LA Fires: From Personal Loss to Community Resilience in Pasadena | Guest Host Arielle Estoria

Guest hosted by Arielle Estoria

In this episode, guest host Arielle Estoria sits down with Bree Jensen, founder of The Social Impact Firm, who shares a deeply personal account of loss and recovery after the Eaton fire claimed her family home. Bree details the emotional and logistical challenges of delayed FEMA housing, insurance complications, and the financial strain of temporary living—all while highlighting the unwavering resilience of the Pasadena community.

Their candid conversation underscores how neighbors, local businesses, and community leaders are uniting to rebuild and foster long-term disaster preparedness.

Plus, don’t miss your chance to stay connected: subscribe to The Dena Report for weekly updates, exclusive insights, and practical resources to support community rebuilding efforts. Join us in this honest exploration of grief, resilience, and community solidarity in Altadena and Pasadena.

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-social-impact-firm/

Transcript

Raw Transcript: 

Speaker 2

0:06

I haven't done this side, though, so that's okay. I want to practice. Gorgeous. I want to practice so, um, let's start with the deep breath. Yeah, start with a deep breath. So we'll settle in find either our palms facing down or maybe facing up and just checking in with the body, asking, How are doing, what's happening, maybe sending some love to any part of us that feels a little sticky or little one edge, just breathe in, allowing your mind to settle our heart to settle, showing up into this present moment.

0:52

Collectively, take an inhale through our nose,

0:56

exhale through our mouth,

1:00

inhale through our nose,

1:04

exhale through our mouth.

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Speaker 1

1:09

Just open our eyes, my fingers and we're bad.

1:15

Hello. It's a great start.

1:17

Thank you.

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Speaker 2

1:20

I had a friend who text me and she was like, this is a goofy question to ask, but how are you? So here's my goofy question. Hi, Bri, how are you?

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Speaker 3

1:35

Did you know that a question can be triggering? I just 100% OH. I That question is, is triggering? Like I How are you? Because it's probably the most complicated question to answer right now. So you know, for people that are listening, my family and I, we lost our home, eating fire Yes, ADINA,

2:04

and deep breath.

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Speaker 3

2:07

And so how am I? I'm confused,

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Speaker 1

2:12

I'm sad, yeah, and

2:15

I'm

2:18

that goes on repeat, yeah? Other things get filled in,

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Speaker 2

2:21

yeah, yeah, by the day five, the five stages of grief, just in sick, yeah, okay, I guess my follow up question to be instead of, how are you? Where are you? Okay,

2:37

not necessarily physically, but

2:38

where are you? Yeah, that's a good one.

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Speaker 3

2:44

That's like, that's a great question. That's a good check in question, yeah. And I almost, like, was the reverse? That was, like, a peaceful question, right? Yeah. Versus

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Speaker 2

2:51

like, How are you, I think our brains, like, how am I doing? Do I want to give them the real answer? Do I not want to give them the real answer? But I feel like, with like, little kids especially, they like, go places, and they're, like, physically there. But my niece, like, her brain, will start doing stuff, and then she'll, like, kind of snap back, and I'll be like, welcome back. Where were you, you know, so I guess I'll extend that

3:16

to you. That is a great question.

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Speaker 3

3:20

Um, you know what first thing is like, happy to be here in this moment. And I, you know people that I've that would know me five years ago would know I always had a hard time living in the moment, living presently, yeah, and I practice, especially through my grad program, like learning to be present. And now that's really serving me, because I think it's keeping me while I'm I'm not always present in my mind, it's helping me to, like, recenter quickly and be thankful for like, each moment and like, not being so, like, anxious or what's gonna happen, or so where am I? Yeah, I'm thankful to be in this moment with you. Yeah,

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Speaker 2

4:00

yeah, I love that. So walk us through. I mean, you shared the last three weeks, which is probably felt longer than that. Yeah, this whole month has, this whole month has felt like a year. I saw something on social that was like January 473, three

