One year after the Los Angeles County wildfires destroyed homes and displaced thousands, officials on Tuesday announced they are continuing their efforts to rebuild in the aftermath of the largest wildfire disaster in county history.
On Jan. 7, 2025, Pacific Palisades and Altadena were hit with fast-moving, wind-driven fires that ravaged through the region. Thirty-one people were killed and thousands more lost their homes and businesses.
Within the same week, the Lidia Fire in Acton and the Hurst Fire in Sylmar burned surrounding the Santa Clarita Valley, prompting evacuations and road closures, but did cause relatively little local damage.
As county officials look back during the one-year anniversary, L.A. County 5th District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes the SCV as well as Altadena, in a news release reaffirmed commitment to Eaton Fire survivors and reflected on “the community’s ongoing recovery and the work still ahead.”
L.A. County 1st District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, the 2026 chair of the Board of Supervisors, ordered county flags to be flown at half-staff to mark the one-year anniversary on Tuesday.
“Anniversaries like this reopen wounds, especially for those still navigating insurance disputes, contamination cleanup, and the slow, exhausting process of rebuilding,” Barger stated in the release. “It is my responsibility to ensure you are not facing those challenges alone.”
In a video available on the L.A. County website dedicated to sharing different stories on those impacted by the wildfires to commemorate the one-year anniversary, Barger acknowledged that there were “a lot of lessons learned” in how officials could navigate in responding to disasters.
“We are going to build an Emergency Operations Center and infrastructure personnel that meet the needs of over 10 million residents in L.A. County,” Barger said in the video. “We have to do better, but we also have to gain the trust of the community. We need to educate year-round, 365 days a year on what you need to do, empower you, the resident of L.A. County, to be a part of making sure that you and your family are not impacted in a way that takes lives,” she said in response to the continued deep frustration and anger concerning emergency communications.
“Lives and trust are at stake when alerts fail,” Barger stated in the release. “We owe the community accountability, and we owe them change.”
Following the fires, the county has worked on rebuilding and supporting those impacted. For Altadena, families have been supported with more than $21 million in household relief grants, nearly $8.5 million for Eaton Fire-impacted small businesses and nonprofits, and more than $2.2 million to workers who lost wages because of the fire, Barger’s release stated.
Since rebuilding efforts began, progress has been made every day with milestones met, which ensures moving toward building back Altadena to “its greatest,” Barger said in the video.
“That gives me the inspiration I need to continue down this path that I’m going, and that is making sure that we in government provide the support and make sure we’re not an impediment to building back Altadena.”
