“The fallout of concern for Altadena in … six months from now, it might be old news and the folks that are helping might just be moved on, but we’re gonna be in the trenches of it.”

Lucy Nazaretyan and her family are one of the many Altadena residents who had their lives turned around on January 7th, 2025.

“That day, I came home from work, I came to my parents house. You can see the hillside from their kitchen, and the power was out at their place. So we made jokes about eating like, candlelight dinner with the kids, so we like boiled pasta. We were gonna do a simple meal.”

Lucy’s two kids had just finished a long day of school at Altadena Arts, a sub-5 minute drive from her parents house at the base of Eaton Canyon. The day was complicated, due to the extreme winds throughout the early parts of the week. When Lucy’s husband peeked out the kitchen windows around 6:00pm, it kicked off the events for a night that many feared could happen.

“… Then my husband was like ‘the hillside is on fire’, and it was just completely … I mean it was super windy that day.”

“Probably within 30 minutes, the police are just going up and down the street with the megaphone and announcing that you had to evacuate, so we had no lights, we had two kids, and they just took a black trash bag and just ran around in the house. The only thing we took out of my parents house were stuffed animals.”

A quick evacuation from her parents’ house meant that Lucy and her family had to check on their own house, up on the Northern point of Lake Avenue, near Farnsworth Park. The Nazaretyan house was under construction, with the young family having plans to move in within the year.

“It was under construction but all of our stuff everything was stored in the garage…The fire wasn’t anywhere close to our street and the firefighters were set up at the Farnsworth Park, which is at the end of our street. So we didn’t even go into our house to remove anything [like] albums or  pictures because my husband was like, ‘oh the firefighters are set up at the end of this block.’ There’s no way our our street is going down.”

“And then around 10 o’clock, I got a call from my neighbor that said a gardener was on our street, and our entire block is gone.”

“All of our neighbors, I mean we’re all close, we all talked to each other. So we just started texting each other and letting each other know that our street was gone, and that was pretty much it.”

The next few weeks overlapped for the Nazaretyans. From a hotel to AirBnb, from AirBnb to an apartment. Altadena Arts’ campus being one of the many Pasadena campuses to be ruled unsafe in the aftermath threw even more uncertainty for the whole family. The kids’ school currently is meeting in an abandoned PUSD campus on the south side of the city. One of the biggest points of uncertainty for the family is the medium-long term location of the kids’ schooling.

“I’m not sure what the plans are for PUSD, because you know people have to opt in to clean their properties…it’s obviously gonna bring about ash and toxins and so like there’s concerns with the parents on…when when they would go back, if at all this year.” 

The effect on the young kids is one that Lucy and her husband are taking care to attune for in various ways.

“I was telling my husband this morning, they’ve had such a miserable eight weeks that like, to have a fun summer camp with something like…robotics and science and swimming, [things] which they wouldn’t otherwise do,  would probably be something special for them, especially this summer. So that’s…sort of my next goal for me for the kids.”

“My ten-year-old is obviously very very attuned. We were at a restaurant, and there was one of those flickering heat lamps, and he like literally jumped out of his seat. And we were like, it’s just a heat lamp, but he [thought] it’s like a fire starting.”

The ideal avenues for her kids to achieve a sense of normalcy and peace may be easy for Lucy to have concepts for, but the practicality of these options is less certain. With very major financial decisions looming for the Nazaretyans, options are limited. The unprecedented movement of schooling is hard for parents to navigate, but it also throws doubt into the services available from the city. 

“I was literally just looking at camps. I just emailed South Pas, the camps are insanely expensive. I’m asking for like a fire victim discounts, but I don’t know what PUSD’s plans are…it’s complicated.”

While juggling decisions on the summer plans for the kids, one decision seems clear: the Nazaretyans don’t plan on leaving Altadena any time soon.

“So there’s 20 of us on a group chat of [residents] on our street. That’s been super helpful. We’re all sort of in that point of waiting for the cleanup efforts and seeing where that goes…but I think the plan is to rebuild with most of us.”

“I went to Webster for Elementary and then Marshall for middle [and] high school, met my husband in ninth grade, and then we Followed each other…through college and…then we came back…So we all knew we were gonna come back to this community.”

The desire to stay and rebuild Altadena is one thing, but there are many measures out of local residents’ control.

“We are pretty under insured, so when the rebuild time comes…most of us are and then needing to see what options [we have]. Who’s gonna insure Altadena at that point?”

Through the 2+ months since the Eaton Fire, Lucy and her family have stuck together in these trials that could break apart anyone. 

“The concern is…for Altadena in a couple months…you know, six months from now, it might be old news and the folks that are helping might just be moved on whereas we’re still…gonna be in the trenches of it. But as far as long-term, our goal is the rebuild, our kids’ physical and mental well-being, and then slowly sort of seeing the resources [available].”

“Now, we’re appreciative of anyone that even cares to hear the story of our little community, so we appreciate it.”