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NOTE: We taped this episode on January 8th, 2026, exactly one year after much of Altadena awoke to the news that their homes and their neighborhoods had burned, and their lives were forever changed.  Filmmaker Ondi Timoner was overseas shooting a documentary when the Eaton Fire destroyed her home of 14 years, and wiped her entire neighborhood away. She learned about the fate of her house from her neighbor Randy Vance via a text. As soon as she came back, she picked up her camera and began to tell the story of what happened last January, highlighting the displacement of friends and neighbors, the endless financial challenges, and the daily heartache — and small joys — of trying to move forward. Ondi joined forces with fellow Altadenean, Heavenly Hughes, and the non profit My Tribe Rise to help their neighbors with immediate, temporary housing needs, fight foreclosures, and, hopefully, help people come back to Altadena and rebuild the homes they lost to the flames. Her short documentary, All The Walls Came Down, was completed in months and has been distributed in partnership with L.A. Times Studios as part of the L.A. Times Short Docs program. It’s been shortlisted for an Oscar nomination. Guest: Ondi Timoner, filmmaker, All The Walls Came Down  Link to the film: https://www.latimes.com/shortdocs Ondi's Production Company, Interloper Films: https://www.interloperfilms.com/ My Tribe Rise/ Adopt A Survivor Program: https://mytriberise.org/home Ondi’s Change.org petition to freeze foreclosures and force So Cal Edison to release emergency funds to fire survivors to help with costs: https://www.change.org/p/freeze-foreclosures-and-release-emergency-funds-keep-altadena-families-on-their-land November 2025 update regarding conversations with Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger as well Judy Chu, the congresswoman representing the 28th District that includes Altadena: https://www.change.org/p/freeze-foreclosures-and-release-emergency-funds-keep-altadena-families-on-their-land/u/34066783 (edited) 

It’s been a year since two fires tore through Los Angeles County, killing 31 people and destroying 16,000 structures, and the disaster is still unfolding as thousands of people continue pick up the pieces, find new places to live, new jobs, new neighborhoods, and wrestle with whether to return to their old streets, which were burned beyond recognition.   It’s clear that we are still in the very early days of this recovery and there is a long way to go. There’s been some progress but, if you ask them how it’s going, survivors will tell you that not a lot has happened and there are plenty of roadblocks in their path. Many want to rebuild and move back home but still aren’t sure if they can afford it, or what else will be there if they do.   In this episode, taped Monday January 5, host Kate Cagle talks with three people — each from the three areas hit hardest by the fire: Altadena, the Pacific Palisades, and Malibu — and learns more about the challenges most people are still facing.   Guests:   Dana Brumfield, Altadena Resident, Business Manager, Pasadena Rosebud Academy Wade Major, Malibu Resident, Film Critic, Public Works Commissioner Nancy Fracchiolla, Pacific Palisades Resident, Actress, Retired Drama Teacher, Palisades High   Other voices in this episode: Palisades resident Tamara Rawitt and Altadena residents Zaire Calvin and Joe Ressa   Links:   LAFD leaders tried to cover up Palisades fire mistakes. The truth still emerged: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-31/lafd-leaders-tried-to-cover-up-palisades-fire-mistakes-truth-still-emerged

Thousands of homes need to be built in Malibu, the Pacific Palisades and Altadena over the next decade. With many homeowners still looking for architects and blue prints, there is an opportunity to rethink the modern home.Dustin Bramell is one Palisades Fire who is drawing a parallel to eighty years ago and the Case Study Houses that rose up during the post-World War II building boom.The Case Study movement called for inexpensive and efficient model homes - a kind of blueprint - for a stylish and modern America. Many of those homes are still standing today in Southern california, including the Eames Home, which narrowly escaped the Palisades Fires, and the iconic Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills.The new effort is called “Case Study: Adapt,” and its objective to is to build with the risks of climate change and fire in mind. Guests: Dustin Bramell, co-founder, Case Study: Adapt Kathleen Katims, Palisades Resident and co-founder of Saved By A Story Check out the CSA designs here:See How 16 Families are Rebuilding After the LA Fires: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/see-how-16-families-are-rebuilding-after-the-la-fires A display of student-constructed CSA home models at the USC school of architecture: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRF82C2Eiu1/ **This exhibit will soon move to the Eames House in 2026.More info on Kathy Katims organization, Saved By A Story: https://www.savedbyastory.com/about

