Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Six Homes, Six Months: A Corner of Altadena Comes Back

By EDDIE RIVERA

In La Viña, six families who lost their homes in the Eaton Fire returned after a unique rebuilding effort shrank a process that has taken far longer for much of Altadena.

Richard Kang stood outside his new home in Altadena on Monday with his young daughter tucked close beside him, a pair of scissors in his hand, and a yellow ribbon stretched across the front entry.

Across from him, Adrian Foley, president and chief executive of Brookfield Residential, held the other end. Then came the cut, applause and something that has remained stubbornly elusive for thousands of families displaced by the Eaton Fire: a return home.

For the Kangs, it had taken six months.

“Gosh, I think the idea of this seemed so impossible,” Kang said. “And in fact, even the fact that it happened so quickly seemed so impossible. And the fact that we’re here now, we’re incredibly grateful.”

The Kang home is one of six completed this month by Brookfield Residential in La Viña, the gated hillside community the company originally developed between 1997 and 2003. Fifty-two of its 272 homes were destroyed in the January 2025 fire.

Instead of rebuilding separately, the six families moved through the process together, choosing from turnkey designs suited to their individual lots while Brookfield coordinated planning, permitting and construction. The company said the approach allowed work on several nearby homes to proceed simultaneously while reducing costs and simplifying approvals.

Their return remains the exception in a community where rebuilding is accelerating, but remains far from complete. Brookfield said Los Angeles County data showed 100 Altadena homes had been fully rebuilt as of July 7, with 2,981 building permits issued in the fire zone. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said Monday that the number of permits has since climbed above 3,000 — while roughly another 3,000 property owners have yet to pull permits.

“My goal is by the end of my term in 2028 to fully rebuild Altadena, or at least have it in the process of being rebuilt,” Barger said.

For Kang, the new house is deliberately familiar. His family had lived in La Viña since 2021, and because Brookfield developed the original neighborhood, the company was able to offer a floor plan closely resembling the home that burned.

“We’ve had very nice accommodations and we’re grateful for where we’ve been up until now,” Kang said, “but nothing’s quite the same as home.”

Next door, Larisa Yedigarova knows precisely what that means.

Yedigarova was returning from Hawaii with her daughter and grandson when the Eaton Fire erupted. Her husband and dog were at home. In the bewildering days afterward, friends and former colleagues began calling and offering help. One colleague she had worked with a decade earlier, now living in Texas, sent her an Uber Eats gift certificate.

“She couldn’t come and hug me,” Yedigarova recalled. “But she thought about me. It was perfect.”

Asked whether she could have imagined the neighborhood reaching this point, Yedigarova paused.

“I was hoping for this day,” she said. “I was hoping for this day. It’s difficult to imagine.”

Now, instead of watching destruction, neighbors have been watching houses grow.

“All neighbors are so happy,” Yedigarova said. “Everybody are waiting and texting and sending emails, ‘When you’ll be back?’ We see your houses growing.’ They were sending me pictures.”

Barger said the six completed homes demonstrate that rebuilding can happen quickly, but she pointed to disputes with insurers as one of the continuing obstacles confronting survivors.

“State Farm is only one of the bad players,” Barger said, also naming Farmers Insurance. “They are nickel and diming survivors to the point where some are just taking whatever they can get because they can’t fight it anymore.”

Others, she said, are refusing to accept settlements they believe fall short after decades of paying premiums.

“This county, L.A. County, me, we’re going to be a voice for them and we’re going to fight back,” Barger said.

For Barger, the six homes are both an achievement and a reminder of how much of Altadena remains unfinished.

“A family gets to come back home,” she said. “Second of all, it shows the community that rebuilding can happen and is happening.” And, she noted, “It’s a happy day, but it’s also a day that reminds me that we have a lot of work to do.”