April 14, 2025 • 22 mins
In this episode, we meet Erion and Stephon Taylor, who lost everything when the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena. With just minutes to escape, they fled with their three children and Erion’s 75-year-old mother-in-law. When they returned, only a single Dutch oven—still sealed from the night before—remained. Now, as developers circle and pressure builds, families like the Taylors are standing their ground, sending a powerful message: Altadena is not for sale.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Disasters don't just destroy homes, They expose vulnerabilities. They create
openings for those with power to reshape communities in their image,
often at the expense of those who built them.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The Eaton fire was a tragedy.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
But what's happening now, the real estate calls, the low
ball offers, the insurance delays. It's something we've seen before.
When disaster strikes black communities. Recovery is never just about rebuilding.
It's become a battle to hold on to what's theirs.
History has shown us what happens next. One hundred years ago,
(00:37):
in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Black Wall Street
stood as one of the most prosperous black communities in
the country. It was a place where black families owned banks, hospitals, businesses,
and entire self sustaining economy built despite the systemic barriers
meant to keep them out. Then, in May of nineteen
(00:58):
twenty one, that success was wiped out. Overnight, a mob
of white residents, armed and deputized by local law enforcement,
stormed into Greenwood, looting businesses, setting homes on fire, and
murdering more than three hundred black men, women and children
over twelve hundred black owned homes were burnt. The physical
(01:20):
destruction was immediate, but the long term damage the financial
devastation was strategic. Insurance companies denied survivor claims under a
loophole called the riot Clause, ensuring that black families received
nothing for what was taken from them.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
The city of Tulsa.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Then rezoned much of the area, making it impossible for
black residents to rebuild the way they once had. What
was once black owned land became prime real estate for
white developers. The destruction of Black Wall Street wasn't just
about the fire. It was about erasing black wealth and
ensuring that even in the aftermath, black families would never
(02:02):
regain what they had built.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And the fight for justice has never stopped.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Over one hundred years later, the last two known survivors
of the Tulsa Race massacre, Viola Fletcher and Leslie Benningfield Randall,
both around one hundred and ten years old, were still
fighting in court seeking reparations for the destruction of their community.
In twenty twenty four, they took their case to the
(02:28):
Oklahoma Supreme Court, demanding that the city of Tulsa be
held accountable for using the Greenwood name for financial and
reputational gain, while its original black residents and their descendants
remained without restitution.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
The court dismissed the case.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They ruled that the original injuries were too remote to
justify legal action, that the ongoing harm was not the
responsibility of the current defendants, and that addressing these claims
would create quote unlimited and unprincipled liability.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Eighty four years later, another disaster struck.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
In two thousand and five, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in
New Orleans, bringing floodwaters that swallowed entire neighborhoods. But the
storm itself wasn't the deadliest part the government's failure to
protect and rebuild black communities was Black residents, many of
whom didn't own cars or have the financial resources to evacuate,
(03:30):
or stranded on rooftops, trapped in the superdome, left to
fend for themselves. Entire neighborhoods places that had been home
to black families for generations were destroyed. But what came
next was even more devastating. Insurance companies stalled payouts, underpaid claims,
or denied them Altogether, Black homes were appraised lower than
(03:53):
white owned homes, making it harder to access rebuilding funds.
Imminent domain laws were used to seizelfsland, pushing long time
black residents out. Before Katrina, New Orleans was sixty seven
percent black. After the storm, that number plummeted. The city rebuilt,
but it did so without many of the black residents
(04:15):
who called it. Home property values in gentrified areas skyrocketed,
while black homeowners who had lost everything were told their
homes were worth.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Little to nothing.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Without the money to rebuild, many had no choice but
to leave. But in both cases the result was the same.
Black families lost everything and the places they built were
never truly theirs again. Now in Altadena, residents are fighting
to prevent what happened in Tulsa and New Orleans from happening.
(04:47):
There a place where disaster becomes an excuse to erase
entire communities. The first fire ravage property has already sold.
