On January 7th, 2025, wildfires broke out across Los Angeles County, devastating the Altadena, Pasadena, and Pacific Palisades areas. On social media, I saw “Pray for California” spread rapidly. My timeline was full of videos of people who were evacuating their homes, salvaging what they could, and families sobbing as they watched their homes be engulfed in flames and fall to ashes.
The Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades started around 10:30 a.m. on January 7th. The Eaton Fire in Altadena began on the same date later in the evening around 6:00 p.m. The Palisades fire covered over 23,448 acres while the Eaton fire covered 14,021 acres. A rough estimate of 100,000 people were forced to evacuate, 16,000 structures were destroyed, the number of lives lost is up to an estimate of 31, and fires were active for about 24 days. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s February 2025 report, the Los Angeles January 2025 wildfires were the result of climate change, a record-level dry fall season in 2024, and Santa Ana winds from a near-hurricane event. With the help of firefighters from around California, Mexico, and Canada as well as incarcerated youth and adults from Los Angeles County jails and prisons, the fires were announced to be contained on January 31st.
I asked Eloheem Mahone, Altadena Native, 2nd year UCLA Student, and member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated, Upsilon Chapter, about his and his family’s experience with the Eaton Fire, and what rebuilding has been like.
“My family’s roots in Altadena go way back,” Mahone says. His father is from Los Angeles and his mother is from Long Beach. His dad moved to Altadena while in high school. Later on, his parents would buy their own home in the area and begin building their family.
When the Eaton Fires broke out, Mahone was at UCLA, in his dorm, lying in bed, waking up from a nap. “I had missed more calls than I had ever seen before. My phone was flooded with messages from people asking if my house was okay or saying sorry. My heart dropped to my stomach as I read messages from my family members who were in our home as it burned down. My first reaction was to go home. My college friends and I went to Altadena to help fight the fire. We couldn’t lose both of the homes my family grew up in. My next-door neighbor was a retired firefighter and did everything in his power to help our neighborhood. He told us that our house was one of the first in the neighborhood to catch fire, and by the time he had retrieved all his equipment, it was too late.”
When asked about the aftermath of the Eaton Fires, Mahone says: “Rebuilding has been rough. My family currently stays in a trailer in my grandparents’ backyard. I give a lot of credit to my mom, dad, and sister. They spent a lot of time doing research and outreach to survive as our resources were so limited. Then and now, my sister works nonstop trying to find resources for sustainable and affordable living.” Mahone also highlighted the work of his friend and UCLA Alum, Fayola Obasi, who used her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Pi Chapter, to start a GoFundMe, raising over $30,000, to support his family. A year later, Mahone says that he is lucky. After putting the tragedy into perspective, he remains grateful for his support system and most importantly, his family still being here.
In tracking the 2025 LA fire recovery efforts, FEMA has helped about 35,093 people and distributed about $163.4 million in aid. Angelenos have also been vocal in critiquing Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’s efforts in the Palisades fire recovery. LA Times writes that since the fires the mayor “Bass has been announcing recovery strategies with great fanfare, only for them to get bogged down in the details or abandoned altogether.” This has left many Angelenos feeling unconfident in the Mayor’s leadership.
It is also important to highlight that the Los Angeles fires affected two distinct communities. The Palisades Fires set the Pacific Palisades ablaze, home to business executives and Hollywood movie stars. The Eaton Fires ravaged the east side communities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre, reducing much of the Altadena community to ash. Altadena, a diverse middle-class neighborhood known for being a Black enclave since the 1950s, is home to many Black legends such as athlete Jackie Robinson, writer Octavia E. Butler, actor Sidney Poitier, and activist Seaborn B. Carr.
In October 2025, I visited California’s African American Museum in Exposition Park. I got to experience Ode to Dena: Black Artistic Legacies of Altadena, an exhibit that traces Altadena’s artistic history in light of the Eaton Fires. This CAAM exhibit is curated by Dominique Clayton, independent curator and founder of Dominique Gallery, in collaboration with Larry Earl, Kenturah Davis, Arianne Edmonds, Dylan Joner, and V. Joy Simmons, MD. The Exhibit highlights the Altadena community over the decades. It features over 20 Black artists who live in or have family ties to the neighborhood. It captures treasured moments like birthday celebrations, moments in the kitchen, and family pool time. While the exhibit stems from pain and loss, it is a beautiful reminder of Los Angeles’s cultural history.
In Harvard Kennedy’s School of Public Policy Student Policy Review on Racial Disparity in Disaster Response in the United States, Matt Plaus writes that “natural disasters strike Americans indiscriminately; unfortunately, relief does not reach them the same way”. From Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana (2005), to Flint, Michigan’s decade-long water crisis (which the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2016 emergency order for was lifted in May 2025), and Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica (2025), racial disparities in disaster response have resulted in Black Americans suffering from worse impacts, slower recovery efforts, less aid, and greater health risk. In the aftermath of destruction, Black communities also become increasingly vulnerable to exploitation and displacement.
As Altadena residents began to recover, A UCLA study done by the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute found that “48% of Black households experiencing damage or destruction” faced disporportionate burdens of damage in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires “compared to 37% for non-Black households”. The study also found that predatory insurance companies targeted families with “57%” of them being Black homeowners from Black Altadena, over the age of 65, and facing barriers to recovery.
The Los Angeles wildfires were most certainly a chaotic way to start the beginning of 2025. The impacts of the Eaton and Palisades fires were devastating and recovery will take years. Homes, possessions, businesses, families, friends, and pets were lost. The trauma is immeasurable. For Black communities, the loss is one of many. There is still so much work that needs to be done. We as a community must hold our elected officials accountable and continue working together to ensure the victims of the Los Angeles fire regain stability. Going into 2026, let us prioritize electing leaders who are committed to the safety and well-being of Black communities.
