How my Altadena neighbors are rebuilding, one year since the Eaton Fire

It’s been one year since the costliest wildfires in world history. Thirty-one people died in Southern California; 16,000 structures were destroyed by the Eaton Fire.

This week, “Marketplace Morning Report” is looking at the fires one year later, focused on check-ins with people on a single street in the community of Altadena, where 15 houses were total losses. One of those 15 was my house, but this is the story of my neighbors.

In the autumn of 2025, my west Altadena neighbors from the block came together in a park for tamales, iced tea, and commiseration. The fire took away our houses, but it’s not going to take away our community without a fight. Some neighbors asked for first names only for this, so they could speak more freely, with insurance and other financial matters in flux.

Vincent and Maria were born and raised in this area. It’s not just their house at the northwest corner of our street that burned to the ground a year ago; their list starts with Vincent’s first childhood home.

“On Terrace Street,” he said, noting that his brother lived there before passing away. “And that house burnt down, too.”

When he thinks back on all the houses he’s had in Altadena over the years, he said not one of them is still standing, as they were all burnt down by this fire. “None of them.”

Vincent has worked at the same car dealership for 45 years now. As for Maria, she’s semi-retired, working at a Dollar Tree now.

“Just for some fun, you know, just something to do,” she said.

For now, they live an hour to the west. “The commute is one thing,” Maria said. “But I mean, you adapt. What do you do?"

The house they lost was 1,600 square feet. It had four bedrooms after Vincent, his son, and his brothers built an expansion in the late 1990s.

“They [the brothers] passed away, so that's why we kind of want to rebuild,” Vincent said.

Could 2026 be the year they get back in? “I'm hoping to have this done by next year this time,” he said.

More Altadena coverage from David Brancaccio

• Marketplace’s David Brancaccio on community, loss and rebuilding in Altadena

• Between two neighbors: Rebuilding after the Southern California fires

• My router was burned in the Eaton fires. Here's what I had to do to avoid getting charged.

• The hard path to rebuilding, with "This Old House Radio Hour"

Lori Ann, another resident, is a retired teacher who, before that, was in my line of work: a business reporter. “And I had taken that day off because it was my birthday, and I was walking through the house, and I thought, ‘I love my house,’“ Lori Ann said.

I felt this, too. Had my joy in finding a nice little house on this street prompted punishment from the fates?

“There was something very — I don't know, the energy was so good, you know? It's like, it felt happy,” she said. “And then, 24 hours, it was gone.”

Her husband, Jeff, retired from a school district job as a maintenance carpenter. He’s toying with the idea of being his own general contractor and managing his own rebuild.

“Which would probably save us a lot of money, you know, if I wanted to do it,” he said.

But, logistics. Their temporary place is way on the other side of Los Angeles.

“We haven't crossed that bridge yet. So our next step is to get blueprints,” Jeff said. “And one thing about my brother, Dean, he's been in architecture, his own business, for 40 years. So he knows all the ins and outs of the permit process.”

My next-door neighbor, Lacey, who does child safety for the county, had gifted us persimmons from her mother’s garden when we moved into our house two months and one day before the fire. With her property reduced to nothing, the family managed to get a different house across town in Altadena, so her two boys would have something secure at a time of so much chaos.

It’s the boys agitating to rebuild on the lot they know next to mine. Lacey’s husband, Andrew, is a civil engineer, and they’ve also turned designing a new place into a family project.

“The boys are definitely enjoying it and imagining what they're going to have,” Lacey said. “And our oldest, son Henry, has requested a large Dodger logo on one of his bedroom walls. So hopefully we can deliver on that.”

Last spring, contractors working for the Army Corps of Engineers cleared our property of wreckage. An oak and a row of cactuses still stand, and, until water is hooked back up, a nonprofit has been watering our burgeoning bougainvillea near our driveway to nowhere as we try to sort out permits and contractors we can afford.