A lot in Altadena listed at four hundred and fifty
th thousand dollars was purchased for five hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, one hundred thousand dollars over asking price. Before
(05:08):
the fire, that same lot wasn't just land, it had
a home on it. The previous owner purchased the two
bedroom to bath house for nearly a million dollars in
twenty twenty three. When faced with the costly and time
consuming process of rebuilding, the homeowner made the difficult decision
to sell instead. Homeowners in Altadena are receiving dozens of
(05:31):
calls a day, sometimes before they've even had a chance
to process their loss. Real estate investors are circling, offering
fast cash before insurance payouts arrive, hoping to buy a
bland while families are still vulnerable. The playbook hasn't changed.
Studies show black homeowners face longer delays and insurance payouts.
(05:54):
Their homes are often a praise for less, making it
harder to rebuild. Then come the predatory offering quick deals
before families have had time to assess their options, targeting
the elderly, the uninsured, and those still in shock. No
one knows what Altadena's future will look like, but one
thing is certain. This community is ready to fight for
(06:18):
Arion and Stefan Taylor. This fight isn't just about rebuilding,
It's also about protecting what remains and making sure their
community isn't lost in the process. Because for families like
the tailors. Leaving is not an option. I Mimi Brown,
And in this series, you'll hear stories told firsthand by
(06:40):
the people who live them. These are their stories, their voices,
and their truth.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
This is to out ta Dina with love. Meet Arion Taylor.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Someone said to me, Mike, you know it's good that
you're not going through this alone. You know, like there's
a community going through this with you. I would much
rather go through this alone. The stories that I'm hearing,
the generational homes that are lost, the businesses that are gone.
(07:16):
My kids friends have lost their homes where they would
have sleepovers. My daughter's school is gone. Where do we go? Like,
how do we like figuring out the next steps? If
it was just me, I would know what to do.
(07:37):
But how do I I'm a fixer, I'm a helper.
Everyone's hurting so much, and I just it is hard
to see an entire community hurting. I missed the city,
but the people of the city. You know, we would
(08:01):
drive down the hill, get out of the you know,
out the front door, into the car.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
And you see your neighbors and you say good morning,
any neighbor.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Then you drive down the street and you wave to
the crossing guard that's at the intersection of Lincoln and
Altadena Drive. And then you go across Altadena Drive and
you see the same kid riding.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
His bike to school every day.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And then we would pass a certain spot where there
was like a group of peacocks that was a gaggle
of peacocks whatever it is, a flock of peacocks that
was crossing the road and we would sometimes be late.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Because we had to let the peacocks cross.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And then you know, doing the drop off, but you
saw you saw the mom who had a special needs
child wheeling her son out and putting them on the bus.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
It's those things.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That you do every single day where you see your
community and action. You don't realize how much that is
part of your daily routine and you just miss it.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So the Eaton Canyon fire started and it is right
so rapidly. The worst of the winds haven't even started yet.
Episode do you know that movie The Door? I think
it's too close for comfort. Everybody say a prayer. We
(09:16):
actually had spent the day preparing for the winds.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
There is a wonderful man who named Edgar who he's
twenty four year old meteorologist from Altadina, and he has
his own little Facebook page, and he's like, alright, guys,
you need to hunker down and be ready for these
winds because it is more than what they're saying. And
so we spent the day preparing for for the windstorm
that was coming. But he also said, if there is
a spark of anything, you need to be you need
(09:40):
to be ready to go. So I said, okay, well,
I didn't think that. I couldn't even imagine in my
wildest dreams that there would be a fire. But I
was sure that we would be out of the the danger.
But we spent the day preparing for the the the
electricity to go out because that's what happens up here
when there's high winds.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
So that sure enough, the winds kicked up and the
power went out, and so.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
We had our flash lights, and we had our little lanterns,
and we had our games out, and I had just
finished cooking dinners. We were eating dinner in the dark
or by flashlight lantern light, and we were playing a
card game and so we were you know, where we live,
it's further up in the mountains, so there's no cell
service with the Wi Fi goes out and everything was out,
(10:22):
but we're fine.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It was no screen time.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
And then all of a sudden, I got one message
and it was from private school village.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
It was a community group and they.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Said, are you guys okay, Lavinya's evacuating or there was
something like that, and that was the one message that
I saw from that group.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And I said.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Steph, they're talking about Leavinya because that's the name of
the little community that we live in, the gated community
that we live in in Altadena, and said Levinya's evacuating.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
And he was like, they're all reacting like, don't worry
about that, and I said, okay, And then I said,
you know, Steph, I think we should act pack a bag.
