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A California single mother who lost everything in Altadena this week during the Eaton Fire is hailing her community’s resilience, telling Fox News Digital that “we have not lost our tenacity and our spirit.”
Brenda King said Friday that she has lived in California and Los Angeles for more than 20 years, but she “always knew there was something so special about the energy of Altadena,” describing it as a “paradise because of all the tender love and care that all of the citizens put into it and the way they preserved everything.”
“The day the fire broke out, it’s so bizarre because literally I just figured it out. I had just figured out a little promotion for myself at work,” the writer and intimacy coordinator told Fox News Digital, mentioning how her 5-year-old son was going to get his own room in the property she was renting.
King recalls finding her son his “first big boy bed” on Facebook Marketplace and organizing his toys and favorite books on a shelf. Yet that vision was cut short when the Eaton Fire started bearing down on her home.
King says despite losing her home and nearly all of her possessions, the community she was a part of in Altadena “doesn’t go away.”
“I was watching the news and I was watching my beloved city just burning everywhere,” King told Fox News Digital. “And the news reporter — I don’t even think she was a resident of Altadena, but she was saying that she had been in other fire zones and she was just astonished that so many people were there and they were still helping and they were putting water on their neighbor’s lawns and they were just still there fighting to preserve whatever is left of our city, which is essentially nothing except our lives.”
Cars are left charred inside a dealership in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
“People have lost their lives in Altadena. And I am so wretchedly sorry for that. But we have not lost our tenacity and our spirit,” King said.
Shane Torre, left, and Stephanie Rodriguez embrace as the look at what remains of their home destroyed by the Eaton Fire on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP/John Locher)
“I’ve lived in so many different places, and Altadena was my heart,” King told Fox News Digital. “I’ve never found happiness and community and love anywhere else in L.A. the way that I personally found it there.”