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Speaker 2

4:26

it's very much so giving that energy again, not in the best and most restorative fling ways, and we'll acknowledge that. But I think for a lot of people who are looking at stuff on social media, who are looking at the news. You know, even my my own family was like, Wait, so, you know, my sister here, and then I have a sister in river. Me here in LA or in Pasadena, and then I have a sister in Riverside, and they're like, trying to figure out how effective, you know, either of us are in terms of LA. A just being so vast and so big. And we have, you know, the eaten fire that was here in Pasadena, but you also have the Palisades fire. So people are like, what is the proximity to things and how does that correlate? So can you give us a little bit of like in reality? IRL kind of tap in moment of just what you've been experiencing these last few weeks, and then we'll get into a little bit of what we wish we we would know what we want to know. Yeah,

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Speaker 3

5:27

now I'm glad you said that, because, like, I still feel for my kid. Like, I'm like, yeah, like, if there's not only like, like levels of experience, yeah, like, we're definitely in, like, maybe not the deepest level, because we didn't lose any life, yeah, yeah. And I'm very thankful for that, yeah. But, like, close to the but, but I also acknowledge that, like my neighbors and LA at large, like, we're all feeling it in some kind of way. Like, yeah, it's a thing, and in our country, yeah. Like, anyway, I'll just share what happened with my family and I. So we actually just gotten back from a family trip, because it was like, right after holidays, yeah, we were back a day and a half, yeah. And, you know, it just filled up our fridge and getting, getting back kids, back to school and things like that. And my son had a basketball game, and they're driving back, and my husband comes back, and he's like, there's a fire behind our house, you know? And kind of, like, frantic about it. And so we all pack right then and there. But at that moment, it was this, like, huge. I was kind of feeding off his energy, yeah, like, this panic, because I lived in Thunder, I lived I'm a Cali girl, right? And I think this is probably the second or third time I've, like, packed for a potential evacuation, but I realized I was more panicked this time, yeah, I could tell, like, something is weird about

6:53

Yeah, so

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Speaker 3

6:55

we pack, and there was this kind of, like, friction, of like, well, what do we take? And the kids are crying, and it was just bizarre. And then there was a calm of, like, oh, but it's really far away. We checked all the apps, we noticed that they were doing, like, evacuation notices, super far away from us, and weren't even in, like a, you know what? The second, whatever, the year, yeah, maybe, yeah, they get ready. And so honestly, their power went out. I was texting. My husband powers out. Texts weren't going through, so my phone went out at like 6:30pm Wow. For the rest of the night was out, no texting, no internet, no apps, nothing. And that's how my kids phones were too. We're on the same service. Yeah, husband had a different service, so, so he was able to continue to app. So he's like, just hang out with the kids and all kind of dance where I were watching app watch. So we, me and my girls, we, like, got cozy, you know, we can do on, like, a power outage. It's like, more like, you're like, you know, like, literally once I calm down act, and we put ourselves, our stuff in, like a band, we kind of just like calm down, and we watched a movie, I can't even remember which one right now, and we fell asleep. Wow, yeah, we fell asleep in bed around 3am a huge gust of air. So, you know, we've all seen on the news, it was that was for real. It was like, 90 mile an hour ago. Like,

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Speaker 2

8:28

do not go outside. You will, like, you're keeping yourself steady. To do anything was almost impossible. And then your body is, like, reacting to, yeah, so you're like, this is I'm going to blow away like

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Speaker 3

8:41

it was real. Yeah, it was. I mean, even that, I thought, Should we evacuate us to not have because, you know, for those of you that don't know, it's like the foothills, lots of trees and stuff, and so I was thinking, kind of, maybe we just need to go to hotel just to get away from the way. Yeah, yeah. So 3am I get a look in to a picture falling, but it sounded like a tree came through the window, and it's pitch black, so I'm like, running everywhere trying to find where the window is. And at the same time, my older daughter was in her room sleeping, and she comes out, and she's like, I can't breathe, and I notice our whole house is filled with smoke, wow. And and so I look for my husband. Can't find him. I'm thinking, because he was taking trips our car, we have a gate. That's a electric gate, and so we had parked one of our cars outside the gate, and then the van that was packed was inside the gate. And so I thought that he had taken a trip to go look at the fire, because that's what he was doing. Yeah, we can have the service because the

9:39

power was out.