Let's do it. And he was like, now you're getting
nervous for nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We had that little little squabble that people do, and
I said, we played one more hand of the game.
And I was like, you know, we're packing a bag,
like I'm just trying, and he kind of huffed and puffed,
and the kids huffed and puffed, and they went and
they started packing a bag. And I had these beautiful
French doors that opened up to the backyard, and while
I was getting ready to go down the hallway, say
y know, I'm me just look outside. I looked outside
(11:25):
and that fires like the mountain was a glow with flames,
and I.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Said, hey, step up, come here for a second.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
And he looked out and his whole demeanor just switched
right up, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
He was like, all right, kids, this is what you
need to pack.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
This is what you need to go, you know, go
and get this is what we need to do. And
he just grabbed our our like we have a lock
boxes that have our like passports and stuff in it,
and he grabbed those and he started packing up the
car because we were gonna come to my mother in
laws and hunker down here. So we grabbed our generators
and things like that further so I was like, okay,
(12:00):
we'll be fine. By the time I checked one more time,
about fifteen minutes later, it had doubled in size the
fire and it was coming rapidly close to us. And
I looked outside and we were having like eighty mile
per hour winds and I saw I don't know if
it was a bush or a tree top, it picked
and it was on fire. It picked up off the
(12:23):
side of the mountain spun around like a little tornado,
landed with a thud and just lit more of the
hillside on fire.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And I was like, all right, this is this is serious.
So I said, we got to move quickly.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So we're running out the door and neighbors started coming
to the door.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Everybody was like, are you guys leaving? Are you guys?
Because we know we have no cell service up there.
We got nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So Stefan the Second is fourteen, and Gianna Rose is
eleven and Josephine is seven.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
So Gianna she has anxiety.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
She's always she's she's kind of been conquering anxiety for
a long time and it's been something that we've been
working in therapy and things like that. So her anxiety
started to kick in and like worst case scenarios. But
she was listening and she was diligent and she was
trying to take care of our youngest. Josephine and Josie
just started asking are we going to die? Are we
(13:21):
going to die? Because they looked outside and they saw
the fire, and then she said, is our house going
to die? And so Josie starts crying and my son
is like, there's no time for tears.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Let's go stut.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You know, but I was I was trying to make
light of the situation, so you know, I knew how
serious it was. But I got my phone out and
I was taking some pictures and I said, okay, guys,
you know, reporting live from from Lavigna. This is our
first evacuation, you know, just trying to make light of
the situation.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And then Gianna's very much. She's a personality.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
She belongs in front of a screen, and so she
turned off in her news anchor voice and and started
reporting on what was happening. Winds are crazy, right, yeah,
and it's like Ohnal fire.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And it's like.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's near Ian Canyon and we're just getting stuff ready
to evacuate.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
For like smoke and stuff. Should we the fire either
do wide? But it's fine.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So if you look through like that tree fire, the
smoke that it's pretty bad.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
So before it gets terrible.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
But you know, if you guys take a look up.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I don't know if you guys can see it here
because all the power is out.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You can see all the beautiful stars.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Signing off, so it kind of snapped them out of
it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
As we were walking out the door sised stuff, and
I was telling the kids, I'm like, it's gonna be
terrible smoke here, it's gonna be ash. We might have
some it's going to be bad. We don't want to
be here. There was nothing in my mind that said
we weren't going to be coming back there. There was
nothing in my mind that brought that. And so I said,
but I said, you know, stuff, I'm just being silly,
(15:12):
but you can you grab my grandparents' ashes and their
love letters. And he was like all right, and he
grabbed them. Put him in the car with our like
flashlights and lanterns and generators, and we were like, we're
going to hunker down here, and we're just a few
miles down the road. But by the time we got
into the car and got here, it had tripled to
(15:34):
quadrupled in size and the.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Smoke was stifling. It was it was something out of
a movie. Oh Sweet Jesus, Mother of God, it's not
that serious stuff. We need to get out of here
because the fire is there. It's not that serious. The
fire is right there. Do you remer what you want
to get the car? Get the car and turn around.
