Their home survived the fires, but there's still danger everywhere
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A single block and a half separates the home of Jennifer and Ed Barguerena from complete destruction. Yeah, just down this block to the next stop sign, which is Lincoln Avenue. Yeah. Just across that border, it's completely devastating. And right behind us are rows of intact houses. It's unimaginable, the devastation. And the number of lives that have been impacted. Just...

down the road. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Obviously, we value having our home, but you also feel a bit helpless because you know that there are people just down the block who need help. There's nothing we can do at the moment, and that's really...

Their home is in Altadena, and this community is hurting so deeply for the ones who lost everything. But for families like the Barguerenas, the seemingly lucky ones whose houses survived, an altogether different ordeal is just beginning. Part of our concern is making sure that

that, you know, what we're coming back to is a place that's not just whole, but safe and stable for our family. You don't know what you don't know yet. Exactly. And you can't see, like not every toxin is obvious. Consider this. The water here still isn't safe to drink, cook, or wash with.

There are fine layers of ash and dust in people's homes and yards. And families like the Bargy Arenas are also worried about what they can't see. The possibility that toxins like lead and asbestos might have drifted into their homes. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang.

It's Consider This from NPR. As evacuation orders are lifted, people in Los Angeles are returning to their homes, if their homes survived. But, you know, the disaster, it doesn't end when the fire stops. We wanted to hear from a family figuring out what comes next. And that's how I found myself standing on the driveway of Jennifer and Ed Barguerena.

They share their tidy green home with their two boys, 11 and 14. Their front yard opens to a soaring view of the San Gabriel Mountains. And I asked Jennifer, how did you feel when driving back to your house for the first time since the fires? Nervous and then amazed.

Everything was still standing. Everything looked relatively normal. As I came around the corner, many of my neighbors were also just coming back. And that was joyful. Hugging everyone, just knowing that they were safe, that their family was safe. For me, that was probably my biggest takeaway from coming back because I think in the end, this house is not our home.

This community is our home. I'm a bit of a crier. No, don't worry at all. Home is bigger than this structure in front of us. And then I will say then when we went into our house, it's both eerie and amazing. It smells like a campfire. There's ashen soot around doors and windows. But in general, it looks normal. Well, yes.

Do you mind us walking in for just a little bit to get a sense? Sure, we'd be happy to do that. Yeah. Okay. I know your wreath hook is still there.

Okay, so here we are. You can see we accidentally left a couple lights on. Oh, your Christmas tree is still here. Christmas tree is still up. Here's the card game we were playing on the table before we left. Oh, my God. It's like... And we just left everything. We said it's time to go now, and we just walked out. Wow, it's like a freeze frame. Jennifer leads me to the kitchen window and pulls up the shade. You can see... Oh, yeah. When you look up there,

All along the windowsill, the window frame. So all of this. Against the glass. I think we probably, we closed all the windows and all the old windows, all the old doors. That's where we see there's visible evidence of soot. I'd say our biggest concerns are, do you want to go to the back of our house? Sure.

She leads me to her son's room, where the winds crack the little door to the attic. That is where what we're understanding is where a lot of ash, soot, and toxins will settle. And I believe that's part of remediation is that

that will all be cleaned and replaced. And that's probably where a lot of the smell came in. And, you know, there's also stuff that we can't see right here just standing in a room. I'm thinking about the insulation. I'm thinking about your HVAC system. All the stuff that still has to work years from now if you were to live in this house. Right.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So there's, you know, those systems need to be checked and cleaned and verified. And, you know, you can look at just, it's just the amount of tiny things. My son has a lifetime of Legos there and it's like, whoa, who's going to clean all that? So it's just the process of making sure that every surface is safe so that when you touch something in the future, you're not worried about it.

They lead me back outside, and I ask them what sort of timeline their insurance company has given them on next steps. At the moment, we're on hold until they can physically send an adjuster to our site. When I spoke with the person assigned to our claim yesterday, they could not give me a window of time. So us, like...

Tens of thousands of Angelenos at this moment are scrambling to find temporary housing. But are we looking for short-term temporary, long-term temporary? How do we settle our family in a way that stops making this an emergency for weeks and months?

Moving ahead. Yeah. I guess given all that you've been going through, you know, I can hear how much you love this community. You love the people who live around you. But do you actually see a real future for yourself in this neighborhood long term? That's a complicated question. I think part of it is maybe too early to know that for sure, because I don't think we have taken in the true devastation that's happened here.

I think one thing would be for sure, though, if we were to leave, I think we would take Altadena with us. And we would try to make that sense of community come to life anywhere we go, because we know it can work. And we know this is kind of

One of those American ideals that we maybe think we've lost, but it's still here. People still care about each other. I can still borrow eggs from my neighbor. I can go further down the street and borrow a truck if I need to go get mulch. It's like that kind of living and that kind of connectivity and that social connection

bond is still something that is worth fighting for and building. So whether we stay here or not, I think Altadena lives on in the places that we move to next. You've learned how to build and hang on to community. Absolutely. Fires did not destroy that. Yeah. I just want to say thank you to both of you so much for coming down here from your Airbnb and meeting with us on your driveway to talk about something so painful and frustrating.

Really, thank you. We appreciate that. Thank you for helping us tell the story that represents an entire community. Yeah. Thanks for speaking for our neighbors. Ed and Jennifer Bargiarena, reflecting on what the future holds for those still left in Altadena. This episode was produced by Michael Levitt and Connor Donovan, with audio engineering by Jimmy Keeley and Kweisi Lee. It was edited by Christopher Intagliata and Courtney Dorney. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

And as we wrap the week, a big thank you to our Consider This Plus listeners who support this show. If that's not you, it could be. Supporters also hear every episode without sponsor messages. Learn more at the link in our episode notes. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.