ALTADENA, Calif. (RNS) — The Rev. George Van Alstine remembers having to evacuate his Pasadena residence as flames from the Eaton hearth drew nearer. He’d been assured his close by parish, Altadena Baptist Church, was nonetheless standing. However by the next morning, his grandson despatched him video of the church engulfed in flames.
The footage was “dramatic and unhappy,” mentioned Van Alstine, the church’s affiliate pastor. He may hear his grandson crying as he captured flames rising out of a church window. “We by no means anticipated the hearth to brush throughout the middle of Altadena like that,” mentioned Van Alstine, 88, whose residence survived.
On Friday (Jan. 24), Van Alstine walked previous the rubble and charred particles of the church. He noticed the bell tower that remained intact, and approached the gutted Altadena Youngsters’s Heart, which served as a day care on the church property for greater than 40 years. He pointed to what was his workplace, the place he saved an unlimited assortment of books and the place he hung out writing the church e-newsletter.
The Eaton hearth consumed the sanctuary of Altadena Baptist Church, certainly one of no less than a dozen homes of worship destroyed within the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles County. The fireplace additionally destroyed the properties of about 20 church households and compelled roughly 20 others to vacate their homes as a result of ash and smoke publicity.
“The household journeys are going to be laborious. We have now some older individuals whose household wealth is tied up of their homes. Rebuilding in Altadena goes to be much more costly. … Property taxes are going to be rather a lot greater,” Van Alstine mentioned. “Rebuilding goes to be matches and begins.”
Debra Blake, left, and the Rev. George Van Alstine go to the property of Altadena Baptist Church, Jan. 24, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Photograph by Alejandra Molina)
Debra Blake, the deacon chair for Altadena Baptist, misplaced her residence of almost 30 years to the Eaton hearth.
“That is life, and for me, I don’t even see it as a step again. It’s truly a check. He assessments these he loves. I simply have the religion. There’s a objective for this, and we’re going to develop and transfer on from this,” Blake mentioned.
Included within the destruction was a vault chronicling the historical past of Altadena Baptist Church, a merger with a Swedish Baptist church that dates again to 1920. The LGBTQ+ affirming church — which racially built-in within the early ’70s – is a part of an interfaith community that administered a meals pantry and did outreach for the unhoused.
“It’s a check of religion, proper? We’ve mentioned for years: ‘The church is just not the constructing. It’s the individuals.’ Now’s our probability to show it,” Van Alstine mentioned.
In traditionally various Altadena, the place greater than 9,000 constructions had been destroyed within the hearth, clergy and religion leaders are reeling from the size of devastation. Some are mourning the lack of their buildings. Others try to succeed in a dispersed and demoralized congregation. Most have a number of congregants who’ve misplaced properties. All are dealing with robust questions on their future.
First AME Pasadena nonetheless stands however the properties of no less than 54 of the church’s households burned to the bottom. One other 12 households can not dwell of their fire-damaged properties. And as of final Thursday, church leaders had been nonetheless attempting to find plenty of their seniors who solely had landlines, mentioned the Rev. Larry E. Campbell, the church’s senior pastor.
“Our first service that we had (after the hearth), we questioned God. Then we got here to the conclusion (that) it was OK to query God and even be mad at God,” Campbell advised RNS. “We needed to actually undergo that as a congregation.”
Town’s first African Methodist Episcopal Church, based in 1887, First AME Pasadena has about 425 members, Campbell mentioned.
Because the Eaton Hearth wreaked havoc to the east of the parish, the church has hosted a free authorized clinic with representatives from the Federal Emergency Administration Company available and has served as a distribution heart for these affected by the fires.
A day of service was held outdoors the church on Saturday, with hygiene kits and grocery baggage organized by a variety of organizations such because the South Los Angeles Muslim Council and the Halal Challenge. The church additionally lent its house for Friday prayer to Masjid Al-Taqwa, whose place of worship was misplaced within the hearth.
