Scorched Sanctuaries: Altadena Rallies to Rebuild Burned Spiritual Centers

The Southern California wildfires didn’t just leave torched homes and businesses in ruin. They also consumed spiritual centers.

At least three houses of worship — Altadena Community Church, Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center and Masjid Al-Taqwa — burned in the Eaton Fire, destroying irreplaceable artifacts. The congregations are left with a major loss, but their leaders said they have felt an outpouring of generosity from the larger community, spurring hopes of rebuilding.

On Jan. 7, the fire ignited in Eaton Canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains before swiftly moving toward urban areas such as Altadena and Pasadena, burning more than 14,000 acres and destroying more than 7,000 structures. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Paul Tellström, Altadena Community Church’s pastor, lives a few blocks from the fire evacuation line in Pasadena. Embers landed on the church, igniting the fire that consumed all but the arches and front wall.

All that was left of the front door was the frame, which looked as if it were a window to a magnificent view of the San Gabriel mountains. Half of the front wall of what used to be a cream-colored church, now charred black, fell on top of Tellström’s old office. The word “church,” outlined in metal, is the only word that remains of an otherwise obliterated welcome sign.

Tellström has not been back to visit yet, but he said he hopes a clavichord — a stringed keyboard instrument he and his dad constructed many years ago — survived the fire.

“It was played for the first time in public on Christmas Eve,” he said.

The building was constructed in the late 1940s. Tellström said the congregation of about 60 is just beginning the hard conversation about whether or not to rebuild. They’re proud of being an openly queer-affirming church, and he said they refuse to see their message of acceptance incinerated by the flames.

“I will honor whatever they want to do,” said Tellström, who retires next month. “Churches are shrinking across America right now. They’re harder to maintain. On the other hand, [our congregation] loves what they stand for.”

A few miles from the church, the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center was also consumed by the Eaton Fire. Rabbi Jill Gold Wright said the temple, which was older than a century, boasts a large congregation with around 450 families. She was at the synagogue before the flames engulfed the church on Jan. 7, a night she described as harrowing.

Embers violently flared across the property as volunteers scrambled to determine what to save. The smoke was so thick inside the synagogue they could only rescue 11 Torah scrolls.

“There was no more time for them to rescue anything else,” Gold Wright said. “So they got into their cars with the Torah scrolls and drove away, and then our synagogue was on fire.”

She said at least one scroll dates back to the 17th century. Nine scrolls will be held indefinitely in the Huntington Library’s archives. The synagogue kept two for when the congregation gathers to worship online and at temporary venues. Gold Wright said at least 22 families lost their homes, and she is unsure if the congregation will decide to rebuild at the same site.

“I’m holding the grief and the loss and also holding a real confidence that the community will thrive and that we will stay together,” she said. “That is a very Jewish thing — to hold two seemingly opposing but actually very human experiences at the same time.”

Masjid Al-Taqwa, the only mosque serving the area, was founded around 40 years ago by African-American Muslims, according to former Imam Jihad Saafir, who has been speaking to the media on the mosque’s behalf.

“This beautiful masjid that was beloved to us for years burnt down, and it broke all of our hearts,” he said, referring to the mosque in Arabic.

One of the mosque’s board members lost their home and business, while another’s home is the only house left standing on its block. Saafir said the community hopes to rebuild, but they need time to heal before making a decision.

“This is a setback for a beautiful comeback, but we leave that up to the creator,” he said. “The future is looking bright even though we didn’t know what to think.”

He’s aware that rebuilding on the same site could mean a repeat of a future fire, and he is cognizant that human-caused climate change led to the dry conditions that caused the fire to burn out of control. However, he is unsure where else to rebuild. Like the other congregations in this story, the mosque is seeking financial donations.

“The beautiful part is that the day we found out it burned, we started a GoFundMe and a LaunchGood,” he said. “We’re almost at a million dollars.”

Altadena Community Church is collecting donations through its website. Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center has raised almost $150,000 of a $500,000 goal on GoFundMe. Gold Wright said the temple is “raising funds more immediately for our families who have been impacted.”

All three leaders said that even though their physical buildings are gone, the spiritual home that remains within the heart of the community is still very much alive.

“The building is not the church,” Tellström said. “The people — that’s the church.”