Destruction, surprise, and heartbreak greet the residents of Altadena returning home

William Harris left his family home in Altadena early Wednesday morning as Santa Ana winds howled outside and a devastating firestorm headed toward his community. Smoke filled his area, but he could still see the road.

The 63-year-old left with his wife and son after receiving a warning shortly before 3:30 a.m

“FAST MOVING FIRE IN YOUR AREA,” said the text message his son Shaun received. “LEAVE NOW.”

When father and son returned on Thursday afternoon, they were discouraged to see entire streets razed to the ground by the Eaton Firedowned power lines and a scorched path of destruction leading to their street.

“Someone on one of the local apps said there was a house on our street,” Shaun Harris said.

As they turned the corner onto Poppyfields Drive, they saw the rubble and chimney of their house, but nothing else. Their house was not one of the buildings saved by the fire.

William Harris let out a long sigh and said, “He’s gone.”

Thursday played out similarly in Altadena, a hilltop town where a fire destroyed entire blocks of homes and businesses. More than 4,000 buildings have been charred since the fire broke out, and nearly 14,000 acres have burned since it broke out on Tuesday around 6 p.m. At least five people died in the Eaton fire alone, Los Angeles County officials confirmed Friday.

For many residents, returning to Altadena meant the heartbreaking discovery of decimated homes and neighborhoods. For a lucky few, it meant the relief of knowing that their homes had been spared, even though their surroundings now resembled a war zone.

On Friday, large areas of Altadena were ordered to evacuate and most utilities were cut off. Still, emergency services allowed residents to return to their neighborhoods from Thursday, but warned them to exercise caution as hissing gas lines continued to ignite fires from razed properties and a thick layer of smoke billowed over the area. The California National Guard was called in to assist local police agencies. A curfew will apply from Friday at 6 p.m.

Shaun Harris pulled out his phone and showed family members real-time footage of the destruction, telling the story from behind a cloth mask and pointing out where each room once was.

“We’re fine, that’s all that matters now,” he said. “I’d rather have a family than things.”

William Harris, rummaging through the rubble of a completely destroyed house where he had recently installed solar panels, noticed photo frames left on the fireplace mantle. He recalled growing up in Altadena and how his family encountered racism as one of the first black families to move onto the streets in the 1960s.

“Some of these families have moved away,” he said.

Harris raised his son at home, just as his parents raised him there. His mother died in 2022 at the age of 98.

“I’m glad she’s not here to see this,” he said, standing among the rubble. “It would devastate her.”

When Harris’ neighbor, Ed Skinner, returned to their street around 10 a.m. Wednesday, he found both his and Harris’ houses still standing. “They were the last two in the area to go up in flames,” said Skinner, who tried to stay as long as possible to spray the brush around his and Harris’ homes.

There were no fire trucks in sight. He called 911 several times to say he saw his neighbor’s houses burning.

“They wrote this area off,” he said. “I understand that. They were stretched.

About half a mile away, Arthur Coleman arrived at his home on Poppyfields Drive straight from Los Angeles International Airport. Coleman learned about the fire while he was abroad on vacation. He watched the news about Altadena and couldn’t understand how an entire community could be wiped out. His wife, Jacqueline Reed, left their home Tuesday as the winds picked up.

Coleman drove through the neighborhood Thursday, passing burned-out buildings and utility poles scorched from the bottom up, hanging from power lines. Fires continued to burn amid the rubble of many of the houses leading to his street.

He didn’t know what to expect.

“Oh, wow,” he said. “Isn’t that something?”

His house remained virtually untouched by the fire, although several others along the street burned to the ground. His detached garage was a total loss and the front of his car had practically melted into a puddle.

“Can you believe I trimmed those bushes in front of my house before Christmas and they don’t even look like they burned down,” he said with a laugh. “Nice welcome back.”

Further down Deodara Drive, the adult children of 84-year-old Frank Brown woke him and his wife around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning. He smelled smoke in his home of more than 40 years and felt like he was waking up to a conversation he couldn’t follow.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “My children tell me: ‘We have to leave.’ I didn’t want to go and only came out to assuage their concerns. But they were right to be so cautious,” he said.

On Thursday morning he returned to see the ruins of his house, leveled and still warm on the ground.

“If I knew this fire was coming… well, I’m a pastor. If I had known, I would have taken 30 suits,” he said behind a mask.

His daughter, Ruth Brown, who lives nearby, lost her home in the fire.

She received several of them on Tuesday evening notices from the district. Alarms, sounding at 8 p.m. and again at 11 a.m., advised residents of a mandatory evacuation in Altadena, but the location specified in the alert was east of their homes.

“I was aware of what was going on and I called the sheriff’s dispatcher to ask what I should do, but they didn’t give me an answer,” she said. “Finally they told me I should leave.”

She can’t imagine what would happen to her parents, who are not tech-savvy and don’t know how to track live notifications on their phones.

“It’s very emotional,” Frank Brown said. “It’s not easy to come to terms with it.”

But the biggest concern is that it is unknown what happened to Frank Brown’s sister, 87-year-old Miva Frieeli, who lives nearby.

“We found her gate was locked, but there was no house there,” Ruth Brown said. “It just disappeared.”

The family reported the disappearance to the police, but had not received any information by Friday morning.

Exomer Brown, Frank Brown’s son, said relatives call him every day and ask about Frieeli.

“I just don’t know what to tell them,” Brown said. “They have to bring sniffer dogs to her house because no one knows what happened to her.”