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In the second of our two-part episode with Eaton Fire survivors Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti, host Cameron Barrett asks the two about their work on the Department of Angels' quarterly survey of fire survivors, Community Voices: LA Fire Recovery Report. The research is uncovering some difficult truths about the recovery and rebuilding efforts in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. 70% of those surveyed say they can’t return home. Nearly that many report struggling with their mental health, and the majority of survivors say they have run out of savings and are taking on debt. King and Giacchetti are not only administering the report, but have been instrumental in the development of questions, knowing that their first-hand knowledge as fire survivors makes them uniquely qualified to ask the questions that matter.

Resources:

• Department of Angels
• Community Voices: LA Fire Recovery Report
• Palisades Long Term Recovery Group
• Palisades Recovery Coalition
• Eaton Fire Survivor’s Network
• Eaton Fire Collaborative
• Disaster Case Management

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Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti didn’t know each other on January 7, 2025. They lived only a few blocks apart - in Altadena. When the Santa Ana winds got so strong that power started failing, King loaded his two kids and his wife into their minivan and took off to a nearby hotel in Pasadena. Better safe than sorry, he figured. Giacchetti and her husband were new parents. Their son was only nine months old, and their main concern was him. But they figured they could wait until the evacuation order came. Even if authorities told them to “get ready,” they still planned to go, because of the baby. Better safe than sorry, they figured. Yet the order never came. When they lost power, they packed the car and headed to a friend’s house in Silver Lake. Neither family ever thought that one of the deadliest wildfires in Southern California was just getting started. It would be several months later when King and Giacchetti would meet, as they started their work with the newly formed non-profit, born of the fires, the Department of Angels. This week, King and Giacchetti sit down with host Cameron Barrett for the first of a two-part episode to tell their harrowing stories of evacuation and their long roads to recovery.

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Malibu is no stranger to wildfires. The city had just recovered from the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes on both sides of Pacific Coast Highway, when the firestorms of January 2025 struck. The Palisades Fire destroyed 700 homes in Malibu and drove clouds of soot and ash from the smoldering Pacific Palisades over the city and onto its world-renowned beaches. 700 homes were lost, and the city’s main artery, Pacific Coast Highway, was blocked by fleeing residents, emergency vehicles, and walls of flame. But ten months after the Palisades Fire, more than 200 building permits are pending approval in Malibu, and the first home is being rebuilt along PCH. Malibu Mayor Marianne Riggins sees the fire’s destruction every day, but she also sees opportunity. Host Cameron Barrett sits down with Mayor Riggins this week to dive into Malibu’s rise from the ashes.

• Malibu Rebuilds
• The Host of New Bills Helping Fire Victims
• Making Rebuild Efforts Easier in Malibu
• Malibu Issues First Building Permit Post Fire

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The American Fire Service is in the midst of a rapid transition period that many have described as a crisis. From a massive brain drain happening in departments that are losing many seasoned firefighters to retirement, as well as a fundamentally different generation of firefighters coming up through a traditional system not known for easily changing, the fire service is facing challenges it’s never had to navigate before. At the same time, wildfires are increasing in complexity and frequency. The Palisades and Eaton Fires made it clear that the age of mega fires is upon us. Is the Fire Service in 2025 capable of taking on these new, deadly challenges? We asked an expert in firefighting training, who has taught firefighters all over the world, this exact question. Cameron chats with her friend, and MySafe:LA collaborator, Battalion Chief Andoni Kastros, or Firefighters' Inspiration, Readiness and Education (FIRE), to learn about the state of the American Fire Service.

Resources:

• Firefighters’ Inspiration, Readiness and Education
• Firefighter Engineering Magazine and Books
• FDIC
• Mastering Textbook Series

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Oscar Hood is trying to stop a Palisades Fire from happening in Orange County. As the County Coordinator for Wildfire Prevention and the Government and External Affairs Analyst for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, he’s managing over 40,000 acres of open space in one of California’s smallest, yet most populous counties. How is he and his team working to keep wildfire at bay in the OC? He joins Cameron Barrett this week to talk about everything from roadside native plantings to prescribed burns in the Cleveland National Forest.

