From Dec. 29 to 31, senior Jon Contreras stayed at his brother’s apartment in Altadena, California, located approximately 14 miles from downtown Los Angeles. On Jan. 7, just a week after Contreras’ stay, the Eaton fire reached Altadena. The wildfire, bolstered by 50 to 80 mph Santa Ana winds, razed the apartment community and the entire surrounding neighborhood.
His brother, Michael Contreras ’19, is a therapist, and his sister-in-law is an elementary school teacher. The couple was immersed in the neighborhood surrounding their home: They found a home church, shopped at their local grocery store and hung out at a drum circle on Tuesday nights. Contreras’ sister-in-law grew up in the area, living in her parent’s home for 20 years with her brothers.
“It’s all gone,” said Contreras. “It’s just gone.”
Since early January, wildfires have continued to devastate Southern California. The fires have destroyed over 16,000 structures, burned 57,000 acres and killed at least 28 people, per the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Two of the fires, Eaton and Palisades, are the second and third most destructive fires in California history, respectively. Many Wheaton students have been affected by the fires
Contreras, an economics major, was camping in Joshua Tree National Park the night before the Eaton fire began. While he was a few hours away from Altadena, his brother and sister-in-law first received evacuation alerts about the fires while housesitting.
They had about 45 minutes to pack their valuables in their Prius and Camry, leaving the apartment in the middle of the night. By noon the following day, their home was gone.
Contreras’ brother and sister-in-law currently stay in an Airbnb. Since the destruction of their home, they have raised enough money from donations to not worry about small financial costs. Contreras noted after talking with his brother, however, that the future of their beloved community is bleak. “I don’t think the community can restore itself,” he said.
Contreras explained that some will leave the area for good, and some will stay and rebuild, but it could take years.
To avoid the Eaton fire, Destiny Rogers ’23, a Masters of Divinity student at Fuller Seminary, evacuated to her family home in Oceanside, California. She explained that due to fire risk caused by the annual Santa Ana winds, evacuations are nothing new.
Fuller sent an email notifying students to evacuate and instructing them how to prepare. At the time, Rogers was coming back from visiting a friend in Colorado. Looking out the window as the plane descended to LAX in the early morning of Jan. 7, she felt this warning was different.
“I could see the flames from my airplane window, and it felt as though I was descending into utter chaos,” she said.
After landing, Rogers slept for a few hours in Pasadena and evacuated later that morning. She packed a bag, grabbed a few items that she cherished and drove away.
“I remember Wednesday morning when I was walking out of my apartment, I looked around and the sky was this thick yellow, from the ash and the fire,” she said.
Rogers wanted to use the resources she had to support those affected most by the fires. That following Saturday, she helped distribute 12 pallets of emergency supplies to give out to her community. Within four hours, the supplies were gone.
Rogers recalled helping a Hispanic family, a mom and two girls under the age of five. All they had was what fit in their car. Everything else had burnt down. Rogers helped load their car with diapers, blankets, food and toiletries. She remembered the looks on their faces the most.
“They weren’t frustrated or angry or mad, they were just distraught,” she said.
Rogers described how, in an instant, this family was forced to rely on whatever the community could give them.
“It’s a strange thing to not have any independence because you have no way to exercise that independence.”
With so many people in a vulnerable position, some people capitalized on the situation, according to Rogers. She has seen looting, arsonists trying to start new fires and people taking advantage of those left with nothing. Still, Rogers noted that plenty of people from the community are helping, with every need taken care of.
Axel Erickson, a senior communication major, lives in Pasadena. His parents moved to a home close to the Rose Bowl Stadium only a year ago. Although their home has not been impacted, the thought of its destruction is harrowing, Erickson said. Rampant power outages and empty buildings made his neighborhood feel “apocalyptic.”
According to Erickson, living in California means living with the reality of wildfires.
“When the mountains are burning or when the forest is burning, you don’t really think much about it. You think about it as, ‘Oh yeah, nature is burning,’” he said. “But then when you hear that the McDonald’s is burning or the Aldi just burned down, it’s a lot more shocking to think about.”
Betsy Hendrickson, a junior history major, is from Riverside, California, and her home has not been damaged by the fires. However, she frequently checks apps such as Watch Duty to monitor fire pop-ups in her county and the counties of her friends. In an interview on Jan. 22, Hendrickson said she received alerts about three fires in her county, one of which developed while she was in class the night before.
Hendrickson has been upset by some of the online discourse surrounding the fires, much of which she considers misinformation. Even in class dialogue, she notices those not from California assuming that all those affected in Los Angeles are wealthy.
Some online discussion, she noted, has said that people in Los Angeles “deserve this” or minimize the wildfire’s impact, flippantly saying that California residents will simply rebuild.
Since arriving back at school, Hendrickson has been having serious conversations with her parents in California, knowing that the fires in Los Angeles could happen in Riverside.
“I didn’t pack a box, and I didn’t tell exactly what items I would want my mom to take. But even then, it’s realizing what you would take. What would you lose?” she said.
Jamie Goodwin, assistant professor of humanitarian and disaster leadership, told the Record about how Christians can seek God’s providence and love amid the fires.
“Disasters such as these force people into situations, choices and then memories that take years to heal, if they ever do,” she said. “These are times when it can become extremely difficult to believe, but also times when Christ can be a closer friend than ever.”
“What I have observed is that kind, committed and emotionally safe friends and family make all the difference here,” she continued. “Listen to their experiences and care for their spiritual needs, either explicitly or silently, depending on what they need at the time.”
Goodwin also noted that to prevent a wildfire in climates like Southern California, it’s important to remove anything that could serve as fuel for the fire and to establish in homes what is called defensible space.
When asked what Wheaton students can do to help those impacted by the fires, junior English writing major Lily Caddow, who is from Castaic, California, said, “Right now, pray.”
“There are lots of students from Cali at Wheaton, probably one of your friends,” she continued. “Check in.”
Caddow and Rogers stated there are many ways for Wheaton students to donate and organizations to partner with, such as World Vision or the Red Cross. Goodwin noted that many schools in the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, which Wheaton is a part of, are raising disaster relief funds, such as Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine and Fuller Seminary.
Still, if students are unable to contribute financially or via supplies, prayer counts, according to Caddow and Rogers.
“Right now our city is in a crisis, in extreme loss and is searching for beauty in the ashes, and I ask for prayer for the rebuilding process and people’s needs to be taken care of,” said Rogers.
“We aren’t God and can’t bear every burden, so if sincere prayer is all you can do, then that is enough,” said Caddow.