I've got babies to get back to your honey. Let's
(15:59):
just get where we can. But stuff, we got to
be able.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
To get out of the street and turn the car around.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Thank you baby.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
So we got my mother in law and we got
into a hotel like it was one of the last
two rooms at a hotel, and we checked in there.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
So we made it to.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Burbank's a few cities over from Altadena. We don't know
what's going to become of our home, but.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
We're thankful to be safe and together. Everything else is
replaced there. In the community that we live in, there's
a Google group.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
It's an email group, and so people were emailing does
anyone know what's going on?
Speaker 4 (16:53):
This? That and the other. And there were a few
people who chose not to evacuate, so they.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Were sending emails and they said Gettings were is burning
and that was it.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
And we live on Gettings Ranch Road.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And I said, Steph, and he was like, no, that's
got to be lower Gettings Ranch because there are some
parts of that street that are closer to the hillside.
And I said that's got to be He's like no, no, no,
no no. And then later a neighbor sent us a
very blurry picture of our house and Steph with his
(17:26):
rose colored glasses.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
He is forever the optimist.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
He was like, yeah, yeah, it looks like just our
garage is damaged and the car and I looked at
I said, step there's no roof and he was like, no, no, no, it's.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
A blurry picture. I think it's fine. I was like,
all right, dude, and I went into the other.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Hotel room and I just I sobbed and had a
mini breakdown because my kids were in the second room.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
My sister was there. And then we got into the
car and we were.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Coming back up to my mother in laws because we
were hearing that the fire was spreading and we wanted
to try to save this house.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
My mother cover and protection over this house. We're gone.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Cover and protection, cover and protection, and Jesus name this
house is covered. And so while we were there, another
neighbor said Steph, I'm sorry to tell you, but your
house is gone.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
It is a complete loss.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
The two houses next to us and everyone at the
top of Getting's ranch we're safe, but our house was gone.
So before the National Guard came, we we snuck up
to the house.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
It is nine o'clock in the morning, it is pitch black.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
And we are.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Doing the best we can. We're gonna see if we
can try to save some things. But it is still
like hurricane winds and oh, God have mercy, God have mercy,
(19:06):
and I.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Just I s it was disbelief, but I kept saying,
there's got to be something.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
There's got to be something here that we could find.
There's nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
There was not you know, sometimes you find that one
thing that survived, but fuse to the stove was my
Dutch oven pot that was sealed shut, and inside of
it was the pasta that I cooked.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
For dinner that night, and that's that's all that was left.
The fire is just there.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
This is a life experience. We tell our kids all
the time. Life is about experiences. What I told now
is not all experiences are good experiences. But life is
about experiences, not things. This is an experience from the
time right now to the point that we get to Okay,
is gonna suck, and there's gonna be some hard times,
but we're gonna be fine, and we're going to be
(20:04):
r to rebuild, and we're gonna rebuild in Altadena. There
is no there is no other option. Dina is the community.
We lost our buildings. We didn't lose our community. The
road to recovery is going to be hard. We know
we have a fight to keep big corporations out. We
(20:26):
know we have a fight to make sure that the
elderly community has not taken advantage of and their homes
are not taken. We have a fight to make sure
that our schools are rebuilt. There's land chasers, like they
find out where the elderly couple is or where the
(20:47):
you know, people who don't have the income because there
there's a lot of wealth in this neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
There's a lot of wealth in this neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
But then there's people who their home is their wealth
and so u or or that is what they're passing
on to the next generation. Maybe that's all they had
and that's what they worked for, but that's what they
have to pass their kids. And people search out those
people who are in a vulnerable moment and they're poaching
their land for selfish use.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
And we're we're not having that. We are not having
that at all.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
You know, there's I'm sure people are talking about coming
into here and building things that don't fit this community.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's not going to go down without a fight.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
To Outta Dina with Love was recorded, produced and edited
by me Mimi Brown. For more content, including behind the
scenes videos, photos, and exclusive interviews, follow us on social media.
You can find me at Mimi Brown TV on all
platforms and follow to Altta Diena with Love for more
(21:59):
store worries from the people who live them. I Mimi Brown.
