures and killed at least 16 people.
It was one of a series of blazes that tore through the Los Angeles area over the last week and a half, intensified by climate change. All told, nearly 12,000 buildings have been consumed, and 25 people killed.
The fires could become one of the costliest natural disasters in United States history, with experts estimating $250bn in damage.
While multimillion-dollar homes were destroyed in the wealthy Pacific Palisades area, the working-class neighbourhood of Altadena was also devastated.
Some of the victims were elderly or disabled and could not flee. Threadgill himself lived with and cared for a 73-year-old friend whom he considers family. She was in short-term convalescent care at the time of the fire. She has no home to return to.
As he walked through the debris, he searched for his calico cat, Catra. 'I hope that she got out, because I left the back door open for her to get out,' he said.
He looked at the spot where his front door used to be. 'Won't be entering here like this no more. Never again,' Threadgill said. 'Uprooted unexpectedly. It's devastating.'
A home near the mountains
Nestled near the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, Altadena is a proud African American and immigrant community. Of its 42,000 residents, 58 percent are people of colour.
The community started to take shape in the 1960s. Large numbers of Black families had left the US South and moved westwards, as part of a trend known as the Great Migration. Altadena was one of the few neighbourhoods in the area where African Americans could obtain housing loans at the time.
Over the years, prominent Black artists would settle in the community, including Oscar-winning actor Sidney Poitier and famed science fiction writer Octavia Butler.
Butler, who is buried in the nearby Mountain View Cemetery, wrote a novel called Parable of the Sower, which took place in Los Angeles against the backdrop of raging wildfires — something locals and fans of the book have drawn parallels to during the current crisis.
Today, 18 percent of Altadena residents are Black, a markedly higher percentage than in neighbouring Pasadena.
On January 7, the neighbourhood was under a red flag warning, signalling conditions were perfect for fires.
The weather was warm. The vegetation was unseasonably dry. And the Santa Ana winds were blowing strong.
That day, when the Eaton Fire ignited in the mountains, Threadgill felt relaxed. 'I was 100 percent [certain] that the fire up in the hills was not gonna come down here,' he said.
Then the wind kicked up and blew the flames towards his home. As he gathered bags of possessions and loaded them into his truck, he could feel the heat of the flames.
'As I was walking down the street, embers were under my feet, so I really had to run at that point. And the rest is history. It caught fire,' he said.
Community support
Down the street from Threadgill, Elisa Gonzalez and her husband arrived home from vacation on January 7 to a cloud of smoke over the city. They began unpacking, but when the wind picked up, they repacked their bags and evacuated.
When they returned the next day, they saw the house next door had burned down. Embers still smouldered across the neighbourhood.
But Gonzalez noticed several community members were in her back yard, spraying her house with water. She credits them with saving her home.
'It was amazing. I couldn't believe that people around the neighbourhood were just doing whatever they could to save the structures that were left,' she said.
Threadgill was one of the people who hosed down houses on their street after losing his own home. 'I was doing everything that I could to help,' he said.
While it's not yet clear what ignited the Eaton Fire, some residents who lost their homes are suing Southern California Edison, alleging that the utility company's electrical equipment sparked the fire.
They also claim it was negligent to run electricity through the utility's power lines during a red flag warning.
'It really upsets me to know that it could have been negligence on their part,' Gonzalez said. 'That gets me really upset, thinking that it could have been prevented.'
Rebuilding a future
Despite the devastation, Gonzalez emphasised her gratitude for her neighbours.
'The community has been amazing. The community saved our house,' Gonzalez said.
As she spoke, two women wearing N95 masks pulled up in a car and offered her food. They explained that they live in the neighbourhood and want to help.
'It's been like this all week,' Gonzalez explained as she accepted soup, sandwiches and pasta.
Mutual aid efforts have popped up across Altadena. At the nearby Pasadena Community Job Center, day labourers put out a call for supplies the Wednesday after the fires started.
Hundreds of volunteers showed up to distribute donations to wildfire victims and clean up debris.
On Sunday, Doungdao Riccardi, a chef at a popular Thai restaurant in Altadena, went to the job centre to stock up on food to take home. Her restaurant is in an evacuation zone and has remained closed to the public.
Riccardi said she didn't know how long the restaurant would stay shuttered. 'I feel so sad for everybody.'
Her husband had two recent operations — open heart surgery followed by eye surgery — and cannot work at the moment. Until the fires, she was their sole breadwinner. Now her paycheque has vanished.
Riccardi moved from Thailand to the US in 1993. The following year, she experienced the Northridge earthquake that hit Los Angeles. While that experience was scary, she said the fires rattled her even more.
'It's hard for me to sleep, because this really hit hard. I've never seen something like this. The fire really shocked me a lot,' she said.
Riccardi is eligible for unemployment benefits and plans to apply for them this week. 'I hope we can reopen again,' she said of the restaurant.
Her boss, she added, is 'going to try to reopen, but nobody can go up there. It will take time.'
As for Threadgill, he wants to rebuild his home in the same place. 'We would definitely do that, definitely want to rebuild.' His daughter has started an online fundraiser to help him.
'I don't want to leave here. Altadena's wonderful,' he said.