Eaton Fire
Scene from a nightmare: an entire bungalow court burns on Maiden Lane in Altadena.
Los Angeles changed forever this week when huge swaths of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena were leveled in a cascade of fire. I was on the ground first in the Palisades when fire began to consume structures late in the evening of January 7, and stayed out the whole of the following day in Altadena. I was out without proper PPE and was treated for smoke inhalation after being caught in a draft. Adrenaline does wild things to your body, and you can push yourself way past the point of safety without realizing it. Major thanks and gratitude to the firefighters from all over the country who fought tirelessly to save people and homes, and to the medics who helped this reckless photographer.
I have covered natural disasters in the past, but have never seen devastation on this scale. Many square miles of structures have burned, and reports are now emerging of people having perished in their homes. The fires are not yet entirely contained, but the residential areas seem to be past the worst of it.
I have never seen so many adults cry openly. Thousands of people have lost their homes, and some of the loveliest, oldest, and most cohesive communities in Los Angeles have been utterly destroyed. I have not yet seen the aftermath in the Palisades area, but future Altadena will be unrecognizable from the bucolic, old-fashioned town it was until this week. At the height of the fire, so many buildings were aflame that firefighters had no choice but to ignore the vast majority of individual fires in order to contain the larger blaze.
This is a stunning, unparalleled failure by all levels of our state and local administrations.
Approach to Altena at 9am. Daylight was completely blocked out by smoke.
Utter devastation of several multi-family residences.
Left: fire blows the door out of a residence as it explodes in scale. Right: residents beg for help from firefighters as they attempt to save a home with garden hoses.
Left: fallen tree limbs on Christmas Tree Lane. Right: ruins on Altadena’s main drag, Lake Ave.
A 1930s house with a lush, verdant yard burns to the ground with no attention from firefighters. Resources were stretched incredibly thin across Southern California on January 8.
An NBC News team covers a burning home on Fair Oaks Ave.
Left: it was easy to spot the fire spread in real-time, as it crept up phone poles and tree branches. Right: a good samaritan who used tools in his truck in an attempt to save several houses.
Neighbors and good samaritans attempt to save a house using garden hoses and pots on New York Dr. in Altadena.
Devastation along Altadena Blvd.
Left: smoldering ruins on Las Flores Drive. Right: the final photo I took before passing out from smoke inhalation. A lone firefighter battles a blaze that has engulfed a Baptist church at El Molino Ave. and Calavera St.
A twin bungalow adjacent to the one picture at top is gutted.
At the fires’ outbreak, I was in the field without official assignment from any publication, but I did a large amount of coverage of the fires’ aftermath for The New York Times. Some of the images I made on this day were later featured in the Architect’s Newspaper and in La Repubblica. Unfortunately, I lost a huge chunk of originals in a hard drive failure later that week. Always back your work up twice and thrice!
Photographs made with a Leica Q3 43, Fujifilm GFX100 II and Panasonic S5 II X.