Monday, December 15, 2025

A Year After the Fire, Altadena Gathers Again at the Rose Bowl—This Time to Heal

By THERESE EDU

The last time the Altadena Town Council gathered in person at the Rose Bowl, it was December 17, 2024—a Tuesday evening holiday celebration, the first the volunteer advisory body had ever held at the storied stadium. Three weeks later, the Eaton Fire swept through their community, killing at least 19 people, destroying more than 9,000 structures, and scattering families across Southern California like embers on the wind.

On Tuesday, December 16, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Town Council members will return to the iconic stadium.

The second annual Rose Bowl holiday gathering arrives just weeks before the one-year anniversary of the January 7 blaze, a fact that is not lost on anyone involved. What was originally meant to become an annual tradition of celebration has instead evolved into more complex: part memorial, part milestone, part act of collective will.

“What matters to me most is the partnership this Town Council has with the Rose Bowl and their willingness to host us again for this special event,” said Victoria Knapp, the outgoing council chair, who will step down after eight years of service at the December meeting.

The timing, she explained, is deeply practical.

“In doing so, it relieves us of having to otherwise coordinate the holiday celebration as is usually the case, giving us the opportunity to focus our time on recovery and rebuilding efforts.”

It is the kind of calculation that defines life in Altadena now—every decision filtered through the ongoing weight of recovery.

“The spirit of Altadena, as devastated as we have been, is as strong as ever.”

Four of the council’s 16 members lost their homes in the fire, it is said. Among those stepping into leadership roles after last month’s elections are Morgan Z Whirledge, who lost his composer studio in the blaze and now represents Tract 4601, and Anton Anderson, the councilmember-elect for Tract 4610 whose household remains displaced nearly a year later, still navigating testing and remediation challenges.

“While totally different from having your house burn down, navigating being displaced is also overwhelming,” Anderson wrote to Altadena Now. He said learning his constituents’ priorities “is truly my top priority” as he prepares for office.

For Whirledge, the loss became a kind of clarifying fire.

“My single most important goal for 2026 and 2027 and every year after that is making sure that every resident who is not at home in Altadena currently, gets home to Altadena,” he said.

Knapp, whose own home burned, recalls the impossible balance of those early days.

“I have two sons, ages 18 and 12, and they will tell you that in the days and weeks after the fire, I was gone from sun-up to after sundown,” she said. But she added that “our family has found a rhythm now—celebrating small rebuilding milestones together even as I devote time to Altadena’s broader recovery.”

That the Town Council could return to the Rose Bowl this December owes something to relationships forged before the fire.

“My longstanding relationship with Rose Bowl Legacy Foundation, Director of Community Relations, Dominick Correy, allowed me to reapproach him to consider hosting us again,” Knapp said, noting “last year was such a success and as we were stretched so thin because of the fire.”

As the anniversary approaches, Knapp listed the needs that persist: “Mental health support, renter displacement, continued needs for remediation, and navigating insurance are still outstanding issues.”

Anderson identified post-remediation testing as a particular gap, noting that “There needs to be more support for the costs of post-remediation testing” to ensure structures are safe for families, particularly children.

Yet amid the ongoing struggle, Knapp sees something remarkable. “The spirit of Altadena, as devastated as we have been, is as strong as ever,” she said. “Altadenans are showing up, even those who are displaced, and are more engaged than ever.”

Whirledge emphasized what made the community distinctive before the fire—and what it cannot afford to lose.

“Altadena was just, I think probably per capita one of the most richest communities of artists of all stripes, whether it’s musicians or visual artists, ceramicists theater people,” he said. “Altadena wouldn’t be the same community without its rich tapestry of artists.”

Knapp’s vision for the year ahead is concrete: “Hundreds of homes rebuilt, families returning home, more businesses re-opening, stronger renter protections for those still displaced, and a long-term recovery framework that ensures Altadena won’t ever face a disaster of this scale without the infrastructure to respond immediately.”

But first, there is December 16—a chance to gather again in the place where they last met before everything changed, and to mark how far they have come.