This is to out Ta Dina with Love. See you
next time.
Disasters don't just destroy homes, They expose vulnerabilities. They create
openings for those with power to reshape communities in their image,
often at the expense of those who built them.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The Eaton fire was a tragedy.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
But what's happening now, the real estate calls, the low
ball offers, the insurance delays. It's something we've seen before.
When disaster strikes black communities. Recovery is never just about rebuilding.
It's become a battle to hold on to what's theirs.
History has shown us what happens next. One hundred years ago,
(00:37):
in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Black Wall Street
stood as one of the most prosperous black communities in
the country. It was a place where black families owned banks, hospitals, businesses,
and entire self sustaining economy built despite the systemic barriers
meant to keep them out. Then, in May of nineteen
(00:58):
twenty one, that success was wiped out. Overnight, a mob
of white residents, armed and deputized by local law enforcement,
stormed into Greenwood, looting businesses, setting homes on fire, and
murdering more than three hundred black men, women and children
over twelve hundred black owned homes were burnt. The physical
(01:20):
destruction was immediate, but the long term damage the financial
devastation was strategic. Insurance companies denied survivor claims under a
loophole called the riot Clause, ensuring that black families received
nothing for what was taken from them.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
The city of Tulsa.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Then rezoned much of the area, making it impossible for
black residents to rebuild the way they once had. What
was once black owned land became prime real estate for
white developers. The destruction of Black Wall Street wasn't just
about the fire. It was about erasing black wealth and
ensuring that even in the aftermath, black families would never
(02:02):
regain what they had built.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And the fight for justice has never stopped.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Over one hundred years later, the last two known survivors
of the Tulsa Race massacre, Viola Fletcher and Leslie Benningfield Randall,
both around one hundred and ten years old, were still
fighting in court seeking reparations for the destruction of their community.
In twenty twenty four, they took their case to the
(02:28):
Oklahoma Supreme Court, demanding that the city of Tulsa be
held accountable for using the Greenwood name for financial and
reputational gain, while its original black residents and their descendants
remained without restitution.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
The court dismissed the case.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They ruled that the original injuries were too remote to
justify legal action, that the ongoing harm was not the
responsibility of the current defendants, and that addressing these claims
would create quote unlimited and unprincipled liability.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Eighty four years later, another disaster struck.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
In two thousand and five, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in
New Orleans, bringing floodwaters that swallowed entire neighborhoods. But the
storm itself wasn't the deadliest part the government's failure to
protect and rebuild black communities was Black residents, many of
whom didn't own cars or have the financial resources to evacuate,
(03:30):
or stranded on rooftops, trapped in the superdome, left to
fend for themselves. Entire neighborhoods places that had been home
to black families for generations were destroyed. But what came
next was even more devastating. Insurance companies stalled payouts, underpaid claims,
or denied them Altogether, Black homes were appraised lower than
(03:53):
white owned homes, making it harder to access rebuilding funds.
Imminent domain laws were used to seizelfsland, pushing long time
black residents out. Before Katrina, New Orleans was sixty seven
percent black. After the storm, that number plummeted. The city rebuilt,
but it did so without many of the black residents
(04:15):
who called it. Home property values in gentrified areas skyrocketed,
while black homeowners who had lost everything were told their
homes were worth.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Little to nothing.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Without the money to rebuild, many had no choice but
to leave. But in both cases the result was the same.
Black families lost everything and the places they built were
never truly theirs again. Now in Altadena, residents are fighting
to prevent what happened in Tulsa and New Orleans from happening.
(04:47):
There a place where disaster becomes an excuse to erase
entire communities. The first fire ravage property has already sold.
A lot in Altadena listed at four hundred and fifty
th thousand dollars was purchased for five hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, one hundred thousand dollars over asking price. Before
(05:08):
the fire, that same lot wasn't just land, it had
a home on it. The previous owner purchased the two
bedroom to bath house for nearly a million dollars in
twenty twenty three. When faced with the costly and time
consuming process of rebuilding, the homeowner made the difficult decision
to sell instead. Homeowners in Altadena are receiving dozens of
(05:31):
calls a day, sometimes before they've even had a chance
to process their loss. Real estate investors are circling, offering
fast cash before insurance payouts arrive, hoping to buy a
bland while families are still vulnerable. The playbook hasn't changed.