Resources:

• Irvine Ranch Conservancy
• California Fire Safe Council
• Cleveland National Forest
• Succulents as Fire Breaks

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It’s like a Zamboni for firefighting. We’re talking about BurnBot’s RX2, and if you haven’t seen video of it in action, make sure to click on the resource link below. The company brought together two widely different California realities - Silicon Valley technological innovation, and the ever-increasing risk from wildfires. This week on Rebuild:LA, host Cameron Barrett talks to their Director of Partnerships and Growth, Ford Ainslie, about how BurnBot’s RX2 and other robotic technologies are working to help not only California, but also other states, find new ways to lower wildfire risks.

• BurnBot
• How To Get Your Wildland Firefighting Red Card
• Prescribed Burns
• Rethinking Prescribed Burns in Southern California

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In 2017 Jennifer Gray Thompson found herself living in her car with her dogs after evacuating from the Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County. The experience made her feel alone, lost, and unable to navigate back to the life she had enjoyed before she came face to face with a deadly mega fire. Her solution? The creation of After the Fire, a non-profit that has become a leading resource for communities all over the country who are facing the same trials she did back in 2017. After Fire was one of the resources that responded to both the Palisades and Eaton Fires, and is still helping survivors navigate bureaucracy, insurance nightmares, and bad information. When she’s not helping people in burn scars around the country, she's advocating for them on Capitol Hill, helping pass legislation that protects disaster survivors. This week, she sits down with host Cameron Barrett to talk about her work and what she sees ahead for Los Angeles.

Resources:

• After the Fire
• Wildfire Leadership Summit
• HR5683 Federal Disaster Tax Relief
• Fire Safe Marin
• The Foothill Catalog
• Wildfire:LA

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The Palisades and Eaton Fires destroyed a lot of history. Will Rogers’s ranch home, Pasadena Waldorf School, Robert Bridges House, The Bunny Museum, Andrew McNally House, Theater Palisades, and The Zane Gray Estate are just a few of the thousands of structures lost in the fires. They all were touchstones in the communities where they were located. What does their loss mean to the Pacific Palisades and Altadena? What could we have done to protect them? And what do we need to do to protect other historic landmarks that might be in the way of the next megafire? We talk to researcher and urban planner, Ryan Handy, of Headwater Economics, about her new research on saving history from wildfire in this episode of Rebuild:LA.

Resources:

• Loss of the Grand Canyon Lodge
• Protecting Our Past: Wildfire Strategies for Historic Buildings
• Urban Conflagrations
• The Cost of Rebuilding
• The Cost to Retrofit
• Nevada City, CA Retrofit Program
• Headwaters Economics Podcast
• Relocating Historic Homes in Altadena

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When you’ve been in the California fire service for 48 years, like Chief Kim Zagaris, you’re likely to take a long view of how we’re doing when it comes to wildfire response. Chief Z as many know him, was State Fire and Rescue Chief for the State of California, Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) until just a few years ago,, when he retired and become the Wildfire Policy and Technology Advisor for the Western Fire Chiefs Association. Zagaris has fought hundreds of wildfires in his decades’ long career, yet he’s still out there, fighting to get more apparatus in the hands of fire departments, more technology in the hands off firefighters, and more trained boots on the ground at the next mega fire. Our conversation this week with Chief Z covers all that and more.

Resources

• CalOES
• Western Fire Chiefs’ Association
• 2004 Governor’s Blue Ribbon Fire Commission Report

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There have always been people who have stayed behind to try to protect their homes during a wildfire. It happened in the Palisades and in Altadena this January. As always, there were varying results. Some claimed to have saved their homes and even those of their neighbors. Others may have lost their lives trying. It’s never been a thing any emergency services department, or any professional firefighter would recommend. But just recently, LA County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said in some instances, his department supports staying behind. And one of the reasons, if not THE reasons for the Chief’s 180-degree turn? The LA County Fire Department’s Community Brigade - a group of civilians and home owners, who now have the training and the equipment to stay behind. It's the brainchild of Brent Woodworth, a man with 40+ years of crisis management in the private sector, who founded the Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation. What is the Brigade and what does it do? You'll find out in this episode.

Resources:

• LA County Fire Department Community Brigade
• Los Angeles Emergency Preparedness Foundation
• Home Ignition Zone Assessments Sign Up
• Join the Brigade
• Woolsey Fire Assessment Report