Los Angeles on Fire

January 2025

In the recent fires that levelled Los Angeles and brought anguish, sorrow, there is only the urge to hug the other person, friends, neighbors, people I did not know. A dozen friends have lost everything in either the Eaton Fire or the Palisades Fire. Photographs speak for themselves. My home and my family were out of danger during the fires, but we were only a 10-minute drive from the Eaton Fire. The fire’s ashes rained down for a few days, due to continuing winds, into our yard and street, and throughout Los Angeles. The air was pungent and sour for well over a week. The light was a soft, dirty yellow for days, permeated with the aerosolization of toxins. Two days ago, it rained—but too late.

Credits: Friends of Ann

Two close friends arrived at our house the night the fire started, with a toiletries bag and their two pet cats.  Two days later, they learned their house was gone.  The houses around their house are still standing.  They were able to go to their house ten days after it burned.  They wore haz-mat suits and respirators and goggles.  They could only tread a few steps onto their property because what remains-–a pile of ash and pieces— is still, physically, too unstable to walk upon.  All that remains is a burned-up washing machine and a clothes dryer.

In Altadena, flames to the south, and flames to the north, photographed from the same vantage point, surrounded.

Several other friends’ homes were spared in the Eaton Fire, but their homes are now the only ones left on their streets.  Ash seeped into the tiniest cracks and crevices of their windows and doorways.  The neighborhoods are too toxic to live in right now.  The smallest breeze now swirls toxic particulates, such as nano-plastics, asbestos, and soot, into the air all over Los Angeles.  The cleanup is estimated to take months or even a year.  There were at least six different fires breaking out in Los Angeles over the course of 3-4 days.  What will it be like to return, to live in these areas after all this?  Histories have been erased.

A friend living close to the Hughes Fire shared this photo of an ongoing conversation she had with a friend as the fire grew.  The urgency is self-explanatory.

All photos taken by three friends who reside/resided in various locations.

–Written by Ann in San Gabriel, California, member of the Fridays for Future Newsletter