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

The sale of lots in the Altadena burn zones has slowed down but there is still a lot of uncertainty among some residents about whether they can rebuild. There is concern felt across some of these neighborhoods that their neighbors won’t — or can’t — come back, and that the overall character — the diversity, the eclecticism, the bohemianism —  of their beloved Altadena will change.
Enter nonprofit groups like Greenline Housing Foundation. Greenline’s mission is to close the racial wealth gap in the U.S. by helping Black and Latino families buy their first home. In Altadena, where so many Black and Latino families lost properties, Greenline has provided grants to fire survivors for interim housing, and is also working on helping people finance the purchase of a lot. Greenline even bought its own lot with a plan to build on it and sell back to a community member.We’ll also hear from resident and coach Zaire Calvin who lost his home and his sister, Evelyn McClendon in the Eaton fire. She was 59.

Guests: 

Jasmin Shupper, founder, Greenline Housing Foundation
Zaire Calvin, Altadena Resident

A Related Listen: 

You heard Jasmine Shupper talk about creative solutions to the rebuild. If you’d like to hear more, check out Rebuilding LA’s Episode 5: 

From Free Consultations to Pre-Approved Plans Inspired By A Sears Catalog, Local Architects Help Altadena Rebuild

The much ballyhooed Fire Aid concert in January, featuring artists from Billie Eilish to Joni Mitchell to No Doubt, raised $100 million to help assist people in the immediate aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades Fires. Over the summer, the organizers came under a lot of scrutiny by some residents — and even President Donald Trump — who all questioned how the money was spent.
August Brown covers the music industry for the Los Angeles Times and made a lot of calls, trying to track down where the Fire Aid grants went, and how they were used. He’s got some answers for the skeptics, and shares them with host Kate Cagle.Guest: Los Angeles Times Reporter August BrownAugust’s Stories:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-07-30/fireaid-retains-law-firm-to-review-grants-after-trumps-misleading-criticismhttps://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-07-23/where-did-the-fireaid-money-gohttps://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-07-23/where-did-the-fireaid-money-go
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2025-02-18/fireaid-grants-50-million-la-wildfire-relief

Pandora’s Box: The Fall of L.A.’s Sheriff is a six-part true crime investigation from the Los Angeles Times about one of the biggest law enforcement scandals in U.S. history.

Follow Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Christopher Goffard as he uncovers how Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, once hailed as a reformer, became entangled in a shocking cover-up inside the nation’s largest jail system. From FBI informants and jailhouse brutality to corruption at the highest levels, this series reveals how deputies hid an inmate, intimidated federal agents, and ultimately brought down one of California’s most powerful sheriffs.

On the morning of the Palisades Fire, streets were already gridlocked by the time the first widespread evacuation order was issued. Eventually, people were told to leave their cars behind and run, setting off a harrowing escape for many residents.For decades it was an open secret that the Pacific Palisades didn’t have enough roads out of town for people to evacuate effectively and efficiently during an emergency, and January 7th made that plain. It took over 6 hours to get everyone out.In the hope of preventing this type of situation, a state law was passed after the Camp Fire killed 85 people in Paradise, Calif., requiring cities and counties to do a detailed analysis of evacuation plans. That essentially meant outlining specific routes to take — not to take — during different scenarios, and how long it would to get everyone out of harm’s way. But so far the city has not provided evidence that it has done this, or said when it would provide it.The Los Angeles Times’ Noah Haggerty started looking into this and he joins Rebuilding LA host Kate Cagle to talk about it.

Guest: Noah Haggerty, LA Times reporter covering the environment, health, and science.

Nancy Cassaro-Fracchiolla, Pacific Palisades resident and former drama teacher at Palisades High

Noah’s Stories: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-07-31/la-councilmember-traci-park-pushes-city-to-analyze-evacuation-routeshttps://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-07-25/l-a-fire-evacuation-plans-remain-untested