New survey reveals collective trauma of January wildfires on Los Angeles County communities
PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- We are seeing more signs of recovery in the Palisades Fire burn zone amid a newly published report detailing the impact of the January wildfires on Los Angeles County residents.
The nonprofit organization CORE was at the site of the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church, which was destroyed during the Palisades Fire, on Wednesday, to begin removing debris so they can start rebuilding there.
The organization says the debris removal was made possible with the generous support of the CAA Foundation's SoCal Fire Fund, a collaborative relief and recovery effort launched to assist students, individuals, and families impacted by the January fires.
"To the people involved in getting this important work done, CORE, their donors, so many people who've gotten us to this point. We feel so thankful," said pastor Matt Hardin.
Heavy equipment broke down and moved the debris. On Thursday, dump trucks will begin to haul it away.
"As the pastor said, hope is alive. We just want to serve. We're here for the people, and yeah, I do get emotional," said philanthropist Stephen Cloobeck, who helped fund the debris removal.
"The amount of love and the care of people helping strangers and just coming through for each other, you cannot lose hope in humanity because of that," said CORE co-founder Ann Lee.
CORE recently finished work on the fire damage reservoir in Altadena. They say the debris removal at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church will take about three weeks.
As the Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities heal, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs published its 10th-annual report about how people rate the quality of life in Los Angeles County on Wednesday. This year's report focused on the impacts of the fires on local communities. The survey revealed that the collective trauma of the January wildfires in those communities is more widespread than anticipated.
The survey found the quality of life remains low in L.A. County. The frustration is fueled by the high cost of living, threats from the Trump administration driving fear in immigrant communities, homelessness, and of course, the January wildfires.
"This was a shared trauma all over the county. It wasn't just in the Palisades and Altadena, it was downwind from the fire. People were afraid. 25% of the people were worried they were going to have to evacuate," said Zev Yaroslavsky, the director of the Los Angeles Initiative UCLA Luskin. "It's one thing when you have a fire out there in the mountains, it burned some homes, but it's really confined to that area. This fire or these fires were not confined to any one area. Everyone had skin in this game."
Of the L.A. County residents surveyed, over 40% said they knew someone personally affected by the fires, 14% lost income from the fires, 89% said homeowners who lost their properties should be able to rebuild at the same location, and 52% said they support a tax increase to help improve wildfire response. Roughly 25% said they knew someone who lost a home or a business during the fires.
"We need to actually rebuild in such a way that we not only recover, but that we're something else and something better, more sustainable. Something that can survive," said Cecilia Estolano with the Luskin Advisory Board. "We have vast changes happening in our climate and we're going to continue to have these types of disasters. It's not good enough to be back where we were. We have to better. We have to be stronger. We have to be more fire safe. We have to be more survivable."
Mayor Karen Bass highlighted the speed at which Los Angeles restored water and power to the Palisades and has helped coordinate debris removal. However, the survey revealed Bass is far less popular than she was one year ago.
Of the respondents, 37% viewed L.A. Mayor Karen Bass favorably, while 49% said they viewed her unfavorably.
"When you're the mayor of a city where you have a major natural disaster, the worst ever, you're going to get some blowback. It comes with the territory," Yaroslavsky said. "She still has, in the City of L.A., 39% of the people who see her favorably. That's more than a lot of people who are in politics have. But, she has a high number of people who don't see her favorably, 49%. That all happened in the last couple of months."
Bass has 14 months left in her first term. Leading the recovery and rebuilding of the Palisades presents an opportunity to regain support ahead of the election next year.