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Speaker 3

9:40

And so I, like, run outside and I see, like, Amber's like, flying everywhere, smoke everywhere. Can't see anything, and the fire, like, directly in front of us, you know? I mean, it wasn't like across the street or anything, but I could see it a few blocks away. So I go back inside, and I find my husband. Falling asleep downstairs, and he's like, No, we haven't gotten the evacuation notice. But I also think there might have been a delay. You didn't get any kind of like warnings. Yeah, there was zero firefighters, zero emergency response or response people, zero people just yelling, Get out. 000, okay, zero. And so my husband, I kind of like, had a moment. He's like, no, no, no, it's fine. And I'm like, well, we need to leave just because of this, right? Like, I the kids, we we're coughing, like, we gotta go. So we go to get the van. All our stuff is and the gate won't open. So he's and then he starts noticing, oh my gosh, there's Ambers everywhere, you know? And so he's like, we gotta go. So then panic kind of gets back in, yeah? We grab our pets, our getting pig in, our dog, and literally take nothing. I, like, grabbed my computer, my kids grabbed their, like, iPads, yeah. And we just ran, and it was like, I remember my husband was like, oh, did we lock the door? I mean, he was still in the mindset of, like, we're coming back and it's just the smoke, yeah, so he went back and the doorknob burnt his hand. Cuz, mind you, this is like three. I was 320 right? If you guys know the timelines that, yeah, we're in the in, like, we're on East palm between, for those with better local like Fair Oaks, and you probably can see on the news too, Fair Oaks and Marengo. So that was, like, probably around 3:44am, ish, that that area went up. And so we, yeah, it was a close call. Wow. We got out of there, and there was, like, no one around. It was really, wow, yeah,

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Speaker 2

11:39

yeah, yeah. I mean, from, from the down the street. You know, we live, you know, barely close to each other. There's a few five, five ish miles between us. So for us, same wind, you know, just and going about things as usual that day. You know, like, you're just things where you're like, Okay, it's wind. Windy, great, so gotta go to audition. You're like, that's fine. Well, it might be a little windy, but you know, the things are really picking up and and then just how fast, once you know, evening kind of shifted. And for us, it's like our apartment is old, old, old, old brown carpet and yellow kitchen. Old House of young families is cozy. It's cute. We love it. But I'm like, we are, you know, we got all got home, husband got home from work, and we're just kind of like swimming, you know, I got a headache from the wind, just in itself. And then the fire started to pick up, you know? And we're like, okay, but it's not again. You're like, it's not, it's far, but it's not closed, but yeah, and you just, I think it was that COVID reality of like, we How bad is it, and just not knowing until you're like, literally in it. And our upstairs neighbor was like, novel games. So she grabbed her dog, and we went to go take down our neighbors wind chimes, because she has like, a lot of wind chimes. And I was like, those are gonna drive me crazy. Sleep just now, things that you're thinking about. And one night, one night, you probably won't be sleeping. I was like, I'm not gonna sleep tonight. So we went to go try to take her her wind her wind chimes down. My neighbor's leaving. A tree had fallen in our carport, so it blocked three of our neighbors cars. One neighbor's trying to move it so that they can go to their brother's birthday party, and then the other neighbors like, I'm leaving just things where you're like, and then we're like, Well, do we need to leave? Like, just not knowing, like, do we just pack a bag and just that? What do you be away? How do you be proactive here, but then also not send our bodies into like, fear? I think there was like that need to like, I'm not gonna freak out if I don't need to freak out, which I think was a defense mechanism too at the same time. But you know, as we're debriefing in our bedroom, I go back into our living room and just the smell of smoke, and that's five miles away from you all. So just that alone, I had the extreme asthmatic the last time we had fires, which was, I think, 2020 like we had really bad fires in 2020. I'd like, I know, freaking 20s, just, they're all not okay since then. And so I'd like, go get like, a nebulizer treatment back then. So I was like, we can't play wrong with this, you know. And my husband, luckily, is from range of Cucamonga, so we just went a little bit more east, because we were like, we don't, we don't know, but we had the privilege to be able to do that, and then we just kind of watched duty that for days and days and days. So that's just a little bit of like the direct and and the indirect, if you will, like the fact that we are all sitting with. In this little town like Pasadena is not Big Al zadina is not big, and for it to take out as much as it did is just still so devastating. What does, what does day to day look like right now, like? I know we are in this slow process of rebuilding, not only individually, but collectively. So like, since what does day to day look like, and what do you want people to be aware of? Because I think we're definitely at that place where we're like, okay, we can't donate any more things. There's no more places to take to so now what? What are people doing? What are the realities of day to day as we do this very slow build process? You know?

