Generosity and compassion follow Los Angeles wildfires

LOUISVILLE — More than three weeks after the Los Angeles wildfires first erupted, those affected continue to wrestle with a mix of emotions while looking to the future.

One of those emotions is gratitude to those who’ve offered a helping hand since an unprecedented series of fires — now largely extinguished — began on Jan. 7. The blazes, including the Palisades and Eaton fires, scorched thousands of acres, decimated homes and communities, and took nearly 30 lives.

They’ve also led to an outpouring of compassion.

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“It’s pretty incredible how many people are showing their support and helping in different ways” around the denomination and beyond, said Presbytery of San Gabriel’s executive presbyter, the Rev. Wendy Tajima, who lost her family home in Altadena as a result of the disaster.

From hosting affected congregations to being a site for crisis help and meals to providing emotional support and helping to assess needs, the outreach by churches and presbyteries, as well as national staff, volunteers and community members, has helped to soothe hurting hearts.

People have been “looking for ways to be helpful and not to be a burden,” Tajima said.

As previously reported, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) has awarded initial assistance grants to three presbyteries: Pacific, San Gabriel and San Fernando. It also has awarded a church damage grant.

More recently, PDA has deployed an Initial Assistance Team, consisting of three National Response Team members, to California through early February. It also has a two-person team deployed to provide emotional and spiritual care to survivors, and national staff is supporting that effort virtually.

“It's important just to be the incarnational church, to be present with people, to accompany them during a very challenging time, to manifest, or to show, the concern of the larger church for what's happening in this particular disaster in Southern California,” said the Rev. Jim Kirk, Associate for National Disaster Response for PDA.

In that spirit, the Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Executive Director of the Interim Unified Agency, and the Rev. Tony Larson, Co-Moderator of the 226th General Assembly (2024), will be visiting California this weekend. Oh will be meeting with mid council leaders and attending various meetings. Larson will be engaging with Riverside and San Fernando presbyteries.

Altadena, one of the most heavily affected areas, was partially destroyed by the Eaton fire, one of the two largest fires that raged out of control due to strong Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions.

Only one Presbyterian church, Pacific Palisades, is known to have burned down as a result of the LA fires, but many people’s personal property was affected. Also, many churches have been impacted by smoke, soot and ash from the fires.

Many people who lost homes within the San Gabriel presbytery were insured, “so right now, we're all in the midst of dealing with the insurance companies and getting the information they need and trying to understand the system,” Tajima said.

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Some survivors also are starting to experience some progress toward a new chapter of their lives.

“One by one, we’re finding places to live,” said Tajima, who recently signed a lease and feels it was a blessing “to be able to get a place that's actually within the bounds of the presbytery.”

However, she and others are concerned about how future redevelopment could affect the makeup of places like her Altadena neighborhood and whether some previous residents could be priced out.

Altadena has “a sense of community, and it's also very diverse,” with people of various races and ethnicities, including Latine, Black and Asian, Tajima said. “It's also economically diverse, so one of the big discussions that has been happening a lot is when Altadena gets developed, what's it going to look like? Who's going to be able to live here?” and whether big developers will come in and make it unaffordable for many people.

Tajima said various denominations are starting to think about that and how they can provide influence. “I'm really hoping that we can do something strategic with the other denominations about the development,” Tajima said.

This is also an issue of concern to PDA. “We do have an active appeal for the fires and PDA will definitely be looking to support projects that address systemic issues like affordable housing,” Kirk said.

Meanwhile, one way that churches are helping is to host other faith communities, Tajima said.

Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena has been sharing its campus with Life International, a church that has been worshipping there and hosting a crisis center to help people affected by the wildfires.

Life International’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Anthony McFarland, said thanks to the collaboration and an influx of donations, survivors have received a variety of goods, including clothing, diapers, formula, food, toiletries and pet food, car seats for children, blankets, sleeping bags, and adult care items.

McFarland and his wife, Dr. Micheline McFarland, have devoted themselves to helping survivors even while being deeply impacted personally by the fire outbreak.

“We lost our home, our cars, our pets,” he said. It’s been “very heartbreaking.”

As the recovery continues, needs of the people are changing, he said. Instead of clothing, people now need things like gift cards, groceries and extended-stay housing vouchers, as well as masks or respirators for seniors whose homes smell of smoke.

Those are “pertinent things that they need coming back into the community,” McFarland said.

The McFarlands have been able to afford extended stay housing, but their hearts go out to those who cannot.

Also, “a lot of renters are displaced,” he said. “I just had somebody call me the other day, and they just said, ‘Pastor, you know, I need to not only find another place, but I'm going to need help with a deposit for another place, so those are the concerns now … We're still kind of strategizing, and we're still in assessment phase with being super clear on what people are going to need” as they’re  starting to come back to Altadena to see their houses and get assessments.

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Derrell Wallace, a custodian at Pasadena Presbyterian Church who also works at Fuller Theological Seminary and helps out at various area churches, was saddened to see loved ones, such as his grandmother and uncle, lose their homes in Altadena, where he grew up.

“A lot of people that I know, family included, lost their homes, so right now they are all scattered out” at various places, such as Airbnbs and hotels, said Wallace, who is sheltering a close friend at his place.

In order to visit his uncle, Wallace had to go to an Airbnb, “which was like an hour and a half away from where I am,” he said. “Usually, it takes 10 minutes to get to his house, … and he was just saying he's still in shock.”

Recovery is likely to be ongoing for years.

“PDA will partner with the impacted presbyteries in the years ahead for the rebuilding because fires are just a whole different scenario,” Kirk of PDA said. “We saw it in Paradise” in 2018. “We saw it in Maui. Fires just decimate the infrastructure in ways that hurricanes or flooding or tornadoes or other events typically do not because of the intensity of the heat.”

Financial support for relief efforts through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance can be designated to DR000165, which supports the church’s response to wildfires in the U.S. Gifts can be made here.