Planning a Resilient Future

Editor’s Note: Eleven days after the Eaton Fire, Pasadena Now is taking a closer look at the lives of some of those who lost everything in the disaster, and talking with them about their lives before the fire, their current circumstances and their hopes for the future.  As part of this continuing occasional series, we talked to Altadena Town Council Member Dorothy Wong.

First there was the matter of the Cheney Gates.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Eaton Fire began to roar through swaths of Altadena and neighboring communities, in a historic life-changing 36 hours. For residents like Dorothy Wong, an Altadena Town Council member, the hours leading up to and following the fire’s outbreak were a harrowing mix of urgency, despair, and resolve.

“The story of Tuesday really started on Monday,” said Wong, sitting at a table near the FEMA Disaster Assistance Center at the PCC Community Education Center.

“We knew something significant was coming,” she recalled Wednesday, “but in this fast-moving world, we don’t always grasp the full weight of what’s ahead.”

Wong spent much of Monday night playing phone tag to close the Cheney Trail gate, a critical access point to the Angeles National Forest.

“It was a lot of back-and-forth with the County, the Forest Service, and the sheriffs,” she explained. “By 5 a.m.Tuesday, I was on the phone again, begging them to keep it closed. Thankfully, they agreed.”

As Wong explained, “That’s something, as a council member in that census tract,  has always been something we’ve been trying to solve with one way in, one way out, red flag days, all of these things that can really prevent somebody from getting stuck, even the fire department.

“So I dealt with panic for Tuesday, like, ‘Is the gate closed? Is the gate open? What happens with our 80-year-old neighbors that live above the gate? How are we going to get them out?’”

“Then I saw on the Watch Duty app, I could see Boom! fire, and I think it was 6:18 p.m. I feel like I saw it at 6;12, maybe go through something, but maybe it became official at 6:18, and then that’s when, so then I was like, “Okay, we’ve got to get ready.”

Despite initial reports suggesting the fire would head east, many residents, including Wong, began preparing for the worst.

“I looked at the heat map and I could see that the fire was coming,” she said.

“People were already evacuating by 9 pm., even though there wasn’t an official order,” she said. “We were monitoring heat maps and sharing updates. By 2 a.m., the sheriffs were going door-to-door, urging people to leave.”

The fire’s rapid escalation left little room for hesitation. “We evacuated to the Rose Bowl,” Wong recalled. “It was chaos. Power outages, the smell of smoke, the black sky—it was like a nightmare.”

The devastation was total. Wong and her husband lost their home, a nearly 100-year-old cottage in the historic Janes Village in Northwest Altadena.

“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “The trauma hits you every day. You wake up, and for a moment, you forget. Then it hits you: you don’t have a home anymore.”

In the days following the fire, Dorothy and their husband sought refuge in a hotel, thanks to the kindness of neighbors and community organizations.

“We’re fortunate to have a place to stay for now, but the road ahead is daunting,” they admitted. “First, it was disbelief. Then it was survival. Now, it’s about figuring out how to rebuild.”

Despite the destruction, the longtime local activist remains hopeful about the future of Altadena.

“This community is special,” she said. “We have an opportunity to build back better, to create resilient housing that honors the character of Janes Village while addressing the realities of living in a fire-prone area.”

Wong continued,  “We need to slow down and think long-term. Resilient housing, community wildfire protection plans, better management of red-flag days—these are the things that will make a difference.”

Her husband, Jeff, a ceramic artist who lost much of his work in the fire, shares the same vision.

“He’s heartbroken, but he’s ready to rebuild,” she said.

The Eaton Fire revealed both the vulnerabilities and strengths of the Altadena community, according to Wong. “There’s a lot we could have done differently,” she acknowledged.

“We need to be more fire-wise, more prepared. But in the face of tragedy, the way this community has come together is incredible.”

For now, the focus remains on recovery.

“Every day is a mix of grief and hope,” Wong said. “We’re mourning what we lost, but we’re also looking forward to what we can build.”