The official investigation into the cause of the Eaton Fire is not over, but power company So-Cal Edison has already said that it likely sparked from their equipment.Edison is facing dozens of lawsuits from survivors, and one from the U-S Department of Justice, accusing the company of not only starting the fire, but also of negligence.Edison says it wants to make things right and has come up with a Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program for survivors. Eligibility is fairly expansive but many survivors say it does not go far enough, especially those who are also struggling with insurance payouts.CEO of Edison International Pedro Pizarro, who lives in the area affected by the Eaton Fire, says he “want to be able to walk into the grocery store and look his neighbors in the eye” so he stopped by in early November to give host Kate Cagle his pitch for the program. Guest: Pedro Pizarro, CEO, Edison International Dana Brumfield, Altadena Resident Clarification: Dana Brumfield, our guest profiled at the top of the episode, does not endorse Edison’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program at this time. The inclusion of her story is coincidental and not connected to the program currently being offered by So Cal Edison and Edison International.In addition, per her lawyer, the standard rate charged by attorneys representing wildfire survivors is 25 percent. The following interview implies the legal fees could reach as high as 40 percent. Edison International’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program: https://energized.edison.com/wildfire-recovery-compensation-program Edison increases compensation for Eaton fire victims, but some say it’s not enough: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-10-30/edison-increases-compensation-for-eaton-fire-victims-but-some-say-its-not-enough

Rick Caruso is a real-estate developer, a philanthropist, and in some ways a city insider — he ran for mayor against Karen Bass in 2022, and lost. He is also a Palisades Fire survivor. His family lost three homes that night — and were it not for the private firefighters he hired, Caruso’s businesses in the Palisades Village might have also burned down. He started the nonprofit Steadfast LA to assist with the rebuilding of neighborhoods in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu, and has not been shy with his criticism of how local governments, particularly L.A. city Mayor Karen Bass, has handled the response to January’s deadly and destructive fires.He talks about all of it with host Kate Cagle. Guests: Rick Caruso, L.A. businessman, founder, Steadfast LA David Goldblum, filmmaker and Malibu resident Related articles:AI is coming soon to speed up sluggish permitting for fire rebuilds, officials say: https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2025-05-14/l-a-wildfire-survivors-complain-that-rebuilding-is-too-slow-can-ai-helpCaruso-backed nonprofit partners with builder to give prefab homes to fire victims: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-20/caruso-backed-nonprofit-partners-with-builder-to-give-prefab-homes-to-fire-victimsDays before Palisades inferno, firefighters were ordered to leave smoldering burn site: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-30/firefighters-ordered-to-leave-smoldering-palisades-burn-siteMore on David Blum’s film @bigrockburning on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigrockburning/?hl=en

Just before Thanksgiving, Altadena resident Whitney Haggins — who is VERY big on holidays — told us she hopes to break ground on her new home in the new year using a design she chose out of The Foothill Catalog, which has already been pre-approved by Los Angeles County. It’s got a porch and everything — perfect for watching the sun set and chatting with her neighbors, many of whom are also choosing to rebuild. It’s pretty much a win all around and a positive note to wrap up what’s been a pretty horrible year for many in our region.Given her story, we thought we’d re-air our conversation with Alex Athenson, the co-founder of The Foothill Catalog Foundation. We originally ran this interview back in July just after Foothill got its first design — the one Whitney went with — approved by the county. Guests: Whitney Haggins, Altadena Resident Alex Athenson, president and co-founder, The Foothill Catalog Foundation. Links:The Foothill Catalog Foundation Website: https://www.foothillcatalog.org/ The Lewis: https://www.foothillcatalog.org/the-lewis The Altadena Christmas Tree Lane tree lighting on Dec 6: https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2025-09-10/eaton-fire-displaced-christmas-tree-lane-volunteers-altadena-holiday-event#:~:text=again%20this%20year.-,California,that%20destroyed%20many%20other%20structures.  

Editor’s Note: This interview taped a few days before the government announced it would reopen after a shutdown that lasted 44 days. We opted to keep the references to the shutdown in the interview to illustrate its impact on the rebuilding process. Talk to anyone in Altadena and they’ll tell you they loved living there before the fires. It was their paradise, their Shangri-La, their little slice of heaven. It’s been repeatedly described as a  diverse place where people from all sorts of different backgrounds found a home. But it remains to be seen how much of that can come back. Ten months after the January fire, about two-thousand rebuilding applications have been submitted to L.A. County and, of those, a little more than a quarter of them have been approved. At the time of this recording, about 250 homes were in active construction.A big problem in Altadena?  Building a brand new house is going to cost a lot more money than what insurance will cover.Guest: Kathryn Barger, Los Angeles County Supervisor, 5th DistrictAltadena Recovery Info: https://recovery.lacounty.gov/altadena/ Permit Fee Waiver / Refund Request: https://planning.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Permit-Fee-Waiver-Refund-Form_fillable.pdf Tune in to Altadena Community Meetings on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLblXY1FEJmYjEQc2Z0u_8cP2RZp_foSF7

