Los Angeles and the dream of reconstruction one month after the fires: “I have a house, but I am surrounded by burned homes”

Yvonne Mejía moves with skill between a cluster of debris while her husband, Adam Ealovega, contemplates her at a prudential distance. Mejía is wearing a white monkey of chemical protection and a mask while removing remains with a varileThe metallic near what until recently was your kitchen, seeking to save some precious object. At the moment, there has been no luck. The fire that broke out a month ago in AltadenanortheasternLos Angeleshas melted everything. Only remains of the ceramics that he liked to work in the house in which they lived for 21 years, in 700 Alameda Street have survived. “All this is like a nightmare, it doesn’t seem real”this expert in visual arts of Mexican origin tells El Mundo. “It is difficult to know when we can return and if this house will look like what it was.”

Some twenty apples further south, Lizeth González waits in a corner for her husband to pick her up. He is with two of his young children and his niece, loaded with a mountain of donation bags that he has just collected in an assistance event organized by the city of Pasadena and the foundation of the Dodgers of Los Angeles, the baseball team. González, a Salvadoran cleaning employee, lived in a three -bedroom rented house with their two sisters and their families.

“We used to sleep to sleep and we all enter,” he explains. “There is nothing left”. With the flames on top, he did not have time to get his personal effects. “I went out with what I was wearing, without time to look back. We have lost everything and I don’t think we can return to Altadena. I have to start from scratch, with more than 40 years“.

Jamie Woolner, 36, operated one of the most charismatic and beloved restaurants of the community, Pizza of Venice. What began as a small business adventure at 24 became an institution in Altadena over the years. On January 8 he contemplated from his car how the premises burned with the rest of the adjoining businesses, including a large supermarket they had just behind. “I don’t think Altadena ever be what it was”analyze with regret in the voice.

Little more than a month after the devastating Los Angeles fires the panorama is still bleak. There is more sadness and uncertainty than green shoots and dreams of reconstruction, with a long and complicated path ahead to get up from the mazozo for a part of the city, stuck to the mountains of San Gabriel, which lost 17 lives and more than 10,000 structures between The flames, adding homes and shops. No one knows how to respond for a certain science when the recessing work of the destroyed properties will have been completed, or when the reconstruction process will begin exactly. The most optimistic talk about months. The realists say no less than three years.

And not due to lack of thrust of the authorities. Kathryn Barger, the supervisor of the fifth district of the Los Angeles County, has erected in flag bearer of the recovery of Altadena since the first day, distributing hugs between neighbors and comforting words, with a contagious optimism. Its management and leadership have accelerated the process of cleaning toxic substances and waste, in coordination with the US Army Engineers.

Last Tuesday, he announced the creation of the Altadena Recovery Commission, aware of the serious crisis that the community is going through. “While citizens continue to feel fear and uncertainty about their future, I want you to know that I am totally committed and dedicated to providing hope and support. That is my commitment, as a supervisor of their county. They are not alone.”

No class distinction

Ahead, a titanic work to alleviate the effects of a natural catastrophe that is estimated to cost about 250,000 million dollars, adding the losses of the Fire Eaton and Pacific Palisades that swept one of the richest communities in western Los Angeles. In Altadena, the fire did not distinguish between classes. The flames took historical mansions of millions of dollars and humble homes of working class and black working class. Also businesses that gave personality and character to the neighborhood: schools, churches, restaurants, hardware stores, bicycle shops. Only nurseries 170 have been lost in the area.

John Hopkins had been serving vegan soup for 35 years from a small place on Lake Avenue, Oh Happy Days. He himself cooked different options for a faithful clientele as few, a 77 -year -old man inspired by the 60’s counterculture and the hippie movement of northern California. With a smile on the face, he tells the Times that is still “in shocktrying to adapt to it. “

Ana Iriazabal was his client. Not only does he regret the loss of one of the most charming sites in the neighborhood, but also the disappearance of all the houses in his street. His, as for a miracle, was saved from burning. “Every day is like a roller coaster of emotions, but I still can’t digest what has happened in my head,” says this Colombian university teacher. “I have a house but I am surrounded by burned homes. It is impossible to have a clear notion of how the future will be.”

He does believe that most of their neighbors will have to rebuild. “There is a lot of pressure for mortgages. If they don’t, they will lose everything,” he explains. “One of them had just bought a house for two million dollars. He has no choice but to rebuild. It is the only thing that makes me think that there are something around three years.”

Adam Ealovega, winner of an Emmy for his work on visual effects, is optimistic about the return of the community. “I think we will be enough to recover the spirit”points with his wife next to him. “It may be innocent, but it is not irrational to think about rebuilding here again if we do well. I know that there is more and more threat to climate change, but it does not seem crazy to think about starting again.”

Woolner, co -founder of Pizza of Venice, is unlikely to reopen the doors of his pizzeria in Altadena. He stays, yes, with the dent he did in the community. “One of the clients told me recently that when his father stopped eating for cancer, all he wanted to eat was our pizza. And another couple had their first date at the premises and are now married. They always returned because it was their favorite place . They are things that go beyond money“. Everything that the fire wanted to erase but has not achieved.