Los Angeles fires permanently separate families in Altadena

Charles Anderson was the first member of the family to settle in the suburb of Altadena, California. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and served in the Korean War. In the late 1950s, the army transferred Charles to California, and he bought a house on Glenrose Street in that suburb of Los Angeles County.

Most of his 15 siblings soon followed, including his brothers Herman and Oscar, and were among a wave of blacks who left Georgia to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

At that time, Altadena, located at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, was neither wealthy nor in high demand, and its rural homes were affordable. Some of the black families who moved there settled in an area west of Altadena, called “The Meadows,” whose residents included the first A black firefighter named Wilfred Duncan.

“If you wanted a nice, big house with a pool or some better amenities, you would come to Altadena,” said Anton Anderson, who grew up in Altadena. “The black middle class preferred this area.”

Great turnout

New arrivals from the South, such as the Andersons, changed the demographics of Altadena. From being 95% white in 1960, its black population rose to 43% by 1980, and in those years – especially after the Rumford Act – California’s Fair Housing Act of 1963, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 made housing discrimination based on race illegal, weakening the well-known system. In the name of “redlining”—which classified black neighborhoods as too risky for lenders—the extended Anderson family continued to acquire property, eventually owning between nine and 10 homes in the area.

Oscar Anderson met his wife, Mary, who had come to Altadena from Texas with her mother and grandmother in the early 1950s at a dance, and as he later told his children, he knew they would get married right away. In 1959, the couple bought a house in West Altadena, where five of their children were born. Their seven children.

Ten years later, the family was displaced by the proposed expansion of the 210 Freeway and moved north to Las Flores Drive. Mary, whom her family called “Law,” was an astute real estate investor, and over the next 40 years she purchased eight properties in Altadena. When Oscar and Marie’s children grew up and had children of their own, these homes were sold, passed on to younger families, or shared among themselves.

Family Forum

But for nearly 60 years, Mary’s house on Las Flores Drive remained a focal point for the family. “This was the house where dozens of cousins ​​could go,” says Lauren, Oscar and Mary’s granddaughter, who now lives in Boston. “It was like a summit house, and people would celebrate holidays there, but it was also where new mothers would go to receive care from Mary after birth, and where older people would come for end-of-life care,” Lauren added. “The beginning and the end for many people.”

Mary, now 85 and a widow, was at the house on Las Flores Drive on the night of January 7, when the recent Eaton fire started outside Altadena, with her 58-year-old daughter recovering from a medical procedure, as well as her son. 55-year-old Oscar Junior, who was recently released from the hospital after suffering from a severe case of influenza, was on an oxygen machine to treat his asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“We called the house ‘sick house,’” says Oscar Jr., a teacher who works with students with special needs at Almansur Academy in Pasadena.

Horrible winds

Oscar Jr. lived in Altadena on Grandeur Street with his wife, Lori, in a house he inherited from his great-aunt, who bought it in the 1950s. Oscar and Lori usually lived there with four of their seven adult children and three grandchildren.

Lori was on the highway coming home from her job at the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services when her daughter, Amber, texted her that the power at their home had been cut due to high winds that had increased that morning.

“This time it was horrific,” Lori said of the storm, which gradually intensified. “It was like the wind had fists, and then with the smoke it was like the fire had blades.”

After Lori arrived on Las Flores Street, she and Oscar tried to contact their children, but the cell phone service was down, and instead they contacted Lauren, Oscar and Lori’s daughter, in Boston, and the family in Altadena decided to evacuate soon.

Oscar Jr.’s family and Lori did not believe they were in immediate danger from the fire, but members were concerned about the effect of polluted air on Oscar’s breathing, in addition to the ongoing power outages. A relative booked them rooms at a hotel in Monterey Park, a suburb about a 20-minute drive south of Altadena, in the San Gabriel Valley. While everyone was preparing, other relatives began calling about the fire, which became visible from a distance from the windows of the house.

Destroyed homes

Oscar Jr. and Lori’s family left the Altadena suburb after the fire and have not returned since. Oscar Anderson’s wife, Mary’s house on Las Flores Drive was destroyed in the fire. Oscar and Lori’s house also burned, and their 25-year-old son, Julius, who lived in an apartment complex in Altadena, was missing. His wife and two children also lost his home, and Herman, a relative of Oscar’s who had bought a house in Altadena, also lost his home.

Oscar said: “My mother’s house was destroyed, as well as my sister’s house, my cousin’s house, and my uncle’s house.” About “The New Yorker”

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Generational wealth

The fire caused a huge loss. From the source

The black community in the Altadena suburb was a refuge for many people who had been excluded by high prices or prejudice elsewhere, including Japanese Americans who settled there after being forced into internment camps in World War II, and immigrants from Central America. Who came in the early eighties of the last century.

Anton Anderson, a resident of the suburb, says: “The fire caused a huge loss. It is generational wealth, after you could previously buy a house in California for a small amount.”

He added: “The smoke has not cleared yet, but opportunity hunters were already there.”

Anderson confirmed that one of his neighbors received a call from a real estate developer asking if he planned to sell.

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Good luck

Anton Andersson with his wife in their home that survived the fire. From the source

Anton Anderson, a 57-year-old technology consultant and podcast host, has lived in the Altadena suburb all his life except for his time at Dartmouth College. Anderson and his neighbors have had relatively good luck: Nearly all the homes in their neighborhood west of Altadena survived the fires. His elderly mother, Evelyn, did not lose her home in the Meadows, and Anderson was able to save some of his late father’s paintings from the smoke of the fires. “They will not be displayed in the Louvre, but they have sentimental value,” Anderson said.

However, it will likely be a long time before he, his wife and their two children can return home. The family home was damaged by the fire, and much of the neighborhood to the east was destroyed. For now, they are staying with his sister in Covina, about a 40-minute drive away.

. Altadena, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, was neither wealthy nor in high demand, and its country houses were affordable.

. For nearly 60 years, one family’s home on Las Flores Drive has been a focal point for the family.