L.A. fires burned their block. For each, the disaster was just beginning.

"With desperate searchesfor a place to live, ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA: With his son and daughter, Daron Anderson sits on the driveway of the Army Corp of Engineers bulldozed lot of his wildfire destroyed lot in Altadena, California on Thursday July 24, 2025. His families' house was burned down on W. Las Flores Drive in Altadena during the LA Fires on January 7, 2025. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) Tortuous decisions and lingering trauma,"

"WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA: At their airbnb temporary home, Danielle "Dani" Valdes speaks to an SBA loan representative over the phone trying to figure out why they didn't qualify for a loan, a loan offered to victims of the LA Fires, in West Hollywood, California on Wednesday March 5, 2025. The Valdes family home was burned down on W. Las Flores Drive in Altadena during the LA Fires on January 7, 2025. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post) And the surprising anguish of a house left standing."

"ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA: A garbage dumpster filled with fire damaged garbage seen out the window as Jennie Bridges does a walkthrough in her wildfire smoke damaged home with ServPro inspectors in Altadena, California on Thursday July 24, 2025. Jennie Bridges' home wasn't burned down like the rest of the houses on the block but instead experienced extreme smoke damage on W. Las Flores Drive in Altadena during the LA Fires on January 7, 2025."

The Los Angeles wildfires on January 7, 2025, destroyed and smoke-damaged homes across west Altadena, leaving entire neighborhoods leveled. Three families experienced varied losses: one family’s house was bulldozed after burning, another family struggled to qualify for disaster loans while displaced in an Airbnb, and a third family endured severe smoke damage to a standing home. An Army Corps of Engineers excavator cleared charred remnants, transforming home sites into piles of metal and ash. Survivors face desperate searches for housing, tortuous recovery decisions, bureaucratic obstacles to federal aid, and lingering trauma from displacement and loss. The emotional toll includes anguish over homes left standing but unlivable and the symbolic sense of burial as machinery removes familiar foundations.

Read at The Washington Post