A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
As Southern Californians try to return to their burned neighborhoods, they're sending pictures to their neighbors and friends and hugging each other. KQED's Rachael Myrow reports from a neighborhood in Altadena scorched by the Eaton Fire.
RACHAEL MYROW, BYLINE: Ash drizzles down over the smoldering ruins of what was a little mini-mall on Fair Oaks Avenue. Brad Eberhard stares and stares, looking for something recognizable from the art gallery that was his.
BRAD EBERHARD: This is new. I'm kind of in shock.
MYROW: Yeah.
EBERHARD: I'm, like, a little bit zombie survival mode, you know?
MYROW: He had five years' worth of work here at the Alto Beta Gallery he owns. Also, a couple thousand vinyl albums, a 60-gallon aquarium and a show he had just hung by another artist, all gone.
EBERHARD: Seventy-five ceramic sculptures that I just didn't know if they would survive a fire. And if they did, they're buried under rubble or ash.
MYROW: There was a landscape designer on one side of the gallery, a liquor store on the other. There was also a tattoo shop in this mini-mall, a comedy theater, a popular pizza joint. Eberhard says it's hard to feel too sorry for himself, or the artists whose work he shows, when so many people have lost their homes.
EBERHARD: There's nothing, like, you know, to salvage (laughter) or improve. There's only starting over, which as a artist, you know, it's pretty normal. You start from zero all the time.
MYROW: His home in Montrose, a city nearby, is still standing. His family, including a 9-year-old and two dogs, evacuated and are camping at his wife's speech therapy office on air mattresses. He calls it a hotel without showers. Just a few blocks over from the art gallery, Herb Wilson stares, also dazed, trying to make sense of the ruins where his home used to be.
HERB WILSON: We're just looking down the block at all the devastation and all the houses on the block are gone, with the exception of one.
MYROW: He was in Maui on Monday with his wife on vacation when his daughter called to tell him what was going on.
WILSON: So I told her to get the dog and get out.
MYROW: He's been here 20 years, seen families move in and out.
WILSON: It's a wonderful block. All the neighbors know each other. They speak to each other. And it's pretty sad, not just for you, but for people you care about and you've known since they come here. But if I have my preference, I'll rebuild my house, and I'll be here for another 20 years. I love it here.
MYROW: This was his first wildfire, Wilson says, which is remarkably good luck for someone who lives in California. But even remarkably good luck runs out eventually. For NPR News, I'm Rachael Myrow in Altadena, California.
(SOUNDBITE OF GAUTIER CAPUCON AND JEROME DUCROS' "UNA MATTINA")
MARTÍNEZ: KQED photographer Beth LaBerge contributed reporting.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A Martínez.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
INSKEEP: People will know you live in Los Angeles.
MARTÍNEZ: Yep, yep.
INSKEEP: So I got to ask, how are you doing? How's your family doing?
MARTÍNEZ: My house took some damage from the wind. Luckily, no fire damage. We're in a pocket where we're not in the path of the fire.
INSKEEP: Good.
MARTÍNEZ: But the wind really got us. My son, though - my son, granddaughters and their dog had to move in with us so...
INSKEEP: Oh.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, they're with us. They're right...
INSKEEP: Because they're in the evacuation zone?
MARTÍNEZ: They're in Pasadena, yeah.
INSKEEP: Have they lost anything or they're just...
MARTÍNEZ: Not yet, not yet.
INSKEEP: OK, OK.
MARTÍNEZ: So hopefully that stays the same.
INSKEEP: We've had so many conversations with people in Southern California. We have so many people there for NPR, connected with NPR. And everybody's got a story. It's amazing how that entire metro area has been affected a little bit or a lot or lost everything.
MARTÍNEZ: And if you're asked to move, to get out, please, get out. My mom won't do it until the fire is at her doorstep, but hopefully she'll change her mind if it happens.
INSKEEP: Keep calling her, man.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, I will. Yeah.
INSKEEP: Keep calling her.
(SOUNDBITE OF GAUTIER CAPUCON AND JEROME DUCROS' "UNA MATTINA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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