Volunteers Preserve History Of Landmarks Lost In LA Wildfires

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, March 14, 2025…

• Since January, Los Angeles residents have been volunteering to support wildfire recovery, sorting donations, or helping with cleanup. And there’s another cause that’s been bringing folks together: Fireproofing history — by preserving it online. 
• California is joining 20 other states to sue the Trump administration over its deep cuts to the federal Department of Education. 
• A small tornado hit the community of Pico Rivera in Los Angeles County on Thursday, as a storm system moved through the region.

Wikipedia Editors Chronicle Landmarks Lost To Wildfires

The places lost to wildfires in Los Angeles County this year aren’t just personal property.

Maybe it was your favorite hiking spot, or the 100-year-old family business that was part of your weekend errand routine. Maybe it was the beachside restaurant where you had that first date that changed everything, or the neighborhood watering hole where LA finally felt like home after you moved here.

The websites or Instagram pages are still up for many landmarks that were either damaged or destroyed in January’s fires. There are articles strewn across the internet. But if you want their histories, their cultural heritages in context, those — like so many of the structures themselves — are largely scattered to the wind.

Which is why one organization is taking on a less traditional form of disaster relief: Fireproofing history, by preserving it online. On a recent Saturday, two dozen or so walk-in volunteers and trained Wikipedia editors — who are also volunteers — congregated over laptops and cups of coffee. They’re writing new entries, adding citations, updating information, and uploading photos to Wikipedia articles related to the January 2025 wildfires.

“We have the potential, ourselves, to preserve this history, to preserve what we lost and make sure that what was destroyed in the fires isn’t forgotten,” says Emery Dalesio, an aerospace engineer who moonlights as a volunteer facilitator, organizer, and editor with WikiLA, Wikipedia’s Los Angeles editing group.

CA, Other States Gear Up To Fight Department Of Education’s Dismantling

California joined nearly two dozen other states in suing the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday over its move to almost halve its workforce, which Attorney General Rob Bonta said would hamper funding for low-income students and anti-discrimination efforts in districts across the state and Bay Area.

The department announced Tuesday that it would place 1,350 employees on administrative leave next week. Combined with nearly 600 employees who have accepted voluntary buy-outs or resignations since President Trump took office, that constitutes a cut of almost 50% of the department’s workforce — what Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News was the first step to shutting down the department entirely.

“This en masse firing exceeds any statutory authority granted by Congress,” Bonta said at a press conference announcing the suit, joined by 20 other Democratic attorneys general on Thursday morning. “Alongside numerous other actions the Trump administration has taken, this sweeping mass firing is, simply put, illegal.”

Tornado Touches Down In Pico Rivera, Uprooting Trees

A small tornado uprooted trees and damaged roofs and cars in Pico Rivera early Thursday, just as a powerful storm was moving out of Southern California, the National Weather Service confirmed.

Officials said the tornado touched down between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. with wind speeds of 85 mph. The tornado lasted 2 minutes and was around 1 mile long and 80 yards wide, damaging roughly four blocks.

Mike Wofford, a meteorologist at NWS, told LAist the tornado measured 0 on the EF scale, the lowest rating. While these tornadoes are relatively weak, they can cause moderate damage in densely populated areas. The tornado Thursday morning snapped trees, sending them toppling over roadways.