Studies show black homeowners face longer delays and insurance payouts.
(05:54):
Their homes are often a praise for less, making it
harder to rebuild. Then come the predatory offering quick deals
before families have had time to assess their options, targeting
the elderly, the uninsured, and those still in shock. No
one knows what Altadena's future will look like, but one
thing is certain. This community is ready to fight for
(06:18):
Arion and Stefan Taylor. This fight isn't just about rebuilding,
It's also about protecting what remains and making sure their
community isn't lost in the process. Because for families like
the tailors. Leaving is not an option. I Mimi Brown,
And in this series, you'll hear stories told firsthand by
(06:40):
the people who live them. These are their stories, their voices,
and their truth.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
This is to out ta Dina with love. Meet Arion Taylor.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Someone said to me, Mike, you know it's good that
you're not going through this alone. You know, like there's
a community going through this with you. I would much
rather go through this alone. The stories that I'm hearing,
the generational homes that are lost, the businesses that are gone.
(07:16):
My kids friends have lost their homes where they would
have sleepovers. My daughter's school is gone. Where do we go? Like,
how do we like figuring out the next steps? If
it was just me, I would know what to do.
(07:37):
But how do I I'm a fixer, I'm a helper.
Everyone's hurting so much, and I just it is hard
to see an entire community hurting. I missed the city,
but the people of the city. You know, we would
(08:01):
drive down the hill, get out of the you know,
out the front door, into the car.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
And you see your neighbors and you say good morning,
any neighbor.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Then you drive down the street and you wave to
the crossing guard that's at the intersection of Lincoln and
Altadena Drive. And then you go across Altadena Drive and
you see the same kid riding.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
His bike to school every day.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And then we would pass a certain spot where there
was like a group of peacocks that was a gaggle
of peacocks whatever it is, a flock of peacocks that
was crossing the road and we would sometimes be late.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Because we had to let the peacocks cross.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
And then you know, doing the drop off, but you
saw you saw the mom who had a special needs
child wheeling her son out and putting them on the bus.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
It's those things.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
That you do every single day where you see your
community and action. You don't realize how much that is
part of your daily routine and you just miss it.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
So the Eaton Canyon fire started and it is right
so rapidly. The worst of the winds haven't even started yet.
Episode do you know that movie The Door? I think
it's too close for comfort. Everybody say a prayer. We
(09:16):
actually had spent the day preparing for the winds.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
There is a wonderful man who named Edgar who he's
twenty four year old meteorologist from Altadina, and he has
his own little Facebook page, and he's like, alright, guys,
you need to hunker down and be ready for these
winds because it is more than what they're saying. And
so we spent the day preparing for for the windstorm
that was coming. But he also said, if there is
a spark of anything, you need to be you need
(09:40):
to be ready to go. So I said, okay, well,
I didn't think that. I couldn't even imagine in my
wildest dreams that there would be a fire. But I
was sure that we would be out of the the danger.
But we spent the day preparing for the the the
electricity to go out because that's what happens up here
when there's high winds.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
So that sure enough, the winds kicked up and the
power went out, and so.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
We had our flash lights, and we had our little lanterns,
and we had our games out, and I had just
finished cooking dinners. We were eating dinner in the dark
or by flashlight lantern light, and we were playing a
card game and so we were you know, where we live,
it's further up in the mountains, so there's no cell
service with the Wi Fi goes out and everything was out,
(10:22):
but we're fine.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It was no screen time.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
And then all of a sudden, I got one message
and it was from private school village.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
It was a community group and they.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Said, are you guys okay, Lavinya's evacuating or there was
something like that, and that was the one message that
I saw from that group.
Speaker 4 (10:42):
And I said.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Steph, they're talking about Leavinya because that's the name of
the little community that we live in, the gated community
that we live in in Altadena, and said Levinya's evacuating.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
And he was like, they're all reacting like, don't worry
about that, and I said, okay, And then I said,
you know, Steph, I think we should act pack a bag.
Let's do it. And he was like, now you're getting
nervous for nothing.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
We had that little little squabble that people do, and
I said, we played one more hand of the game.