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Speaker 3

15:51

Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I know I've been through other significant moments in my life, passing of parents, yes. And one thing I used to always tell people is, like, it's really the right when something happens, and then the six, you know, the three month mark, the second, keep checking in, and the needs change, right? And especially in this situation, the needs are different every day. Yeah. So even that question like, What do you need? While, you know, in social impact, I teach, always ask what people Yeah, in this situation, it's a super hard question to answer, because you also don't want to feel like a burden, yeah, because it's not. I mean, as a family, like we are, you know, like we're middle class, we're like, we've worked really hard, we have good jobs and the business. So it's weird to be like, Yeah, we don't have anything, but we do because we were Yeah. So I think, like, jumping in and I'll talk about, like, some of those needs. But you asked what day to day is, like, some of my favorite moments have been going to things like the post office, because we all don't have we all have to go to the same post office to get our stuff. So you know that everyone that's in, and it's a line every day, wow. And so you know, everyone there lost a home, or a family member lost a home. So you literally just start like everyone's already talking, oh yeah, you know. And it's like, so where are you staying? And that's been like healing for me, because it's just that you don't really get it unless you're in it. Yeah, that way, yeah, and so. But you also learn that everyone's story is so unique, too. So some of the challenges have been just the immediate shelter, like, where are you going to stay? Right? So for my husband and I, we don't really have, like, we have some extended family. We also have, like, a huge family, yeah? Like, we're, it's not, I mean, the sweetest, I think of like, one family in my daughter's school, she has the cutest house, you know, but it fits her family, yeah? And she's like, we'll put out the air mattresses across and so kind. And I'm like, You do not

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Speaker 4

18:00

know what you're saying right now, because my family were a tornado and they got

18:05

the guinea pig and the trousers.

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Speaker 5

18:10

I'm like, You're a survivor. Don't, don't leave us now, you know, six year old. Oh, wow. And

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Speaker 3

18:18

so, you know, you talk to people like, where are you saying? So there are some with family, but it has been a struggle to find like immediate shelter. It took about a week before we heard back from FEMA for housing. I know that I applied, I think either the day after or the day after that the fire. So two days after, we received our first small payment. It was $700 Yeah? FEMA, probably like four or five days later, okay? And then we received a voucher to go to a hotel, okay? And we got two hotel rooms, which is great, okay, so that's great, yeah? But then you have to use their list, so then you're calling in here. But I think the weirdest part is you're competing against your neighbors that you're trying to support. So it's, like, bizarre, because you have to, like, beat them to the hotel room, but you want them to have one too, yeah, you know. So, you know, we're staying out about 20 minutes out, and that's where we're able to replace it's fine, yeah, you know, it's not where I'm going to vacation, right? But it's fine. I'm grateful for it. Yeah, I'm grateful we have a voucher. I do know, like, even some of the FEMA or hotels like are only for half, so, yeah, I need people still having to pay out of pocket half. Wow. I do know we had to pay a so funny way to pay a resort fee,

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Speaker 5

19:38

if you saw the place. No, no, no, no, square

19:46

get a resort fee.

