It’s been a year since two fires tore through Los Angeles County, killing 31 people and destroying 16,000 structures, and the disaster is still unfolding as thousands of people continue pick up the pieces, find new places to live, new jobs, new neighborhoods, and wrestle with whether to return to their old streets, which were burned beyond recognition.

It’s clear that we are still in the very early days of this recovery and there is a long way to go. There’s been some progress but, if you ask them how it’s going, survivors will tell you that not a lot has happened and there are plenty of roadblocks in their path. Many want to rebuild and move back home but still aren’t sure if they can afford it, or what else will be there if they do.

In this episode, taped Monday January 5, host Kate Cagle talks with three people — each from the three areas hit hardest by the fire: Altadena, the Pacific Palisades, and Malibu — and learns more about the challenges most people are still facing.

Guests:

Dana Brumfield, Altadena Resident, Business Manager, Pasadena Rosebud Academy

Wade Major, Malibu Resident, Film Critic, Public Works Commissioner

Nancy Fracchiolla, Pacific Palisades Resident, Actress, Retired Drama Teacher, Palisades High

Other voices in this episode: Palisades resident Tamara Rawitt and Altadena residents Zaire Calvin and Joe Ressa

Links:

LAFD leaders tried to cover up Palisades fire mistakes. The truth still emerged: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-12-31/lafd-leaders-tried-to-cover-up-palisades-fire-mistakes-truth-still-emerged

Thousands of homes need to be built in Malibu, the Pacific Palisades and Altadena over the next decade. With many homeowners still looking for architects and blue prints, there is an opportunity to rethink the modern home.Dustin Bramell is one Palisades Fire who is drawing a parallel to eighty years ago and the Case Study Houses that rose up during the post-World War II building boom.The Case Study movement called for inexpensive and efficient model homes - a kind of blueprint - for a stylish and modern America. Many of those homes are still standing today in Southern california, including the Eames Home, which narrowly escaped the Palisades Fires, and the iconic Stahl House in the Hollywood Hills.The new effort is called “Case Study: Adapt,” and its objective to is to build with the risks of climate change and fire in mind.

Guests: Dustin Bramell, co-founder, Case Study: Adapt
Kathleen Katims, Palisades Resident and co-founder of Saved By A Story

Check out the CSA designs here:See How 16 Families are Rebuilding After the LA Fires: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/see-how-16-families-are-rebuilding-after-the-la-fires
A display of student-constructed CSA home models at the USC school of architecture: https://www.instagram.com/p/DRF82C2Eiu1/ **This exhibit will soon move to the Eames House in 2026.More info on Kathy Katims organization, Saved By A Story: https://www.savedbyastory.com/about

The official investigation into the cause of the Eaton Fire is not over, but power company So-Cal Edison has already said that it likely sparked from their equipment.Edison is facing dozens of lawsuits from survivors, and one from the U-S Department of Justice, accusing the company of not only starting the fire, but also of negligence.Edison says it wants to make things right and has come up with a Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program for survivors. Eligibility is fairly expansive but many survivors say it does not go far enough, especially those who are also struggling with insurance payouts.CEO of Edison International Pedro Pizarro, who lives in the area affected by the Eaton Fire, says he “want to be able to walk into the grocery store and look his neighbors in the eye” so he stopped by in early November to give host Kate Cagle his pitch for the program.

Guest:

Pedro Pizarro, CEO, Edison International
Dana Brumfield, Altadena Resident

Clarification: Dana Brumfield, our guest profiled at the top of the episode, does not endorse Edison’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program at this time. The inclusion of her story is coincidental and not connected to the program currently being offered by So Cal Edison and Edison International.In addition, per her lawyer, the standard rate charged by attorneys representing wildfire survivors is 25 percent. The following interview implies the legal fees could reach as high as 40 percent.

Edison International’s Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program: https://energized.edison.com/wildfire-recovery-compensation-program

Edison increases compensation for Eaton fire victims, but some say it’s not enough: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-10-30/edison-increases-compensation-for-eaton-fire-victims-but-some-say-its-not-enough

Rick Caruso is a real-estate developer, a philanthropist, and in some ways a city insider — he ran for mayor against Karen Bass in 2022, and lost. He is also a Palisades Fire survivor. His family lost three homes that night — and were it not for the private firefighters he hired, Caruso’s businesses in the Palisades Village might have also burned down.
He started the nonprofit Steadfast LA to assist with the rebuilding of neighborhoods in the Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu, and has not been shy with his criticism of how local governments, particularly L.A. city Mayor Karen Bass, has handled the response to January’s deadly and destructive fires.He talks about all of it with host Kate Cagle.