There are no shortcuts for rebuilding the Pacific Palisades. Even those who are returning are daunted by the task, wondering who else will come back, and nervous about the hidden dangers of the toxic debris produced by the fire.Homes are starting to go up, and there is a plan for at least some of those third spaces – the elementary schools, the high school, and the community center.But affordability is still a big hurdle that will determine whether people can return, and there are still a lot of questions about how to make the community safer when the next disaster strikes.There is also a lot of anger about why any of this was allowed to happen in the first place — most of it is directed at  L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. By contrast, the Palisades’ elected city councilmember Traci Park is seen by many residents as a champion. She joins Kate to talk about what’s next for the area. Guest: Traci Park, L.A. City Councilmember, 11th District. Pacific Palisades Vision Plan: https://cd11.lacity.gov/news/pacific-palisades-rebuild-vision

In the last few years, after massive blazes in Northern California destroyed forests and towns, the state changed the way it managed wildfires. It shifted its policy from a fire suppression strategy to one that oversaw small burns and other efforts to help thin overgrown forests and reduce the amount of fuel that could prolong a fire.   Now, the state’s fire officials realize it has to change course again for Southern California because the approach to forest fire management up north doesn’t really apply to the chaparral and shrubland that cover the southern coasts.   And part of the solution could involve good old-fashioned volunteer work.   Guests: Noah Haggerty, environment and science reporter for the Los Angeles Times, specializing in wildfire coverage.   Karen Leigh Hopkins, Pacific Palisades resident, filmmaker   Read Noah’s Stories:   The state’s wildfire policy long overlooked SoCal. Now it’s course correcting: https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-10-16/fire-strategy-socal   Man, machine and mutton: Inside the plan to prevent the next SoCal fire disaster: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-10-14/the-plan-to-prevent-the-next-socal-fire-disaster   To solve the wildfire crisis, we have to let the myth of ‘the wild’ die: https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-08-28/boiling-point-the-myth-keeping-wildfires-alive   In high-tech race to detect fires early, O.C. bets on volunteers with binoculars: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-08-15/o-c-bets-on-volunteers-to-detect-fires-early

Out of the top 20 most destructive wildfires in California, 15 of them have occurred in the last decade. There’s the Camp Fire, the Woolsey Fire, the Tubbs Fire, the Carr Fire, the Thomas Fire and, of course, LA’s Eaton and Palisades Fires. The list is long.  It’s stunning when you think about it. Fires of this magnitude were rare before the year 2000.Most of these communities have started to build back but …how far along they are depends on a lot of factors…especially how much money people have access to…and even then…the same residents don’t always move back in.As we near the first anniversary of the fire here in LA, we want to look at what can be learned from other communities who’ve been through it, and what the next several years might look like for us. Guests: Nicole Lambrou, executive director of Tinkercraft, an environmental and design research studio.  She’s also an Assistant Professor at Cal Poly Pomona, and has spent the last few years studying wildfire recovery efforts in California. Rebecca Zandovskis, Altadena resident Check out Nicole’s work:How Do You Rebuild Community After Wildfire? https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/how-do-you-rebuild-community-after-wildfire/Social drivers of vulnerability to wildfire disaster: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204623001160Housing and Economic Recovery as Interdependent Pathways in the Wake of Wildfires: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395635200_Housing_and_Economic_Recovery_as_Interdependent_Pathways_in_the_Wake_of_WildfiresRelated stories from the LA Times:What can Palisades, Altadena learn from other California wildfire rebuilds?22,500 homes lost. Over five years later, only 38% rebuilt: What California fire survivors face: https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2025-09-30/rebuilding-california-after-major-wildfires Younger, richer and smaller: How California’s era of wildfire has changed communities forever: https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2025-09-30/how-communities-change-after-wildfire

In 2018, a devastating fire ripped through the mountain community of Paradise, California. 85 people died. And almost the entire town burned to the ground. The Camp Fire remains the most destructive and deadliest fire in the state’s history, destroying more structures than the Eaton and Palisades Fires combined. Nearly seven years later, Paradise is coming back — it’s not the same, and so far, many of the residents have not returned. Less than half of the pre-fire population has returned to Paradise and about half of the people now living there are new to the community.Rebuilding is hard. Survivors are facing tough choices while they still navigate the trauma they experienced. But many will argue that Paradise is safer. Electrical lines went underground, evacuation routes were reconfigured …and about 200-thousand trees were cut down as it became a priority to create a fire-resilient landscape. Guests: Greg Bolin, long time resident, former mayor, and current member of the Paradise City Council. Colette Curtis, Recovery and Economic Development Director for Paradise.Read Noah Haggerty’s most recent story about Paradise: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-01-24/ex-paradise-mayor-offers-advice-to-los-angeles-recovery-wildfires

