Since the Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires began three weeks ago, I have been struggling to find the words to express the profound heartbreak over this indescribable destruction. When talking about the fires with friends and family, I’ve used words like “gutted” and “devastated” but, frankly, these adjectives just don’t convey the gravity of what people lost, of what families lost…of what we collectively lost in Los Angeles.
“It is a mass erasure of heritage,” Adrian Scott Fine
The words of preservationist Adrian Scott Fine (quoted in the LA Times) have been turning over and over in my mind. On January 25, Adrian Scott Fine spoke at a gathering organized by FORT: Los Angeles titled “The Heart of LA: Memory, Resilience and the Road to Recovery” held at the Los Angeles Public Library. Topics discussed included decimated landmarks, personal stories of lost homes, and suggestions for next steps. The event provided a space for many of us history-minded and architecturally-minded folks to gather for the first time since the fires.
Preservationist Heather Goers spoke on this same panel as she worked on the Survey LA team that documented Pacific Palisades’ historic buildings in 2013 and explained that architecture serves as “the touchstone of our memories” as these buildings and homes were “the tangible representation of our lives and how we’ve lived.”
Below are additional quotes from others that have helped me grapple with the intense loss in Los Angeles:
- “The fire turned to ash homes that had been humble museums for treasured collections: the records of Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles; paddles from Kappa Alpha Psi, a historically Black fraternity; typewritten memoirs, poetry and documents capturing lives of struggle and triumph,” Brittny Mejia. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-24/altadena-black-residents-impacted
- “The Bunny Museum was more than a repository of artifacts. It was a space where people of all ages could revel in the joy of whimsy,” Gail Pink. https://worleygig.com/2025/01/14/in-memorium-remembering-the-bunny-museum-of-altadena-california/
- “Part of the rebuilding task must include marking and remembering, trying to retie threads that connect us to history and place,” historian William Deverell. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2025-01-21/wildfires-los-angeles-altadena-pacific-palisades
- “With much of [Altadena] now in ruins & decades’ worth of heritage burned—from Gary Indiana’s personal library to the sprawling Zorthian Ranch arts community to countless homes & structures…artists are reflecting on the staggering loss,” Matt Stromberg. https://hyperallergic.com/983707/the-unfathomable-loss-of-artistic-heritage-in-altadena/
- “In a cruel coincidence, the Palisades and Eaton fires wiped out two neighborhoods with unique significance in L.A.’s music industry,” August Brown. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-01-15/fires-la-music-jake-viator-bob-clearmountain-poolside-musicares
- “There’s a comfort in sharing what we know. You want to be a part of a moment. Fire is an old story. Fire in California is a very old story,” Irvine Valley College’s Lisa Alvarez. Gustavo Arellano’s column addressing the overuse of Joan Didion and Mike Davis quotes in times of devastation caused by the Santa Anas: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-15/why-everyone-shares-the-same-quotes-about-wildfires-and-santa-anas
- “In attempting to understand fire at this scale, it might be time to set aside Mike Davis and turn to the work of Stephen J. Pyne, a fire historian whom Davis not only cited in ‘The Case for Letting Malibu Burn’ but also counted as a friend,” Carolina Miranda. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2025/01/l-a-dark-prophet-mike-davis-wasnt-dark-enough/681399/
- Mountain View Cemetery: “Mr. Rucker, a pastor, a motorcyclist and a funeral specialist, said he made it about a mile before he felt compelled to return, giving in to a command he said had come from the Holy Spirit…Mr. Brown and other employees also returned later, alongside a group of people from neighboring mortuaries. They banded together, using shovels and drums of water to extinguish hot embers while others hustled bodies into vans to take them to safety. When their work was done, all of the bodies had been saved.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/us/altadena-eaton-fire-cemetery.html
- “In 2000, [Octavia] Butler wrote a piece for Essence magazine titled, ‘A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.’ She wrote: ‘Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.'” Veronica Chambers in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/los-angeles-wildfires-octavia-butler.html
This is not an exhaustive list meant to be a literature review of Los Angeles fire coverage (for a proper lit review, I would probably include all the GoFund Me descriptions that document what families lost). This list is just an initial attempt to track what has resonated with me.
As someone passionate about documenting the histories of Angelenos, I have a few ideas of how to help but, for now, I’ll heed the advice of another speaker at Fort: LA’s gathering, architect Steven Lewis.
Former president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, Steven Lewis described the tendency for folks to outline the multitude of “next steps” on this long road to recovery. He suggested that many of us (not directly affected) start with Step 0. As he explained, “Step 0 is that we show up for our neighbors and we be present. We don’t come with advice or anything that we want to give, we simply are an ear.”
He eloquently spoke about the need for empathetic listening to all these heartbreaking stories so that, when the time comes, we can collectively honor the essence and spirit of those homes and neighborhoods lost. In addition to rebuilding homes and neighborhoods, he asked the audience how do we create new shared public space so that this trauma will be honored and never forgotten. [Listen to Steven Lewis’ words in this video from the FORT: LA panel session (fast forward to 35:15).]
On that note, I will continue listening in hopes of finding big and small ways to help.
[The top image comes from the Eaton Fire Damage map available here: https://recovery.lacounty.gov/eaton-fire/]
Victoria Bernal 
Leave a comment