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Speaker 5

19:50

Yeah? So just those kind of things, yeah. The

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Speaker 3

19:53

other thing you don't really think of like, we're trying to get into a kitchen, a place of kitchen. Oh, of course, because it's. So expensive. Yeah, we're a family of five teenagers, yeah, um, three meals a day. Because, I mean, I can eat one meal a day. My kids, yeah, it turns out they want to eat three times a day. I don't know why,

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Speaker 2

20:11

especially it has, like, I know I am probably, well, I'm not. I'm a not eater when I'm stressed, for when I'm not. Okay. My husband is an eater, though, so he's like, a piece dress we're probably eating with teenagers. And being the oldest of five kids and being from a big family, I understand, yeah,

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Speaker 3

20:32

so they get so we're like, well, where's because I picked up basically, they're like, that's an upgrade fee of $300 a day.

20:42

Again, you guys, I promise you, we're not staying at a resort.

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Speaker 5

20:44

You're wrong, 20 minutes away, like, from here. No,

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Speaker 3

20:48

it's funny. It's been so we have a but we do have a little, you know, like a tiny fridge, okay, microwave,

20:54

okay,

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Speaker 3

20:55

but you still, like, you can't really last, yeah, so, so we're staying there. And then the other thing again, is our insurance, right? So people, that's what I was hearing. Oh, but I'm carrying insurance is great. I'm like, well, then somebody has good, right? Because every we all have different insurance. Our insurance company still has not. We finally made contact a couple days ago, but we still haven't seen any support from it, right? And they're supposed to legally 48 hours from an incident, like from a call, they're

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Speaker 2

21:27

supposed to get back you say insurance? Are you referring to home insurance

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Speaker 3

21:30

for fire insurance? Okay, fire insurance. So, I mean, a ton of people in audina do not have friends. Yeah. For one thing, there was an issue in California after the last horrific fire that not only just in fire danger areas, that insurance is near impossible fire insurance to get. Yeah. So a lot of people that moved into the area like we actually only bought this house. We've been there for lots of years, yeah, but we bought this house about a year ago, and it was really hard to get fired. It almost stopped us from be able to get it. So we have really close friends that did not have insurance, so that's, like, another level, yeah. So then they're relying on FEMA, which is a challenge, yeah? So there's so many different levels. So we, yeah, we just heard from insurance. So then we're paying out of pocket to, like, rebuild a lot of stuff, and then we're trying to, we didn't know we couldn't, like, move forward on getting, like, an apartment, right, like, long term housing, because we didn't know what our insurance would be. I didn't want to get stuck with a mortgage or this or that, and, like, not knowing what was happening. Um, so we started to be like, we gotta get on this. Yeah, we would miss out on applications left and right. Like, right, there were apartments, 30 applications, and all fire victims. Wow. You know, I mean, if you think about it, and just in Altadena alone, there's over 9000 homes destroyed. That's not even damaged. So then it's like, destroyed, yeah. So 9000 families, wow, just in Altadena are also in the same situation, trying to, you know, and so I I'm not even joking, like, I promise that I'm not trying to make myself sound like a better person. But like, because sometimes I'm not like this, but with the other day, they were like, We're sorry, we're we gave it to another family. I'm like, I'm so glad

