The start of the year has been gruesome for Los Angeles County residents as wildfires ravaged communities and burned 14,000 acres of land. The catastrophic fires left many homeless, in shock, distraught, and desperate to get their lives back on track. Some fire victims are still waiting for emergency government assistance to aid in rebuilding their lives. One of the neighborhood communities destroyed by the wildfire is Altadena.
Altadena’s history can be viewed as progressive for Black homeowners over time, as redlining played a major part in the evolving racial change of the city. In 1960, Altadena was overwhelmingly (95 percent) White, and the majority of its neighborhoods were covered with by now defunct racial covenants. For a variety of Pasadena-linked causes, including urban renewal, turnover of housing stock, and freeway construction—combined with larger events such as the Civil Rights Movement, Watts Riots, Vietnam War, and political assassinations—caused White flight from Altadena. In 1968, the Fair Housing Act was passed and shifted the racial identity of the community’s residents, with 42,000 African-Americans moving in by the 1970s.
By the 1970s, the town was 68 percent White, while the next census in 1980 counted the population as 49 percent White. In the same period, the share of Black residents went from under 4 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 1970, to 43 percent in 1980, to 39 percent in 1990, to 31 percent in 2000. Such convulsive racial change in housing spilled over to affect commercial activity in the most impacted areas, causing an overall decrease in real estate values due to the influx of Black homeowners.
“It’s a lot of green life, and that was the main beauty of Altadena on top of the prospering Black community,” said Jess Willard, a previous resident of Altadena and a victim of the wildfires. “My family has been living there since the ‘60s, but my mother bought her first home there in 1977, and that same home was occupied by my kids and grandkids until the wildfire burned it.”
Like many other Black families, the Willards were part of the great Black migration once redlining was abolished. He noted that Black people were not initially welcomed in Pasadena, which led to many of them occupying the neighboring city of Altadena.
Willard struggled to adjust and continued to bounce between life with his mom in Altadena and his grandparents in Watts. “Being raised as an inner-city kid, that’s all I knew. Altadena was too laid back for me, but I did eventually go back there for college full-time,” Willard said as he talked about his childhood. He eventually returned to Altadena for college but moved back to South Los Angeles as an adult.
On January 7, all of the hard work of many residents and their ancestors went up in flames when the Eaton Canyon fire started. The recent fires have struck the heart of their community, leaving behind a landscape of devastation burning over 14,000 acres. The fire started at 6 pm near Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive; with the help of winds that night, the fire spread quickly.
“I was at work in LA and talking about the Palisades fire, and my friend called and told me about the Altadena fire; it caught me off guard,” Willard said as he rushed to call his kids to check on them. “They already knew and were skeptical about how far the fire would spread, but I told them to start preparing anyway.” He then continued to check on them as he followed the news coverage to see how the fire would spread.
As the fire spread and residents near Eaton Canyon evacuated, Willard’s concern was put to rest once his kids called and told him they had already left. “I had my family under one roof, safe and sound, so there wasn’t much for me to worry or complain about.” After a week of the fire raging, the Willards all returned to see the aftermath of the Eaton fire.
Over 10,000 homes were lost to the LA wildfires; a staggering 7,000 were in Altadena. An estimated 3,000 Black residents have been directly affected by the fires, many of whom have lost everything they owned.
Upon return, Willard described the scene as desolate, as he and his family picked through their burnt home, seeing what survived, with his two sons being able to find jewelry and watches that happened to survive the flames. “It was funny because they were excited about finding their stuff, and none of my kids had that look of despair or depression like you would expect. They were more intrigued with finding stuff in the home and surprised about the aftermath.”
One thing that worried Willard was how his insurance would handle the damages, as most insurance companies in California canceled their fire cover policy, leaving many without the financial means to find proper housing, but the opposite happened with Willard. “Yeah, I was worried, but after a few days, my insurance called me and set me and my family up in a hotel and told me everything is covered, so now we are just finishing up paperwork and waiting for the insurance to let us know how much we have before we start rebuilding our home.” Willard thanks his community for the support he received, whether from family, friends, students at Crenshaw High School, where he works, or from companies with donations.
“Even though we lost our home, the way God has put things into place, you would have never thought it; we didn’t skip a beat in our lives. Everybody is healthy, safe, loved, and at peace with everything going on.” Willard said.
The Waters family, related to the WIllards, were also affected by the Eaton Canyon fire. A sibling singing group, the Waters are composed of Luther, Julia, Oren, and Lorna Waters. They have recorded and toured as background vocalists with many soul, jazz, and rock artists through the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.
These include Bobby Womack, Pharaoh Sanders, Herbie Hancock, Alphonse Mouzon, Benny Golson, Blue Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Patti La Belle, Paul Simon, John Fogerty, Janet and Michael Jackson, and many more.
Outside of the R&B field, they have sung with artists including Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, and Bruce Springsteen on more than 200 gold and platinum albums.
According to an interview with Barrons.com, The Waters family lost their home of 50 years due to the fire. “This looks like the apocalypse; to be honest with you, it just doesn’t feel like the normal things that happen in your life,” Oren said. The family also lost other properties, cars, and memories due to the fire.
Oren tried to fight the fire with a hose and bucket of water, but to no avail; he couldn’t protect his home. “When you have the fighting spirit in you, you don’t think about what you can’t do; you think about what you need to do, what you can do,” he said.
As of the release of this article, the Eaton fire is 99 percent contained, and officials are awaiting clearance from government officials to start the cleaning process of Altadena.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said crews are still working to assess the damage and make their way through rubble and debris to find and identify those who died in the wildfires. There are reported to be at least 28 deaths from all fires in Los Angeles County.
“It is a very grim task … We have people saying, ‘I just want to go look at my house and see what’s left.’ We know that, but we have people looking for the remains of your neighbors. Please be patient with us,” he said.