Goodbye, Altadena

Gone with the Winds: A Photo Essay

The other night, I drove up into the heart of the Altadena fire zone, north of Altadena Drive, west of Lake Avenue. I have a lot of friends in that neighborhood. I passed one of their homes and saw the massive 120-year old tree that had crashed through their house, killing two of their cats. Then the whole thing burned down.

I have posted already about how I live at the southern edge of Altadena, and although we had to evacuate for several nights, our street fortunately survived intact; the fire was finally halted just a few blocks north of it.

Going up into the red zone feels like visiting a vast cemetery, or battle field. It is hushed, almost reverent. The air still has an acrid smell of burning house in it.

And it’s almost totally deserted. Here and there, small crews work on sawing giant tree trunks or fixing electrical lines, but mostly it’s like a post-apocalyptic movie set after the bomb goes off. There are few cars, no pedestrians. No one is home. There is nothing to go home to; not a single standing dwelling as far as the eye can see.

You feel like you’ve just emerged from an underground bunker and are the only human witness to the epic violence of a calamity.

All I could do is take a few photos to try and document some of it, but it has to be seen in person to be believed.

Bring tissues. You’ll need them.

Someone’s quirky elephant statue survived, obscured by a broken pennant.

Someone had raised an American flag, which waved in the distance.

I also went down to the fire’s Ground Zero: the trailhead to Eaton Canyon, a popular hiking area that starts just to the east of this neighborhood. The giant electric towers that run through this canyon are now suspected to be the cause of the fire, after one tower arced and dropped hot metal bits onto uncleared brush.

The homes that enjoyed spectacular front row seats at the hillside in their backyard turning pink every night paid a price for their great view.

Up in Altadena, I found this burned scrap of paper in the dirt.

Not bad advice, considering.

I’ll take it.

Thanks for reading,

Peachy