Altadena couple loses two homes in one night in the Eaton fire
It reads like a home seller’s worst nightmare: While moving into your newly purchased house and preparing your beloved current abode for market, fire sweeps through and destroys both — claiming your past, present and future in a single night.
That’s exactly what happened to Laura Begley and her fiance, Evan Dresman. The couple had just moved from their modest fixer-upper in Altadena’s Janes Village to their dream home in architect Gregory Ain’s Park Planned homes, when the Eaton fire roared to life.
The homes were a few blocks from each other near Fair Oaks Avenue, and by morning, both were gone.
The couple evacuated their new home at around 8 p.m. Tuesday after seeing flames through the trees, and at 9 a.m. Wednesday a neighbor sent a video showing firefighters driving down their street.
“Everything was rubble,” Begley said. “Things were actively still on fire. You couldn’t even tell whose house was whose. It was surreal.”
Nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, bordering the Pasadena Waldorf School campus (also destroyed), the couple’s new house was built in 1948 as part of a 28-home neighborhood designed by modernist Ain with the help of the era’s premier modernist landscape architect, Garrett Eckbo. Ain was known for his devotion to cost-effective, prefabricated design meant to be accessible to everyday people, not just the wealthy.
“We were seeing footage from the news of our street specifically, and it was just so awful thinking about everyone who lived there,” Begley said. “There are people who’ve been there forever. There’s somebody on the street who grew up in that house and still lives there with their family.”
Another neighbor, an architect, had a collection of blueprints, research and ephemera related to the construction of Ain’s Park Planned homes.
Begley, who works at an insurance broker, and Dresman, a special collections librarian at the Getty Research Institute, were still unpacking when the fire erupted and their power went out. A plumber was scheduled this week to hook up the stove, washer and dryer, so they left with only the clothes on their backs, work computers and passports, just to be safe.
The Getty Villa activated its emergency operations center at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, and within two hours, the fast-moving blaze had reached the grounds. Here’s how the staff, museum and precious art were kept safe.
“We were just going to drive into town with our dogs and grab a few essentials,” Dresman recalled. “But it wasn’t until we drove a few blocks away and got reception that Laura’s sister called and told us that there was a fire. We never got an evacuation notice.”
They decided to leave for the night and headed to Silver Lake to stay with friends. They could not have imagined their home would burn to the ground. Or that their other home — the one they were poised to put on the market— also would be leveled.
That home was the first residence that the couple had bought together after renting in Eagle Rock. They spent a year and a half renovating it and replacing the roof. It was located in northwest Altadena in another historic complex of homes called Janes Village, which was mostly designed and built by Elisha (E.P.) Janes between 1924 and 1926. In 2002, the neighborhood was designated an Altadena Heritage Area by the nonprofit advocacy organization Altadena Heritage.
“It looks like almost all of Janes Village is gone,” said Dresman, adding that they had seen a photo taken from a neighbor’s destroyed yard that showed their house gone.
The couple is mourning the loss of personal effects — family photos and mementos that have no monetary value but are irreplaceable. They gain some comfort, they said, from keeping others in their hearts and knowing that their story is one of many — a litany of loss across this parched community.
One item that did have value was a Joe Goode print that Begley looked at before they left — briefly wondering whether she should take it before deciding that it probably wasn’t necessary.
Ten people have died, more than 9,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 130,000 residents are under evacuation orders. Experts say L.A. is not out of danger yet and that these fires have the potential to be the costliest wildfire disaster in American history.
“We hadn’t fully unpacked yet, we had stuff everywhere,” she said. The Goode print was just part of the scenery she thought she’d soon return to.
The same holds true for the couple’s wedding invitations, which were destroyed in the fire. They had planned to marry in May.
Will they follow through with that plan when the smoke clears?
“I think these are things that we’ll have to try to figure out as we go,” Begley said. “We’re not really sure what the state of all of that will be after this, but I think as of now, we’re going to try and find a place to live, and then hopefully everything else will fall into place somehow.”
