How We Rebuild: LA Recovers From Wildfire

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Along the perimeter of the Pacific Palisades burn scar, big, beautiful homes stand untouched.

The neighborhood is lush with eucalyptus, cedar, bay and palm trees. Bougainvillea vines hug their walls. The homes, snug against California’s coastline, embody what residents love about living in Southern California: a serene radiance that’s difficult to replicate.

So, despite the ravage of the recent fires, it is all but certain that people will still want to live there.

In a special series from KQED’s podcast, SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America, host Erin Baldassari walks listeners through this station’s recent reporting from Los Angeles. As the city recovers from catastrophe, the series explores the question: How do we rebuild?

Here’s what listeners can expect:

Disasters Bring Out the Best in Us
It always happens this way after a disaster: people help each other. In the first days after the fire, many of the first responders are not wearing a uniform; they’re neighbors. Climate reporter Danielle Venton drove around with one of them, documentary filmmaker Colin Weatherby. He took on a volunteer side gig after the fires and started hauling around whatever his neighbors needed for free.

Banding Together to Rebuild
Chumi Paul loves her Altadena neighborhood. Her home, on a cul de sac, butted up against the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Built in 1951 with old-growth redwood, It was 1,200 square feet and boasted 26 windows. From those windows, she could watch the local wildlife: mule deer, bobcats, quail, and plenty of birds. Sadly, her home was burned in the Eaton Fire. Afterward, she and her neighbors were left, like so many others, scattered to the four winds. But, as KQED senior editor Rachael Myrow reports, Paul and her neighbors have already begun planning how they might rebuild: with community meals and regular get-togethers.

Scorched Sanctuaries Find Support
For many people, the idea of home is not bound by the confines of a house. It extends beyond four walls and a roof out into the community and to places of worship. Several of those spiritual sanctuaries were also destroyed in the Eaton Fire. But already, some have restarted services and are on the path toward rebuilding. Climate reporter Ezra David Romero visited a church, a synagogue and a mosque to learn how they’re recovering.