And I was like, you know, we're packing a bag,
like I'm just trying, and he kind of huffed and puffed,
and the kids huffed and puffed, and they went and
they started packing a bag. And I had these beautiful
French doors that opened up to the backyard, and while
I was getting ready to go down the hallway, say
y know, I'm me just look outside. I looked outside
(11:25):
and that fires like the mountain was a glow with flames,
and I.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Said, hey, step up, come here for a second.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
And he looked out and his whole demeanor just switched
right up, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
He was like, all right, kids, this is what you
need to pack.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
This is what you need to go, you know, go
and get this is what we need to do. And
he just grabbed our our like we have a lock
boxes that have our like passports and stuff in it,
and he grabbed those and he started packing up the
car because we were gonna come to my mother in
laws and hunker down here. So we grabbed our generators
and things like that further so I was like, okay,
(12:00):
we'll be fine. By the time I checked one more time,
about fifteen minutes later, it had doubled in size the
fire and it was coming rapidly close to us. And
I looked outside and we were having like eighty mile
per hour winds and I saw I don't know if
it was a bush or a tree top, it picked
and it was on fire. It picked up off the
(12:23):
side of the mountain spun around like a little tornado,
landed with a thud and just lit more of the
hillside on fire.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
And I was like, all right, this is this is serious.
So I said, we got to move quickly.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So we're running out the door and neighbors started coming
to the door.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Everybody was like, are you guys leaving? Are you guys?
Because we know we have no cell service up there.
We got nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So Stefan the Second is fourteen, and Gianna Rose is
eleven and Josephine is seven.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
So Gianna she has anxiety.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
She's always she's she's kind of been conquering anxiety for
a long time and it's been something that we've been
working in therapy and things like that. So her anxiety
started to kick in and like worst case scenarios. But
she was listening and she was diligent and she was
trying to take care of our youngest. Josephine and Josie
just started asking are we going to die? Are we
(13:21):
going to die? Because they looked outside and they saw
the fire, and then she said, is our house going
to die? And so Josie starts crying and my son
is like, there's no time for tears.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Let's go stut.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
You know, but I was I was trying to make
light of the situation, so you know, I knew how
serious it was. But I got my phone out and
I was taking some pictures and I said, okay, guys,
you know, reporting live from from Lavigna. This is our
first evacuation, you know, just trying to make light of
the situation.
Speaker 4 (13:52):
And then Gianna's very much. She's a personality.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
She belongs in front of a screen, and so she
turned off in her news anchor voice and and started
reporting on what was happening. Winds are crazy, right, yeah,
and it's like Ohnal fire.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And it's like.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
It's near Ian Canyon and we're just getting stuff ready
to evacuate.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
For like smoke and stuff. Should we the fire either
do wide? But it's fine.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So if you look through like that tree fire, the
smoke that it's pretty bad.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
So before it gets terrible.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
But you know, if you guys take a look up.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
I don't know if you guys can see it here
because all the power is out.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
You can see all the beautiful stars.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Signing off, so it kind of snapped them out of
it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
As we were walking out the door sised stuff, and
I was telling the kids, I'm like, it's gonna be
terrible smoke here, it's gonna be ash. We might have
some it's going to be bad. We don't want to
be here. There was nothing in my mind that said
we weren't going to be coming back there. There was
nothing in my mind that brought that. And so I said,
but I said, you know, stuff, I'm just being silly,
(15:12):
but you can you grab my grandparents' ashes and their
love letters. And he was like all right, and he
grabbed them. Put him in the car with our like
flashlights and lanterns and generators, and we were like, we're
going to hunker down here, and we're just a few
miles down the road. But by the time we got
into the car and got here, it had tripled to
(15:34):
quadrupled in size and the.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Smoke was stifling. It was it was something out of
a movie. Oh Sweet Jesus, Mother of God, it's not
that serious stuff. We need to get out of here
because the fire is there. It's not that serious. The
fire is right there. Do you remer what you want
to get the car? Get the car and turn around.
