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We lost our house to the Eaton fire this morning. It’s difficult to describe the vastness of the destruction in our community. Everything within a couple square

We lost our house to the Eaton fire this morning. It’s difficult to describe the vastness of the destruction in our community. Everything within a couple square miles of us burned.

bamboozled 2y ago
Sorry friend, may your new place be even better.
jondwillis 2y ago
That’s devastating, and I hope you can stay strong through the recovery process. As a nearby neighbor a couple of communities over, do you know of anything that I can do or donate to help generally that won’t be a waste/too late? Like donate masks or water or something?
- bloudermilk 2y ago
  The only guidance I’ve heard so far is that the shelters are in need of bedding. Neither of the press briefings today offered more opportunities for support.
  - throwup238 2y ago
    I lived through another major wildfire in SoCal and the organization that provided the best support was the California Community Foundation: https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/953510055 https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/953510055 I’d wait until the smoke settles (because the CCF focuses on less well-off communities than Altadena or the Palisades) but donating to their wildfire relief efforts does a lot of good regardless. They frequently give grants to the local organizations running the evacuation shelters.
    - blululu 2y ago
      I would second this and say donate today. Focusing on who has money and who doesn’t today is really not a good policy. It is a generalization that is bound to misclassify some old ladies on a fixed income (my mom has one sleeping on her couch because of this). People who lost their homes and all their possessions yesterday and today may not be as wealthy as they were 24 hours ago.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
  - linotype 2y ago
    Where the hell is Karen Bass? Our government?
    - tomohawk 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - philistine 2y ago
        > She went to Ghana on a taxpayer paid political junket, which doesn't seem like something the mayor of even a major city would be officially involved in I live in a very mid-size city for my province and our mayor goes on international trips on city business maybe once a year. The fact itself is not out of the ordinary.
        tomohawk 2y ago
        This mayor seems really interested in advancing the interests of Africa, rather than where she actually has a job. https://youtu.be/u8c_3YEosk4 https://youtu.be/u8c_3YEosk4
      - inferiorhuman 2y ago
        She cut the fire department budget by $20 million. Equipment, supplies, and salaries were cut. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens-karen-bass-extended-honeymoon-00197228 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens-... That assertion is wrong. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November. In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle, according to Blumenfield’s office, although overall concerns about the department’s staffing level have persisted for a number of years. So… no? DEI obsessed fire chief…DEI office and bureaucracy. Ah, there it is.
    - radicaldreamer 2y ago
      She just got back from Ghana: https://x.com/skynews/status/1877115173443400065?s=12 https://x.com/skynews/status/1877115173443400065?s=12
tkgally 2y ago
I feel really sorry for you. I grew up in north-central Pasadena and had many friends who lived in Altadena, and it’s been heartbreaking to watch the news from a distance and realize that many of their homes might have burned.
- tkgally 2y ago
  Later: I came across a streamer’s video taken from his motorcycle as he rode through Altadena on Wednesday afternoon. In this part, he passes through a burned-out neighborhood I used to know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D29RXlm4yE&t=584s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D29RXlm4yE&t=584s From the street signs, I was able to identify a location where a high school friend of mine lived—the house now burned to the ground. (It’s been nearly fifty years since I graduated from high school, and I don’t know if her family still lives there or not.)
culi 2y ago
I'm sorry for your loss. Are you lucky enough to be in a place where insurers in California are still operating? Hopefully you can at least get financial situation taken off your mind
- geysersam 2y ago
  Are there areas of California where insurers are not operating anymore because of wildfires? That's crazy
  - jandrewrogers 2y ago
    Yes, there are parts of California that are uninsurable against wildfires. Technically they could be insurable but State regulators will not allow insurance companies to raise premiums sufficient to cover the actuarial risk. The necessary premiums are prohibitively expensive for homeowners, but anything less risks bankrupting the insurance companies and increases their reinsurance costs which also must be passed on to homeowners. This is mostly on the California government, since the high insurance premiums are a side effect of disastrous wildfire mitigation policy in California. More proactive and competent wildfire mitigation would reduce the risk and therefore make insurance premiums more reasonable.
    - ashoeafoot 2y ago
      Would it make sense to allow this? The models as you said make it a non viable buisness and where that gap exists scams move in, which the routinely have to be bailed out by the public.
    - mschuster91 2y ago
      > More proactive and competent wildfire mitigation would reduce the risk and therefore make insurance premiums more reasonable. Or... not building mansions next to forestry? In Germany we have pretty strict requirements on distances, so it's rare for damages to occur. Also, most of our power grid infrastructure is buried below ground, so videos like the ones circulating on Twitter from arcing lines setting bushes and trees alight can't really happen here either. Prevention is orders of magnitude cheaper in the long run.
oldpersonintx 2y ago
[dead]
ramshanker 2y ago
What was the major building material? Wood or Concrete? I hear wood houses are a lot more popular in US. Sorry for your loss.
- gcanyon 2y ago
  Most houses in the US are made of wood. In Los Angeles they often have tile/concrete roofs, but I've read that in a situation like this the problem is the vents under the edge of the roof that lead into the attic: if anything burning gets through there, the house is toast. Source: used to live in a Los Angeles hilly suburb. If the fires get to where I used to live, that house will definitely burn despite having a cement tile roof.
  - throwup238 2y ago
    Insurers require ember resistant vulcan vents and the like now. It’s a relatively minor upgrade for most homeowners since its just a mesh over the vent.
    - onemoresoop 2y ago
      Would that have stopped this fire from spreading?
      - diggan 2y ago
        Considering that winds both made the spread a lot further, faster and moving around fuel (trees/wood/material blowing around and ending up on streets and whatnot), it sounds unlikely any 1 solution would have prevented this.
      - throwup238 2y ago
        No, vulcan vents only help when the exterior is capable of resisting the fire. These winds threw fist sized pieces of burning wood for hundreds of feet which is much harder to defend against. All homeowners I know here have already had them installed over the last five years because of fire insurance inspections but I don’t know how representative my sample is.