Guests: Rick Caruso, L.A. businessman, founder, Steadfast LA
David Goldblum, filmmaker and Malibu resident

Related articles:AI is coming soon to speed up sluggish permitting for fire rebuilds, officials say: https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2025-05-14/l-a-wildfire-survivors-complain-that-rebuilding-is-too-slow-can-ai-helpCaruso-backed nonprofit partners with builder to give prefab homes to fire victims: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-20/caruso-backed-nonprofit-partners-with-builder-to-give-prefab-homes-to-fire-victimsDays before Palisades inferno, firefighters were ordered to leave smoldering burn site: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-30/firefighters-ordered-to-leave-smoldering-palisades-burn-siteMore on David Blum’s film @bigrockburning on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigrockburning/?hl=en

Just before Thanksgiving, Altadena resident Whitney Haggins — who is VERY big on holidays — told us she hopes to break ground on her new home in the new year using a design she chose out of The Foothill Catalog, which has already been pre-approved by Los Angeles County. It’s got a porch and everything — perfect for watching the sun set and chatting with her neighbors, many of whom are also choosing to rebuild. It’s pretty much a win all around and a positive note to wrap up what’s been a pretty horrible year for many in our region.Given her story, we thought we’d re-air our conversation with Alex Athenson, the co-founder of The Foothill Catalog Foundation. We originally ran this interview back in July just after Foothill got its first design — the one Whitney went with — approved by the county.

Guests:
Whitney Haggins, Altadena Resident
Alex Athenson, president and co-founder, The Foothill Catalog Foundation.

Links:The Foothill Catalog Foundation Website: https://www.foothillcatalog.org/
The Lewis: https://www.foothillcatalog.org/the-lewis
The Altadena Christmas Tree Lane tree lighting on Dec 6: https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2025-09-10/eaton-fire-displaced-christmas-tree-lane-volunteers-altadena-holiday-event#:~:text=again%20this%20year.-,California,that%20destroyed%20many%20other%20structures.

Editor’s Note: This interview taped a few days before the government announced it would reopen after a shutdown that lasted 44 days. We opted to keep the references to the shutdown in the interview to illustrate its impact on the rebuilding process. Talk to anyone in Altadena and they’ll tell you they loved living there before the fires. It was their paradise, their Shangri-La, their little slice of heaven. It’s been repeatedly described as a diverse place where people from all sorts of different backgrounds found a home. But it remains to be seen how much of that can come back.
Ten months after the January fire, about two-thousand rebuilding applications have been submitted to L.A. County and, of those, a little more than a quarter of them have been approved. At the time of this recording, about 250 homes were in active construction.A big problem in Altadena? Building a brand new house is going to cost a lot more money than what insurance will cover.Guest: Kathryn Barger, Los Angeles County Supervisor, 5th DistrictAltadena Recovery Info: https://recovery.lacounty.gov/altadena/
Permit Fee Waiver / Refund Request: https://planning.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Permit-Fee-Waiver-Refund-Form_fillable.pdf
Tune in to Altadena Community Meetings on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLblXY1FEJmYjEQc2Z0u_8cP2RZp_foSF7

There are no shortcuts for rebuilding the Pacific Palisades. Even those who are returning are daunted by the task, wondering who else will come back, and nervous about the hidden dangers of the toxic debris produced by the fire.Homes are starting to go up, and there is a plan for at least some of those third spaces – the elementary schools, the high school, and the community center.But affordability is still a big hurdle that will determine whether people can return, and there are still a lot of questions about how to make the community safer when the next disaster strikes.There is also a lot of anger about why any of this was allowed to happen in the first place — most of it is directed at L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. By contrast, the Palisades’ elected city councilmember Traci Park is seen by many residents as a champion. She joins Kate to talk about what’s next for the area.

Guest: Traci Park, L.A. City Councilmember, 11th District.

Pacific Palisades Vision Plan: https://cd11.lacity.gov/news/pacific-palisades-rebuild-vision

In the last few years, after massive blazes in Northern California destroyed forests and towns, the state changed the way it managed wildfires. It shifted its policy from a fire suppression strategy to one that oversaw small burns and other efforts to help thin overgrown forests and reduce the amount of fuel that could prolong a fire.

Now, the state’s fire officials realize it has to change course again for Southern California because the approach to forest fire management up north doesn’t really apply to the chaparral and shrubland that cover the southern coasts.

And part of the solution could involve good old-fashioned volunteer work.

Guests: Noah Haggerty, environment and science reporter for the Los Angeles Times, specializing in wildfire coverage.

Karen Leigh Hopkins, Pacific Palisades resident, filmmaker

Read Noah’s Stories:

The state’s wildfire policy long overlooked SoCal. Now it’s course correcting:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-10-16/fire-strategy-socal

Man, machine and mutton: Inside the plan to prevent the next SoCal fire disaster:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-10-14/the-plan-to-prevent-the-next-socal-fire-disaster

To solve the wildfire crisis, we have to let the myth of ‘the wild’ die:

https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2025-08-28/boiling-point-the-myth-keeping-wildfires-alive

In high-tech race to detect fires early, O.C. bets on volunteers with binoculars: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-08-15/o-c-bets-on-volunteers-to-detect-fires-early