Monday, February 9, 2026

The Fire Didn’t Touch Every Home. But Grief Did.

By THERESE EDU

Mental Health Monday sessions are confronting a quiet epidemic of survivor’s guilt in the San Gabriel foothills

A year after the Eaton Fire, a monthly Monday evening mental health program in Pasadena has become a communal meeting ground — where survivors who lost their homes and neighbors who didn’t are discovering that the disaster left no one untouched, and that guilt can wound deeply, like loss.

The monthly program, Mental Health Monday, is sponsored by LA Fire Justice.

“A year later, they are actually reliving the moment all over again,” said Janet Popoola, LA Fire Justice’s Community Outreach Representative, describing what she observes when survivors return to their properties. “There hasn’t been time or space to pause and process what they went through, because survival mode took over so quickly.”

The program’s deliberate expansion beyond direct survivors marks a shift in how this community defines recovery.

Mental Health Monday now explicitly welcomes people whose homes didn’t burn — neighbors carrying survivor’s guilt, family members supporting someone who was displaced, and residents who simply feel the weight of a disaster that reshaped the place they call home.

“You may be a family member or friend supporting someone affected, or someone who wasn’t directly impacted but is carrying survivor’s guilt,” Popoola said. “All of those experiences are valid. Everyone is welcome in the space.”

The Compound Weight of Waiting

For the communities of Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre, the passage of a year has not much eased the burden. In many cases, it has deepened it.

Popoola hears the same questions in session after session: What if I can’t move back to my neighborhood? What if the settlement isn’t enough? How do I even begin to start over?

Those questions, she said, “weigh heavily, and they don’t go away, despite the distance from the event that caused them to arise.”

The emotional toll of navigating insurance, rebuilding, and legal claims has proven to be its own form of trauma.

California law requires insurance companies to respond to claims within 15 days, but Eaton Fire insurance claims have totaled approximately $15 billion, according to a Wisner Baum legal news update, creating a backlog that has left many survivors waiting months for resolution.

For families already stretched thin by displacement, each unreturned call and each delayed check compounds the original loss.

LA Fire Justice, the local coalition of wildfire lawyers and recovery specialists representing hundreds of Eaton Fire victims in litigation against Southern California Edison, recognized that it could not separate legal advocacy from emotional support. Harold DeLouise, the organization’s insurance specialist, now leads a Personal Property List Assistance program designed to guide survivors through one of the most difficult and emotionally taxing parts of the insurance recovery process. An upcoming session titled “Money Stress and Mental Wellness: Healing While Navigating Post-Fire Financial Recovery” will address how financial strain impacts mental health — and offer practical tools for managing anxiety, overwhelm, and decision fatigue during recovery.

“We’ve been very intentional about recognizing that the legal and emotional sides of recovery are deeply connected,” Popoola said.

What Happens in the Rooms

Mental Health Monday sessions are held from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at LA Fire Justice’s office at 221 E. Walnut St., Suite 100, in Pasadena. The program, which began in June, has evolved from a standard support offering into a community-led series whose topics are drawn directly from what participants report they need.

Recent sessions have introduced art and plant therapy — modalities that Popoola said have been “a huge hit.”

“People have shared that it gives them a way to express feelings they don’t always have words for,” she said, “but also doing something based on creativity is a great way to help with mental health.”

Upcoming sessions reflect the program’s range.

On Feb. 9, “From Survival to Reflection: Reclaiming Calm” will focus on slowing the nervous system after prolonged stress.

On March 2, “Healing Beyond Words” will use creative expression to explore emotions that resist language.

On March 9, “Money Stress and Mental Wellness” will address how financial strain impacts mental health, with tools for managing anxiety, overwhelm, and decision fatigue during recovery.

On April 13, “The Gift of Stillness” will teach grounding techniques for emotional rest when the future feels unclear.

This summer, the organization plans to launch Mental Health in Motion, a program centered on movement and embodied healing.

A Season of Healing — and Its Architect

The program’s most intensive period came during the holidays. Chris Holden, LA Fire Justice’s CEO and a former California State Assemblymember and Pasadena mayor, created the Season of Healing series after recognizing that the end of the year, particularly the holiday season, can be an especially difficult time for displaced families. During December and January, Mental Health Monday shifted from its usual monthly cadence to a weekly series, with the organization aiming to have every Monday covered.

Holden, who served in the State Assembly from 2012 to 2024, has described the work as personal.

“For more than 35 years, I have dedicated my life to serving this community,” he said in a letter to clients. LA Fire Justice plans to bring back the Season of Healing later this year.

Expanding Who Recovery Serves

LA Fire Justice is now actively expanding its mental health programming to better serve the Hispanic community, partnering with mental health professionals who can provide culturally responsive care and adding bilingual community outreach staff. The effort reflects the demographics of the affected foothill communities and addresses a gap in culturally specific support.

The expansion comes alongside a broader landscape of government-funded recovery services. State and county programs have delivered more than 185,000 individual counseling encounters to wildfire survivors since May, and the Governor has announced $2.2 million for a UCLA Health program supporting 33 schools and an estimated 30,000 students affected by the fires. LA County’s Department of Mental Health operates walk-in centers at 540 W. Woodbury Rd. in Altadena and 15247 La Cruz Dr. in Los Angeles, funded through a federal SAMHSA grant and open weekdays through June 2026.

LA Fire Justice’s Mental Health Monday program is privately run and distinct from these county services.

Beyond the Statute of Limitations

Perhaps the most striking commitment from Popoola is the one that extends beyond any legal timeline. LA Fire Justice, she said, intends to continue offering Mental Health Monday support “well beyond the statute of limitations” — an acknowledgment that emotional recovery does not operate on the same clock as litigation.

“Recovery isn’t just about rebuilding homes,” Popoola said. “It’s about helping people find the strength to move forward, to be mentally and emotionally prepared to rebuild and eventually come back home.”

On a Monday evening in Pasadena, in a room at 221 E. Walnut Street, the people who lost their homes and the people who did not sit together. Recovery, it turns out, is not a line that separates them. It is the room they share.