The stays of Masjid Al-Taqwa are seen within the aftermath of the Eaton Hearth, Jan. 24, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Photograph by Alejandra Molina)
The Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church held a information convention on Thursday on the Pasadena parish to precise its dedication to assist rebuild parishioners’ properties.
Bishop Francine Brookins mentioned that whereas their focus is on the Black neighborhood, they’re dedicated to a “redevelopment course of that encompasses your entire neighborhood.” Brookins mentioned the council was in Southern California for a beforehand scheduled assembly and determined to tour Altadena after realizing that many church households had been impacted.
“I may see brand-new properties being constructed. I may see intentional neighborhood developments the place grocery shops and gardens and intergenerational neighborhood partnerships are constructed, and the place Altadena goes again to its dream,” mentioned Brookins. “Altadena was a dream neighborhood … and it was intentional about bringing individuals of all backgrounds and all faiths collectively.”
On the information convention, attendees similar to Drexell Johnson — of the Younger Black Contractors Affiliation — urged FEMA to be extra clear in the way it selects builders and contractors as a result of “it’s virtually not possible for Black individuals and Black contractors to get a good shake.”
NAACP Pasadena Department President Brandon Lamar additionally attended the information convention and confused that funding ought to go to Black households.
“These should not simply properties. These are generational properties. That is generational wealth, and they’re gone. We should guarantee that we come collectively as a neighborhood and guarantee that each home … is rebuilt into the capability that we’ll be right here for generations to come back,” Lamar mentioned.
African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Francine Brookins addresses a information convention at First AME Church Pasadena, Jan. 23, 2025. (Photograph by Alejandra Molina)
Lamar mentioned the NAACP Pasadena Department is advocating regionally and nationally “to guarantee that all people understands that we’ll not settle for any vultures in our neighborhood.”
Campbell, the pastor of First AME in Pasadena, mentioned he is aware of “we’re going to lose some individuals.” Campbell famous that some seniors will probably go dwell elsewhere with their kids. That’s why, he mentioned, they’re on the lookout for methods to attach their members with senior housing in the neighborhood.
“There are some who should not going to have the ability to rebuild, however we need to preserve them within the space,” Campbell mentioned.
Connie Larson DeVaughn, lead pastor of Altadena Baptist, sees rebuilding efforts as a chance for the church to heart the wants of Altadena residents. Many years in the past, the church addressed the necessity for youngster care with the Altadena Youngsters’s Heart. With rents hovering in Los Angeles, Larson DeVaughn mentioned, church members will talk about a variety of prospects, together with offering low-income housing on their property to be proactive.
For now, the church is accepting monetary donations to assist church members who had been displaced and to go towards the rebuilding of their new construction.
On Sunday, Larson DeVaughn learn notes of encouragement from kids and introduced donations from different church buildings throughout the service, held within the backside ground of close by Highlands Church in La Crescenta.
Congregants of Altadena Baptist Church collect to worship at Highlands Church in La Crescenta, Calif., which supplied its house to Altadena Baptist after its church burned, Jan. 26, 2025. (Photograph by Alejandra Molina)
Church members grieved as one recalled visiting his childhood properties that had been all misplaced within the hearth. Additionally they highlighted excellent news, with one member sharing she discovered an house after dropping her residence to the hearth.
In tears, Larson DeVaughn delivered a prayer for these whose lives have been disrupted.
“We pray for all the youngsters who’re scared and have nightmares from fleeing within the evening. We pray for the elders who wrestle with adjustments and for everybody in between,” Larson DeVaughn mentioned, including, “We pray for our personal Altadena Baptist Church for course and imaginative and prescient. We pray for the choices that have to be made and the assets wanted.”
Parishioners stood up, raised their arms and recited lyrics of “Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer.”
“As I labour by the storm/ You’ve got known as me to this passage/ And I’ll comply with, although I’m worn,” they sang.