We lost our house to the Eaton fire this morning. It’s difficult to describe the vastness of the destruction in our community. Everything within a couple square miles of us burned.

bamboozled 2y ago

Sorry friend, may your new place be even better.

jondwillis 2y ago

That’s devastating, and I hope you can stay strong through the recovery process. As a nearby neighbor a couple of communities over, do you know of anything that I can do or donate to help generally that won’t be a waste/too late? Like donate masks or water or something?

bloudermilk 2y ago
The only guidance I’ve heard so far is that the shelters are in need of bedding. Neither of the press briefings today offered more opportunities for support.
- throwup238 2y ago
  I lived through another major wildfire in SoCal and the organization that provided the best support was the California Community Foundation: https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/953510055 https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/953510055 I’d wait until the smoke settles (because the CCF focuses on less well-off communities than Altadena or the Palisades) but donating to their wildfire relief efforts does a lot of good regardless. They frequently give grants to the local organizations running the evacuation shelters.
  - blululu 2y ago
    I would second this and say donate today. Focusing on who has money and who doesn’t today is really not a good policy. It is a generalization that is bound to misclassify some old ladies on a fixed income (my mom has one sleeping on her couch because of this). People who lost their homes and all their possessions yesterday and today may not be as wealthy as they were 24 hours ago.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- linotype 2y ago
  Where the hell is Karen Bass? Our government?
  - tomohawk 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - philistine 2y ago
      > She went to Ghana on a taxpayer paid political junket, which doesn't seem like something the mayor of even a major city would be officially involved in I live in a very mid-size city for my province and our mayor goes on international trips on city business maybe once a year. The fact itself is not out of the ordinary.
      - tomohawk 2y ago
        This mayor seems really interested in advancing the interests of Africa, rather than where she actually has a job. https://youtu.be/u8c_3YEosk4 https://youtu.be/u8c_3YEosk4
    - inferiorhuman 2y ago
      She cut the fire department budget by $20 million. Equipment, supplies, and salaries were cut. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens-karen-bass-extended-honeymoon-00197228 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens-... That assertion is wrong. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November. In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle, according to Blumenfield’s office, although overall concerns about the department’s staffing level have persisted for a number of years. So… no? DEI obsessed fire chief…DEI office and bureaucracy. Ah, there it is.
  - radicaldreamer 2y ago
    She just got back from Ghana: https://x.com/skynews/status/1877115173443400065?s=12 https://x.com/skynews/status/1877115173443400065?s=12

