Monday, November 10, 2025

Two Fire Survivors Elected to Altadena Town Council

In a historic Altadena Town Council election held on November 1, 4, and 8 that required in-person paper ballots despite widespread displacement of the voting constitutents, two political newcomers who are both Eaton Fire survivors won decisive victories to help lead their community’s recovery.

Morgan Z Whirledge, a music composer who lost his home and studio, and Anton Anderson, whose multi-generational family saw 16 of 20 homes destroyed, were among eight councilmembers elected with a record-breaking 890 total votes cast across all census tracts—the highest turnout in council history.

Whirledge will represent Tract 4601 and Anderson Tract 4610 as they take office in December at a critical moment: nearly a year after the deadliest Los Angeles County wildfire since 1933, most residents remain displaced, insurance money is running out, and the community faces a decade-long rebuilding process that will test whether this historically diverse enclave can preserve its character while rising from the ashes.

“It’s not just many —  it’s most. So I think 7 out of 10 or 8 out of 10 are still displaced by this fire,” said newly elected Whirledge, whose own home was among the losses.

His colleague Anton Anderson painted an even starker picture of family devastation: “Within my family, as best we count, there were, at the time of the fires, 20 households that were on my mom’s side of the family that were in Altadena. The only ones that survived were me, two cousins and my mom.”

The two fire survivors won seats on the Altadena Town Council in elections that drew what Anderson called “record turnout, which was fantastic, especially given how many people have been displaced and that there’s this ‘voting in person’ requirement.”

The November 10 interviews with Whirledge and Anderson reveal their perspectives of a community racing against time as insurance money dwindles and most residents remain unaware of available recovery resources.

“If you empower block captains to share information as neighbors to their neighbors, then that’s the most effective way of getting good information into neighbor’s hands and into the hands of residents of Altadena,” Whirledge explained about the recovery network he helps coordinate. He became involved after the fire destroyed his home: “From the block captain program, then I started getting involved in the Eaton Fire Collaborative, which is a collaboration between 150 plus organizations all working to try and help survivors.”

According to altagether.org, the organization uses a Neighborhood Captain model connecting more than 150 block captains across Altadena to facilitate recovery efforts.

Anderson’s family history in Altadena stretches back decades: “My uncle moved out here in the mid to late 1950s,” he said, noting that “his house, the original house, which was at Glenrose, has burned down.”

The scale of multi-generational loss extends beyond one family’s tragedy. According to The New Yorker, the extended Benn family—to which Anderson is related through his mother—eventually owned up to ten homes in Altadena, having arrived as part of the Great Migration of Black families from the Jim Crow South.

“I would say half of the people that I talk to don’t know where the permit shop is and don’t know about the recovery website from the county,” Whirledge observed about the communication breakdown between government resources and displaced residents.

Anderson highlighted another disparity: “The fact that me and my family, with my two young children, had to evacuate at four in the morning when the eastern side of Altadena got to evacuate at 9:00 p.m. … a clear example of how Western Altadena gets overlooked and gets short shrift.”

The approaching one-year mark since the fire represents a critical juncture for displaced families.

“They’re going to have to think about their next steps, and I want to make sure that people have the resources that they need in order to have a successful recovery,” Whirledge said about residents whose insurance money is running out.

Both council members identified the election system as a barrier to displaced resident participation.

“Voting in person on paper ballots, very, very old school analog process. We absolutely need to modernize that because it’s going to be a while before we are back to having all of our residents back,” Anderson said.

“I think it’s very important for the Town Council to be the voice of the people of Altadena and have the community lead the recovery efforts and make sure that every single person who wants to be back home in Altadena is successful in getting back home to Altadena,” Whirledge emphasized. Anderson’s priority aligned: “I want more than anything else, I want to make sure we’re listening.”

Looking ahead, both council members see a long road to recovery.

Anderson offered a sobering timeline: “People are talking about it being a decade before we are ‘fully back’.”