I've got babies to get back to your honey. Let's
(15:59):
just get where we can. But stuff, we got to
be able.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
To get out of the street and turn the car around.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Thank you baby.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
So we got my mother in law and we got
into a hotel like it was one of the last
two rooms at a hotel, and we checked in there.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
So we made it to.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Burbank's a few cities over from Altadena. We don't know
what's going to become of our home, but.
Speaker 4 (16:35):
We're thankful to be safe and together. Everything else is
replaced there. In the community that we live in, there's
a Google group.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
It's an email group, and so people were emailing does
anyone know what's going on?
Speaker 4 (16:53):
This? That and the other. And there were a few
people who chose not to evacuate, so they.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
Were sending emails and they said Gettings were is burning
and that was it.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
And we live on Gettings Ranch Road.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
And I said, Steph, and he was like, no, that's
got to be lower Gettings Ranch because there are some
parts of that street that are closer to the hillside.
And I said that's got to be He's like no, no, no,
no no. And then later a neighbor sent us a
very blurry picture of our house and Steph with his
(17:26):
rose colored glasses.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
He is forever the optimist.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
He was like, yeah, yeah, it looks like just our
garage is damaged and the car and I looked at
I said, step there's no roof and he was like, no, no, no, it's.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
A blurry picture. I think it's fine. I was like,
all right, dude, and I went into the other.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Hotel room and I just I sobbed and had a
mini breakdown because my kids were in the second room.
Speaker 4 (17:47):
My sister was there. And then we got into the
car and we were.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Coming back up to my mother in laws because we
were hearing that the fire was spreading and we wanted
to try to save this house.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
My mother cover and protection over this house. We're gone.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Cover and protection, cover and protection, and Jesus name this
house is covered. And so while we were there, another
neighbor said Steph, I'm sorry to tell you, but your
house is gone.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
It is a complete loss.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
The two houses next to us and everyone at the
top of Getting's ranch we're safe, but our house was gone.
So before the National Guard came, we we snuck up
to the house.
Speaker 5 (18:32):
It is nine o'clock in the morning, it is pitch black.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
And we are.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
Doing the best we can. We're gonna see if we
can try to save some things. But it is still
like hurricane winds and oh, God have mercy, God have mercy,
(19:06):
and I.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Just I s it was disbelief, but I kept saying,
there's got to be something.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
There's got to be something here that we could find.
There's nothing.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
There was not you know, sometimes you find that one
thing that survived, but fuse to the stove was my
Dutch oven pot that was sealed shut, and inside of
it was the pasta that I cooked.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
For dinner that night, and that's that's all that was left.
The fire is just there.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
This is a life experience. We tell our kids all
the time. Life is about experiences. What I told now
is not all experiences are good experiences. But life is
about experiences, not things. This is an experience from the
time right now to the point that we get to Okay,
is gonna suck, and there's gonna be some hard times,
but we're gonna be fine, and we're going to be
(20:04):
r to rebuild, and we're gonna rebuild in Altadena. There
is no there is no other option. Dina is the community.
We lost our buildings. We didn't lose our community. The
road to recovery is going to be hard. We know
we have a fight to keep big corporations out. We
(20:26):
know we have a fight to make sure that the
elderly community has not taken advantage of and their homes
are not taken. We have a fight to make sure
that our schools are rebuilt. There's land chasers, like they
find out where the elderly couple is or where the
(20:47):
you know, people who don't have the income because there
there's a lot of wealth in this neighborhood.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
There's a lot of wealth in this neighborhood.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
But then there's people who their home is their wealth
and so u or or that is what they're passing
on to the next generation. Maybe that's all they had
and that's what they worked for, but that's what they
have to pass their kids. And people search out those
people who are in a vulnerable moment and they're poaching
their land for selfish use.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
And we're we're not having that. We are not having
that at all.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
You know, there's I'm sure people are talking about coming
into here and building things that don't fit this community.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It's not going to go down without a fight.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
To Outta Dina with Love was recorded, produced and edited
by me Mimi Brown. For more content, including behind the
scenes videos, photos, and exclusive interviews, follow us on social media.
You can find me at Mimi Brown TV on all
platforms and follow to Altta Diena with Love for more
(21:59):
store worries from the people who live them. I Mimi Brown.
This is to out Ta Dina with Love. See you
next time.
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