A NOTE: We taped this episode on Oct. 13, 2025. It’s a developing story. Please check the Los Angeles Times for updates.At the time of this taping, 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht is in federal custody,  charged with starting a fire — the Lachman Fire — that investigators say became the Palisades Fire.Investigators with the Bureau Of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, are calling the Palisades Fire a “holdover” fire, which means it was a continuation of the Lachman Fire that started just after midnight on New Year’s Day 2025.  That initial fire burned underground, undetected, for almost a week when heavy winds forced it to the surface on January 7th.Hours After Rinderknecht’s arrest, the Los Angeles Fire Department released an internal report on its response to the Palisades Fire. And while critical of the department’s overall preparedness on January 7th, the report has very little information about how it handled the Lachman Fire — and that has left fire survivors with a lot of questions, and very little closure. Guest: LA Times Crime Reporter Richard WintonIn this episode we also hear from Pacific Palisades residents Wade Major, Karen Hopkins, Allison Holdorff Polhill, and Hank Wright Read: Richard’s most recent stories on this case:Florida man ‘maliciously’ started Palisades fire, then tried to cover his tracks, authorities allege: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-08/palisades-fire-arrest Palisades fire suspect placed gun in stuffed animal, made recent fire threat, feds allege: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-11/feds-say-palisades-suspect-court Could LAFD have done more to prevent rekindling of Palisades fire?: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-08/lafd-timeline

Nine months and one investigation later, it is still not clear why neighborhoods in Altadena, California did not get an alert to evacuate until 3:25 a.m on January 8th — if residents got one at all — despite repeated calls to 911, hours earlier, that flames from the Eaton Fire were spotted in the area.The McChrystal Group’s 130-plus page report looks into what happened, but the scope is limited as it only includes information provided by Los Angeles County, and it finds that while there was a whole system of failures that night that led to catastrophe, no one person, or agency, was directly responsible. This missing data and lack of accountability in the report has outraged residents of Altadena. Even the L.A. County Board of Supervisors that commissioned the report has criticized some of its findings.To find out more about what’s in the McChrystal report — and what is not — we turn to Terry Castleman and Grace Toohey, breaking news reporters for the L.A. Times. Both began covering the failures of the alert system soon after the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena.Plus, we will hear from Altadena Resident Linda Bazilian whose husband was left to fight the flames from the Eaton Fire by himself the night of January 7th, only to have his home burn down the next day. Guests: Terry Castleman and Grace Toohey, reporters for the the Los Angeles Times Linda Bazilian, Altadena resident Check out Grace and Terry's Stories:https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-25/l-a-county-release-investigation-into-botched-altadena-evacuations https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-25/the-eaton-fire-how-the-system-failed-altadena https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-09-27/no-smoking-gun-report-on-altadena-cites-failures-but-did-not-name-names

The insurance industry in California was fragile even before the January fires in Los Angeles. Since the Camp Fire in Paradise and other devastating blazes in Napa, Sonoma, and Ventura Counties, home insurance rates skyrocketed for many Californians. Companies dropped customers and left the state because of the perceived risks of wildfires and other disasters in so many communities. Now, after the Eaton and Palisades Fires, a lot of residents are wondering if anyone in these areas can get a home insured again.So how did we get here? And where do we go from here? Host Kate Cagle tries to get some answers. Guests:  Judson Boomhower, an associate professor in the economics department at UC San Diego, specializing in climate risk and adaption. Tamara Rawitt, Pacific Palisades resident

One of the biggest stories to emerge from these fires is the insurance nightmare fire survivors have endured. Not all stories of insurers are bad but the number of residents who have reported trouble with their insurance company is in the thousands. The bottom line: people report not getting the money they believe they deserve under their policies to help them rebuild and replace what was lost. Even those residents whose homes still stand are struggling and are battling with their insurance providers over smoke damage and the cost of clean up, repairs and testing for lingering toxic substances.In the first part of a two part look at the insurance situation in Southern California, we speak to Laurence Darmiento who covers the industry for the Los Angeles Times. He shares with us the stories he’s heard from survivors of both the Eaton and Palisades Fires. Guests:Laurence Darmiento, Los Angeles Times reporter covering the insurance industry in California as well as finance and aerospace. Joe Ressa, Altadena residentCheck out some of Laurence’s recent stories:https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-22/insurance-rights-initiative-proposed-by-leading-consumer-grouphttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-09-08/despite-court-loss-california-fair-plan-sticking-to-disputed-smoke-damage-policyhttps://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-08-25/local-politicians-and-january-fire-survivors-hold-press-conference-over-insurance-claims-payments https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-01-09/la-fires-property-home-insurance-crisis-fair-plan-lara-state-farm-allstate-palisades-eaton-altadena-wildfires