tkgally 2y ago

I feel really sorry for you. I grew up in north-central Pasadena and had many friends who lived in Altadena, and it’s been heartbreaking to watch the news from a distance and realize that many of their homes might have burned.

tkgally 2y ago
Later: I came across a streamer’s video taken from his motorcycle as he rode through Altadena on Wednesday afternoon. In this part, he passes through a burned-out neighborhood I used to know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D29RXlm4yE&t=584s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D29RXlm4yE&t=584s From the street signs, I was able to identify a location where a high school friend of mine lived—the house now burned to the ground. (It’s been nearly fifty years since I graduated from high school, and I don’t know if her family still lives there or not.)

culi 2y ago

I'm sorry for your loss. Are you lucky enough to be in a place where insurers in California are still operating? Hopefully you can at least get financial situation taken off your mind

geysersam 2y ago
Are there areas of California where insurers are not operating anymore because of wildfires? That's crazy
- jandrewrogers 2y ago
  Yes, there are parts of California that are uninsurable against wildfires. Technically they could be insurable but State regulators will not allow insurance companies to raise premiums sufficient to cover the actuarial risk. The necessary premiums are prohibitively expensive for homeowners, but anything less risks bankrupting the insurance companies and increases their reinsurance costs which also must be passed on to homeowners. This is mostly on the California government, since the high insurance premiums are a side effect of disastrous wildfire mitigation policy in California. More proactive and competent wildfire mitigation would reduce the risk and therefore make insurance premiums more reasonable.
  - ashoeafoot 2y ago
    Would it make sense to allow this? The models as you said make it a non viable buisness and where that gap exists scams move in, which the routinely have to be bailed out by the public.
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    > More proactive and competent wildfire mitigation would reduce the risk and therefore make insurance premiums more reasonable. Or... not building mansions next to forestry? In Germany we have pretty strict requirements on distances, so it's rare for damages to occur. Also, most of our power grid infrastructure is buried below ground, so videos like the ones circulating on Twitter from arcing lines setting bushes and trees alight can't really happen here either. Prevention is orders of magnitude cheaper in the long run.

oldpersonintx 2y ago

[dead]

ramshanker 2y ago

What was the major building material? Wood or Concrete? I hear wood houses are a lot more popular in US. Sorry for your loss.

gcanyon 2y ago
Most houses in the US are made of wood. In Los Angeles they often have tile/concrete roofs, but I've read that in a situation like this the problem is the vents under the edge of the roof that lead into the attic: if anything burning gets through there, the house is toast. Source: used to live in a Los Angeles hilly suburb. If the fires get to where I used to live, that house will definitely burn despite having a cement tile roof.
- throwup238 2y ago
  Insurers require ember resistant vulcan vents and the like now. It’s a relatively minor upgrade for most homeowners since its just a mesh over the vent.
  - onemoresoop 2y ago
    Would that have stopped this fire from spreading?
    - diggan 2y ago
      Considering that winds both made the spread a lot further, faster and moving around fuel (trees/wood/material blowing around and ending up on streets and whatnot), it sounds unlikely any 1 solution would have prevented this.
    - throwup238 2y ago
      No, vulcan vents only help when the exterior is capable of resisting the fire. These winds threw fist sized pieces of burning wood for hundreds of feet which is much harder to defend against. All homeowners I know here have already had them installed over the last five years because of fire insurance inspections but I don’t know how representative my sample is.