{"id":41754,"date":"2025-05-02T05:41:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41754"},"modified":"2025-05-02T05:42:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T10:42:55","slug":"los-angeles-homeowners-begin-to-rebuild-after-devastating-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=41754","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles homeowners begin to rebuild after devastating wildfires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Nearly four months after wildfires<\/a> reduced thousands of Los Angeles-area homes to rubble and ash<\/a>, some residents are starting to rebuild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, construction workers recently began placing wooden beams to frame a house on a lot where only a charred fireplace remains standing. In the seaside city of Malibu and foothills neighborhood of Altadena, many land parcels where homes once stood are being cleared of debris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of homeowners have sought city or county approval for new home designs and other permits to eventually rebuild or repair damaged homes, though few have gotten the green light to break ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 17,000 homes, businesses and other structures burned to the ground in the Jan. 7 fires. It\u2019s uncertain how much will be rebuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many homeowners will not be able to afford it, even those with insurance. Some are still trying to figure out whether it\u2019s safe to return to their properties, given limited data on the degree to which toxins from the fires, including lead and asbestos, may have permeated their land. Roughly 400 land parcels are already for sale in the fire-ravaged areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facing overwhelming loss and the chaos that comes with sudden displacement, those looking to rebuild must navigate an often confusing and time-consuming process. In most cases, it will take years for them to rebuild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LA issued its first building permit nearly two months after the fires started. It took more than seven months before the first building permit was issued following the Woolsey Fire in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPutting this in context of other disasters, the speed is actually probably faster than expected,\u201d said Sara McTarnaghan, a researcher at the Urban Institute who studied the aftermath of urban wildfires in recent years in Colorado, Hawaii and California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resolving to rebuild in Altadena<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kathryn Frazier, a music publicist and life coach, had lived in her four-bedroom, three-bath house in Altadena for 10 years and raised her two children there. After her home burned to the ground, she was in shock and questioned whether it made sense to come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after conversations with neighbors, she became determined to rebuild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not leaving,\u201d Frazier said. \u201cThat\u2019s what kept coming up for everybody, and the more we all talked to each other the more we were all like \u2018hell yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is making progress. Frazier hired a crew to clear the property of debris and she is nearly through the first phase of permitting, which involves getting county review and approval for her new home\u2019s design. The next phase before receiving approval to begin construction includes reviews of electrical, plumbing and other aspects of the design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frazier, 55, is rebuilding her home without major changes to its size or location in order to qualify for an expedited building permit approval process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are hoping to be building by June or July, latest,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve been told that maybe by February or March of 2026 we could be back in our home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, Frazier is getting quotes on windows, skylights and other home fixtures in hopes of locking in prices before they go up as more construction projects ramp up, or in response to the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing trade war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing things like scouring Home Depot, finding slate tiles that look modern and beautiful, but they\u2019re actually really cheap,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recreating a home in the Palisades<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeAnn Heline, a TV showrunner, knows what it\u2019s like to build her dream house from the ground up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She waited more than two years for construction to be completed on the five-bedroom, eight-bath home with ocean views. Once the project was done, her husband vowed to never build another house. The family lived there for six years before it was destroyed in the Palisades Fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was ash. There was nothing,\u201d Heline said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple, who have two daughters, have lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years. They couldn\u2019t imagine giving up and not rebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot only are we building another house, we\u2019re building the exact same house again,\u201d Heline said, noting the new home will have some upgrades including fire-resistant materials and sprinklers for the exterior of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, they cleared debris from the land where the house once stood, a particularly onerous task because the home featured a large basement into which much of the structure collapsed as it burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heline isn\u2019t sure when construction will begin, but figures it could be two or three years. She wonders, however, what the neighborhood will look like by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat are you going back to? You\u2019re going back to a moonscape? Are you there and no one else is on your block, or are you going back to a construction zone for many more years?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banding together as a community<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eaton wildfire destroyed many of the more than 270 historic Janes Cottages in Altadena, including the three-bedroom home Tim Vordtriede shared with his wife and two young children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family had only lived in the roughly 100-year-old house for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just loved the storybook cottage and the vibe, and of course the grander vibe of Altadena,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vordtriede, 44, has decided to rebuild, but not just yet. For now, he is using his experience as a construction project manager to help others who also lost their homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He co-founded Altadena Collective, a group providing assistance with home designs and guidance on how to navigate the complex and lengthy approval process for rebuilding permits. Of the roughly two dozen clients that the group is serving, at reduced cost, three are in the early stages of the permitting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even after projects reach shovel-ready status, homeowners will have to wait perhaps more than a year before they can move in, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy first statement when anyone walks in the door is: We\u2019re not here to help you design your dream home,\u201d Vordtriede said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a dream time. This is a nightmare, and our job is to get you out of the nightmare as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Nearly four months after wildfires reduced thousands of Los Angeles-area homes to rubble and ash, some residents are starting to rebuild. In the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, construction workers recently began placing wooden beams to frame a house on a lot where only a charred fireplace remains standing. In the seaside city of Malibu and foothills […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[33143,3097,33144,8158],"class_list":["post-41754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-houses","tag-los-angeles","tag-rebuilding-homes","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41756,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41754\/revisions\/41756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}