Los Angeles wildfire recovery enters second year as frustrations grow

PACIFIC PALISADES, California. – One year later two major fires The crisis has torn both sides of Los Angeles County apart, but the recovery of thousands of families is far from over.

The fires broke out within hours of each other and lasted 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, burning 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 struggle with contaminated properties, displacement and the slow return to normal life.

“I saw positives all day,” said Nicole Gyarmathy, who returned to the area around her old apartment to replant flowers a year after the fire.

“Whatever I can do to help restore health and what used to be here; whether it’s planting flowers and trees and cleaning out the trash,” Gyarmathy said.

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Burned homes are reduced to skeletons days after the Palisades Fire ravaged Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood. (RENARD News)

For her, small acts help overcome loss and offer hope to others returning to empty lands.

“People come here to look at their empty lots,” she said. “They see that, and it just gives them hope that, ‘Oh yeah, no, we’re not left behind.'”

Across the Palisades, the recovery has been uneven. On the anniversary of the fireresidents marked the moment with protests and memorials, highlighting ongoing anger and frustration.

A protest sign calling for the resignation of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appears on a bulldozed lawn, a year after the wildfires. (RENARD News)

Ken Ehrlich, an environmental lawyer who lost his home in the fire, said he remembers arriving and finding only remnants of what once existed.

“We pulled up right on Sunset…crying and screaming hysterically at the site of our property still smoking with only the chimney standing,” Ehrlich said. “I literally screamed that we needed to get out of here right now.”

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Ehrlich’s property is now under construction after months of uncertainty. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis from December, fewer than 14 percent of destroyed homes in the Palisades have received permits to rebuild. Even some homes that remain standing are uninhabitable due to smoke, ash and asbestos contamination.

A sandbag sits on a construction site as homeowners begin rebuilding the Pacific Palisades. (RENARD News)

“The threat is real…it’s a big problem,” Ehrlich said. “I mean, people are dealing with it everywhere.”

However, heavy machinery now rests on its land, a sign that reconstruction is finally underway.

“I’m really excited to move forward and build,” Ehrlich said. “I want to come back to the neighborhood. This is what we are and I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

“My hope is here,” he added. “My hope is wanting to come home, wanting my family back, looking to the future and really wanting the Palisades to come back better and stronger than before.”

Across Altadena County, the Eaton Fire burned under extreme conditions. Crews were already exhausted battling the Palisades Fire when 90 mile-per-hour winds grounded planes and caused the fire to explode.

Brian Childs stood on his open property this week, where no house or debris remains…just landing, quietly and waiting.

“That’s all you see is black smoke going about 100 miles an hour and flames all around you,” Childs said of the night the fire started.

His house remained standing for most of the evening before suddenly disappearing.

“I sat right across the street for about 15 minutes and called my wife and told her, it’s gone,” Childs said. “And she was devastated.”

ONE YEAR AFTER THE FIRES, CALIFORNIA STILL HAS NOT LEARNED ITS LESSON

According to city and county data, So far, only 10 houses have been rebuilt in Altadena. Childs hopes it’s next. His plans are complete and permitting is moving forward.

“It’s part of my family’s legacy,” he said. “I want to be able to leave that to my children, and hopefully to their children.”

But not everyone in Altadena has this option. Many of those who lost their homes were renters, and some were displaced a year later.

“The need for housing remains deeply, deeply urgent,” Palin Ngaotheppitak said. “We still receive applications every day from people who are living in their cars a year after the fire.”

Beacon Housing, a local nonprofit, builds long-term housing for low-income fire survivors.

Ngaotheppitak fled the fire with her children last year and is still waiting for progress in 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 really care about our neighbors here. We’re in this together.”