CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE ZONES
By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
January 9, 2025
St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Altadena — GONE!
Altadena Community Church in Altadena — GONE!
Altadena United Methodist Church in Altadena — GONE!
Community United Methodist Church in Pacific Palisades — Gone!
Pasadena Jewish Temple in Pasadena — GONE!
Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Pacific Palisades — GONE!
Kinneloa Church of Christ in Pasadena — GONE!
Masjid Al Taqwa Mosque in Altadena — GONE!
St. Matthew’s Episcopal School in Pacific Palisades — GONE!
St. Mark's Episcopal School in Altadena — GONE!
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church twin rectories in Pacific Palisades — GONE!
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Pacific Palisades — Damaged!
Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church in Pacific Palisades — Damaged!
Corpus Christi Catholic School in Pacific Palisades — Damaged!
Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Hollywood — Threatened!
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Hollywood — Threatened!
St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City — Threatened!
All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena — Evacuation Center!
St. Paul’s Commons Episcopal Retreat Center in Echo Park — Evacuation Center!
It all started at 10:30 Tuesday (Jan. 7) morning with a small fire on Palisades
Drive in Pacific Palisades. The fire department was not able to contain it quickly enough as the Santa Ana winds whipped up spreading hot embers across the street and across town.
Twenty-four hours later one fire had become five separate ongoing fires chewing through thousands of acres destroying everything in their paths — homes, multimillion dollar mansions, historic landmarks, businesses, stores, eateries, libraries, retirement centers, schools and even houses of worship: Catholic … Protestant … Jewish … Islamic …
One of the fire-destroyed churches is St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Altadena. The Episcopal church building made it unscathed through Tuesday night. But it did not survive Wednesday. Fire surrounded it before dawn broke.
“It is with a broken heart that I share with you the news that our church building is lost,” St. Mark's rector the Rev. Carri Grindon posted on Facebook Wednesday. “It caught fire at around 6:30 this morning, and is gone.”
She also noted that several members of her congregation also lost their homes to the raging out of control fire.
The Palisades Fire, fueled by 100 mph Santa Ana wind gusts, shot hot embers into the air that were sometimes blown miles away thus seeding new blazes. The Eaton Fire started at 6 pm Tuesday evening followed by the Hurst Fire at 10 pm.
The explosion of the Palisades Fire prompted immediate evacuations. Residents fled the flames choking the escape routes creating gridlock. People left their cars in the streets and ran for their lives, many with just the clothes on their backs. To clear a path for fire equipment to get in, fire officials brought in bulldozers to push the abandoned cars out of the way to make room for emergency crews to get through.
By nightfall power was out. It was the leaping yellow and orange flames which lit up the night sky not street lamps or porch lights.
The Woodley Fire started just before dawn on Wednesday (Jan. 8) with the Lidia Fire being torched by 1 pm.
Along the way blowing sparks were igniting other fires but they were quickly suppressed so that they could not get a foothold and spread. Those small ember brush fires were: the Bert Fire, the Gulch Fire, the Olivas Fire, the Tyler Fire, and the Riverbed Fire.
By daybreak Wednesday officials were finally able to get enough natural light to see what was burned, is still burning, what was left standing, and what was in the fire’s path.
The early Wednesday morning tally showed that more than one thousand buildings were either reduced to rubble and smoldering ruins, or heavily fire damaged. At least two were dead and others injured. So much damage was wrought in less than 24 hours. The death toll increased to five by nightfall.
Los Angeles County is the most populated county in the United States with 9.6 million people. More than 100,000 Californians had to out run the encroaching flames including several residents of retirement or assisted living communities. One such community which executed its predawn evacuation plan was the MonteCedre, an Episcopal facility in Altadena.
Two hundred residents safely fled the encroaching flames. However, the historic Scripps Home Gloria Cottage, located on MonteCedre's property, succumbed to the blaze. Yet it seems the primary MonteCedre structures survived.
The MonteCedro is managed by Episcopal Community and Services for Seniors (ECS) which has been serving the church since 1923.
MonteCedro is one of four ECS senior communities. The other three are: the Canterbury in Rancho Palos Verdes; the Covington in Aliso Viejo; and Twelve Oaks in Glendale, which is currently undergoing redevelopment and is scheduled to reopen for residents in 2028.
By 7 pm Wednesday evening, as the Santa Ana winds again picked up, the Sunset Fire had started and was heading to the Hollywood Hills. It would be another long agonizing night of firefighting, fear, worry, escape, and prayer.
“God of the sun and the sea, the rains and the winds, bear all our neighbors through this stormy night and throw a veil of protection over those battling these wildfires under the worst possible conditions. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” Bishop John Taylor (VII Los Angeles) posted on Facebook Tuesday. “May our God in Christ be with you, tonight and always.”
In the deepening darkness another overnight fire was sparked, the Sunswept Fire, but firefighters were able to quell that blaze before it spread.
When the sun rose for a second time on Thursday (Jan. 9) the runaway wildfires had destroyed more than 2,000 — and counting — structures.
Thursday morning weary firefighters were still in a losing battle against the unrelenting forces of nature — wind and fire. Reinforcements are being sent in from neighboring states and the California National Guard has been activated to join the fight.
Thursday as the Santa Ana winds died down there was some suppression progress being made on the smaller fires. However, the area is still under red flag warnings on into the weekend. But for the most part there is zero percent containment of the largest and still growing fires.
Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline
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