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ndrea Magdaleno was at a friend’s house in the Altadena neighborhood of Los Angeles when the power went out. She had heard reports that day of 100 mile per hour winds in the mountains, but wasn’t particularly concerned.
After losing power, Magdaleno received a phone call from her mother, who told her that a wildfire was approaching their family’s apartment building, and many of their neighbors were beginning to evacuate.
Magdaleno rushed to her car and found a tree had fallen on it amid the raging winds. She managed to free the vehicle from the wreckage and began the precarious journey home as power lines broke free and crashed to the pavement around her.
That night, the family decided to remain in their apartment. Around midnight, sparks began to land around the building, and Magdaleno and her sister knew they needed to leave. After waking up their parents and convincing their cat to get into its carrier, her family evacuated their home and fled to her aunt’s house.
By early morning, the Magdaleno’s apartment building was reduced to ashes. But the SU senior didn’t know that her home was gone until it appeared on the news the next morning.
“My cousin saw (the news), and she was like, ‘Wait, that’s your (apartment),’ and … I broke down crying,” Magdaleno said. “All of my childhood memories, pictures, videotapes of my sister growing up, it’s all gone.”
On Monday morning, many SU students from Southern California returned to campus uncertain if they’d ever see their childhood homes again. As wildfires continue in Altadena, Pacific Palisades and other areas around LA, students begin a new semester while hoping their neighborhood isn’t the next one to make the news.
Since Jan. 7, Los Angeles has seen as many as seven different wildfires blazing simultaneously, with some covering thousands of acres. As of Wednesday, that number has been reduced to three. Spread by the unusually powerful Santa Ana winds and an annual dry weather pattern that comes off the Pacific Ocean, the fires have forced almost 100,000 people to evacuate, with many more remaining in areas at risk of the wind, smoke and fire.
When Rebecca Mejia learned about the intense winds and fire spreading across Eaton County from her grandfather, she became worried for her mother and sister who work and go to school in central LA, and her father who works on the coast. The SU senior, who’s studying forensic science and psychology, waited anxiously for them to return home as she watched the fires worsen on her TV screen.
“We were just basically waiting around for them to come home, and we were so worried,” Mejia said. “(Later) they described it to me as Armageddon.”
Mejia said her mother almost didn’t make it home as the Hurst fire closed in on her route. Once the family was reunited, they quickly packed and prepared to leave their home.
While her family’s house survived the fires, friends and other community members have lost their homes, Mejia said. With thousands displaced, she has struggled to stomach the work that putting back together so many lives will require.
“What are we going to do after? How are we going to rebuild?” Mejia said. “LA County has millions of people in such a small stretch of land. It’s more populated than whole states. It’s just a lot of devastation, a lot of heartbreak and tears.”
With fires continuing to burn across the northwest corner of LA, Mejia decided to postpone her return to campus until Wednesday. Ahead of her departure, she said the guilt and anxiety of leaving her family will be “crippling” as she resumes classes on the other side of the country.
When Magdaleno and her family packed their bags and fled their apartment, the family didn’t realize they’d never return. By early morning the next day, the building was reduced to ash. Courtesy of Andrea Magdaleno
Lara Villavicencio felt similar guilt about leaving her family behind. The junior, who studies business analytics and economics, has been preparing for a semester abroad in Madrid as the fires close in on her home in North Hollywood.
After staying with her mother in Ventura County for a few days, wildfires across the region began to spread. As she drove into the city, she said she couldn’t believe what she saw.
“You could immediately see the difference,” Villavicencio said. “The sky was clear … and then the blanket of gray closed in. Even though my neighborhood isn’t up in flames right now … you can’t really be in Los Angeles without it physically affecting you.”
Isabella Marzan, a sophomore studying television, radio and film, said the sight of the Palisades fire coming over the hills above her Granada Hills home was unbelievable, driving her father to tears. As a lifetime resident of LA, Marzan said she was completely overwhelmed as her phone and TV warned her to evacuate as soon as possible.
While her family prepared to flee their home, Marzan said it was unclear where to go, as many safe areas for evacuees quickly became danger zones.
“It was a really scary night,” Marzan said. “I’ll never forget having to choose what parts of my childhood I wanted to survive if we potentially lost the house.”
The home she has lived in her entire life wasn’t burned down, but she said the suffering around her has still been heartbreaking. Marzan couldn’t count the number of friends, classmates and colleagues of her parents who have lost their homes across the city.
Marzan also expressed frustration toward the political discourse that has since followed the blaze. She said now is not the time to point fingers and blame one another, but to come together.
