We were grateful for our quiet respite in La Crescenta. But, there was a fire raging near our home and winds like I’d never seen. Where was the fire? Had it spread to our neighborhood? Did we still have a house?
Once settled, I instantly wanted to return to our house. It was instinctive — just as automatic as was the decision to leave. Hours earlier, in a split second decision, we had left our house. Loaded the cars, took one last picture, and drove away.
So much of our lives was wrapped up in that house. Over two decades, we had transformed a barely habitable structure into a home. We planted trees and a garden. Raised our kids.
There would be little sleep. We searched the Internet for news. Pasadena Now, Star News, Reddit, Facebook and our neighborhood email list. We wound up on X following police and fire scanners. All night the scanners reported fire outbreaks. We listened for a street or address, anything that would tell us something about where the fire had gone and what was burning.
Twice that night the scanners reported structures burning on our street. Then, we saw a similar report about the street behind us — structures burning. With the winds the way they were and embers flying, I was certain our house would burn too.
I checked our homeowners insurance.
I got on the 210 and drove out to east Pasadena. As I turned the corner from La Canada down into the city, there was an ominous cloud of dark gray smoke. I was surprised to see the smoke covering Altadena and tried to capture the experience in the video above.
Entry into our neighborhood was blocked. Cars lined Sierra Madre Blvd. and neighbors stood along the street trading information about the fire and areas that had or had not burned. There were concerns about who or what had been left behind — a lady with an empty cat carrier and officers who delivered to a young couple an elderly man who missed the evacuation.
A group of neighbors from our street slowly assembled. It turned out a few of our neighbors had stayed behind and did not evacuate. From those behind the lines we were able to learn that our street had been spared from fire and all the houses were still standing. It was good to talk with some neighbors and a relief our home had been spared.
I still had no idea of how big this fire was and how many homes would be destroyed. As I waited for news along Sierra Madre Blvd., I heard that some Upper Hastings Ranch homes had burned. Even then, I could hardly imagine that the fire would destroy more than 80 Upper Hastings Ranch homes. Nor was there any fathoming the reports to come from across Altadena and Pasadena. By the end, the Eaton Fire would rank as the second most destructive wildfire in California history destroying more than 9,400 structures over an area of 22 square miles.
I had left La Crescenta that morning intending to go home. I learned our home escaped the fire but I never actually made it home
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