23:17

they got up, like, you know, because I just like, I You're like,

23:20

if it's not me, it's someone

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Speaker 5

23:25

that's not Farmington, yes, yeah, yeah,

23:29

and then I'll be like, That's all

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Speaker 2

23:37

we got. I know the driving just, you know, Colorado, we have a lot of hotels just on Colorado. But like driving by and seeing little hotels that we see all the time that are usually into, you know, empty or motels seeing every parking lot of every hotel in Pasadena school, yeah, just was like that again, that indirect response to like, like, and I didn't, I mean el Salina small, but 9000 is a lot of people, and it's a lot of homes. And I know some of the damage is like so hard because it skipped, it moved the wind. Just took it in so many weird ways. So you have streets where homes are completely gone. You have homes that are kind of there and kind of not there, like it really is such a wide range of impact. So that's day to day. And we've kind of also harped on this thing of like beneficial questions to ask and not beneficial questions asked now that we're sitting at the at the reality that everyone in LA at this point knows someone who has been impacted, whether that's complete loss, whether that's some loss, like there's still just this overwhelming grief. What are beneficial questions? How can people. Will show up in ways and and, and then also vice versa. What makes you as well, not receiving and feel less like that burden. And I know, as you know, as an oldest child, you know, as a woman who's like, literally, I will also say that Bri was like, can you come and be on the podcast, but can you just talk about this and the fact that your brain is already moving in ways of like, How can I help people? Oh, I'm sorry, the fact that you are, how can I help people? How can I show up for people when I know that you are one of those direct people who I talk about and talk to when they're like, have my help. And I'm like, yep, this, mainly this, mainly this, mainly the fact that that was, like, your gut reaction. I want to know how people can show up for you, and what are beneficial and sustainable ways that people can do

25:58

that. Yeah. And thank you. That feels sweet. Oh my gosh.

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Speaker 3

26:03

It's such an out of body experience. Yeah, it doesn't feel like this is like, I'm

26:10

like, I'd like to be fired from this role, please.

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Speaker 3

26:15

Like laughing is my cousin, so I'll laugh highway through this. But okay, so I'll tell a story in a minute. Yeah, question right now. So how can people show up? I know it's hard to know what's really going on if you're not in LA, but people that are in LA, just be aware. I think, because some of the best things I've received is, I remember getting a DM from, I'm going to say her name, because it is brilliant. Bethany Carvalho. She's somebody from Washington. She lives in LA I haven't probably talked to her in years. Yeah, she DM me and said, This is a contact for somebody who does property cleanup. And I'm like, thank you. Like, who do you even go for? Things like, why would you ever know who needs to come look for Ashes of my dad's Yeah, in a bird zone. Like, why would I know that? You know what I mean? But, or, like, how do I know how to clean up? Wait, like, I don't know these, any of that so,

27:16

and I know how she knows

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Speaker 3

27:18

she does. So if you know, if you're aware, kind of like you're in LA, and you're kind of aware of what you're hearing, and have a contact of some of the things that you know we're going to need sending, like, a resource, like, hey, use this. Yeah, mail streams attached. Like, just take it or leave it. Yeah? Amazing. Yes. We don't know who the going firm is like. And even thinking we I have to decide I love interior design, but yeah, sounds like a burden. I have to design a new home. Yeah, I'm like, I like buying furniture. I don't know how to like draw my house. What? So, like, architects support, like, any kind of that they want to give their talent, because I think the whole area needs architects, like, obviously, contractor, right, and all those things, but the architect, like, I wouldn't have thought, like, like, I would have jumped right in. I know some of my neighbors are, like, straight into, like, the contract side. But like, also, like, we're going to, this is our forever home, probably, right. And I want to be really happy with what is there. It is, yeah, honestly, I said this on Instagram because I was really, I really want government officials and the press and everyone to say very specific factual information, and I don't want them to guess. I if they don't know, I rather than say, I will get back to you. Even like that may feel odd for them to stay on a press conference. But like we because what had happened initially was somebody got on a press conference and encouraged people to give to places like Salvation Army and sure, and, you know, all these different kind of aid groups instead of go fund me, and said that people can't access Go Fund Me until the full amount is reached, and that people are using it as scams, sure. And I was so upset, because in those first days, and even now, we're living on the road and needing to be our kids, like, in and out hamburgers, yeah? Like, what I need is cat, yeah. And what all of us not like, we just need to be able to, like, pay for stuff and like, oh, I need a new toothbrush. Instead of having to go to donations, I can just go buy a toothbrush. I can get the right sizes. I can, you know, feel like it dignified, yeah, things that make me feel good, yeah, and so, and also GoFundMe is like, you can't build a money before, you know, and there are scams. But just like, know who's posting. So, you know, there's so many ways to check that. And while I love, you know, Salvation Army and all those things, I mean, there might be fire survivors that have received, I don't know how to get any of that support. Yeah, the all the different like, Oh, two, one, one's doing Airbnb vouchers. I heard there were 30,000 applications for that, and only a few got it. So there's all this misconception, while I'm grateful, right, those resources are available, they're a small fraction, and the procedures to get them is like another application, yeah, and you asked me about day to day, day to day is application, yeah, looking for grants, looking for housing. I mean, it's constant full time job, and so accessing these resources that are supposedly available, yeah, other organizations is super hard, whereas, like a GoFundMe is a deposit, and I'm able to then go pay my rent or get an Airbnb, which we're going to do next week out of that GoFundMe, yeah, and not have to wait for insurance, right? So that's just a very like way to help now and then sustain sustainably. Are probably more of those, like, resources, yeah? And then being a friend, yeah?