“(It’s) really hard to hear everybody that’s not from Los Angeles say, ‘it’s just Hollywood, it’s just rich people.’ Our city is a lot more than that,” Marzan said. “No one’s talking about these lower-middle-class Americans in Pasadena that have lost everything.”
In a city that has recently struggled with homelessness, tens of thousands more displaced people will only further strain the city’s limited resources. While many mansions in the Hollywood Hills have headlined coverage of the destruction, Marzan said many of the communities suffering the most are normal people who now face homelessness and hunger.
Even more than the socioeconomic debate that “misses the point,” Marzan said that the historic fires demonstrate the worsening effects of climate change and feel like a slap in the face for Generation Z residents of LA.
Villavicencio echoed this, calling the wildfires a wake-up call. With over 12,000 structures, including homes, schools and businesses destroyed and historic winds spreading flame across the city, the SU junior said she wants to see real change in the future.
“Hopefully this can be a turning point and a lesson that climate change is real, and it is literally in our backyards,” Villavicencio said.
For Max Jimenez, a graduate student pursuing a master’s in higher education, intense climate events have always been a part of his life. Born and raised in LA, he recalled watching ash fall from the sky during a wildfire as a kid and thought to himself, “Oh, this is what snow looks like.”
Throughout the many fires in his life, Jimenez has never been so far away from his home and family. After departing the West Coast on Jan. 6, he didn’t learn about the severity of the natural disaster until videos began to circulate on social media. His parents initially didn’t tell him about their struggles to help him focus on his studies and not worry about life at home.
Once Jimenez learned that his family hadn’t had power for multiple days, his mother’s school had evacuated, and that the neighboring post office to his father’s in Altadena had burned down, he began to panic.
Many students said they watched the fires closed in on their neighborhoods as they evacuated their homes. The blazes have covered thousands of acres around LA, turning the night sky orange. Courtesy of Andrea Magdaleno
“Open communication with me and my parents about how they’re doing, updates on stuff, know(ing) I can call them at all points, … it’s been a lot better,” Jimenez said. “So, as long as I’m calling and talking, I feel like I’m more at ease.”
Jimenez said the physical destruction caused by the wildfires is frightening, but soot and ash-related ailments make him more anxious. Multiple members of his family have asthma, putting them at higher risk of the toxins in the air.
Villavicencio echoed Jimenez and said her family has had to find old masks from the COVID-19 pandemic to wear when going outside. While she doesn’t suffer from any respiratory illnesses, many of Villavicencio’s family members also suffer from asthma, adding stress to the already terrifying situation.
For Marzan and Magdaleno, the most important work now is in donating to and providing for those who have lost everything to the fires. Marzan said she has felt helpless watching from across the country as her community works together to support those in need.
Magdaleno, whose family lost everything outside of the pajamas they wore as they evacuated, expressed gratitude to LA’s grassroots efforts to clothe and provide for people in her family’s situation.
“We separated, (with) little jobs … go search for food, someone else went to go get water, and look for clothes,” Magdaleno said. “All the grocery stores were also closed, no restaurants were open, it was just hard.”
Marzan said she has donated to causes providing aid and relief but feels her options are limited as a college student so far from home. Like Jimenez, regular communication with her family back home has been the only relief from the now regular fear and anxiety that dominates her daily life.
Annika Forno, a sophomore international relations major, shared similar sentiments. She said part of her daily routine now revolves around regular checks of fire maps on her computer, hoping that her neighborhood will remain in the clear.
“There’s been a lot of mental weight of knowing if something happens, there is nothing I can do because I’m so far from home right now,” Forno said.
Robin Howard, SU’s director of Newhouse Los Angeles, said in a Jan. 10 email to LA students that the school’s North Hollywood campus is safe and that the semester would start on schedule. Another email was sent out on Jan. 12 introducing mental health resources provided by Barnes Center at The Arch, such as 24/7 counseling.
SU’s Office of Academic Affairs is also providing counseling to students struggling to keep up with coursework due to the effects of the fires.
As the semester begins, Jimenez said support from his a cappella group, Otto Tunes, has given him some security amid all the chaos and unknown.
“I am away from home, I am away from my family … and if the wind decides it, our house will burn down,” Jimenez said. “The support that (my friends) have given me, and them just being around me, is helping me through this.”
Editor-in-chief Stephanie Wright and Asst. News Editor Shivika Gupta contributed reporting to this story.
Photo Courtesy of Nicolas Greamo | The Daily Bruin
Published on January 16, 2025 at 1:55 am
Contact Duncan: digreen@syr.edu