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Speaker 2

31:04

Being a friend, yeah, yeah. And getting back to the like, I call it the like, can I borrow sugar neighbor, you know, where it's where it's direct, where it's like, I made too much soup. I'm coming over. I'm bringing in, you know, like, I have this extra thing, like, that food of substance, you know, and not this outfit I don't, I don't wear any more, which I think was just people, it hurt. It's that gut reaction of, like, how can I show up, you know, and, and where can I be of service? And now that we've, you know, exhausted a lot of those other ways of doing that. Now we get to get a little bit more intentional and a little bit more focused with it. And again, it's coming back to that direct community like you cannot probably help everyone who's been affected, but you can help one person, so find that point of contact, a friend of a friend, you know. And then I think that also adds to the legitimacy of just a lot of the moving places that are taking place and the Internet doing Internet things, you know. So, yeah,

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Speaker 3

32:16

good time, which, by the way, there are a lot of really crazy scams out there. Yes. So tell me what happened. Um, so we pick up. I will say this like, I want to shout out all of my kids, friends, families. They have, like, just, and this is another way to help they have just like, we're coming to your hotel to pick up your kid. They're going to spend the night and have sleepovers and friends and so that's like, another way, just that friend thing, and also that, like, I don't have to, like, how am I gonna get my three kids to three different places on car? They're just like, we're gonna come get them. Yeah, and so shout out. That's like, such a good way. Um, but we picked up my son from from his friend's house, and I got a call, and I put it on speaker because I was like, I don't know what this is. And they're like, this is the sheriff's office, San Diego Sheriff's Department. And I'm like, San Diego, I'm in LA. What are you talking about? Like, oh, let's we have to transfer you. So they proceed. It's a long story, but they end up telling me, I'm going to jail. So there's an arrest. My kids hear this,

33:24

I'm never coming back. Like every time I come back from

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Speaker 4

33:27

a sleepover, something happens, because he just got back from a friend that day. And

S

Speaker 3

33:32

so they're like, hearing that like, Mom has an a warrant for her breast. And when we're already like, tender and on edge, like, I'm not totally thinking clearly, yeah, and he's like, I'm going to give you a verification number to look it up. And I did, and it like, he's like, Google it right now, and it showed up the Sheriff's Department. And he's like, these are your case numbers. And like, a he said it was failure to show up for jury. But at the time, I'm like, did I Yeah, the fire? Like, and I said, we just lost our home in the fire. Like, if I was supposed to be there, I wouldn't have had the paperwork. And he's like, You signed it, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, if you come into the sheriff's office, like, if you set foot on any federal building, we will arrest you, or you can pay this fine. No, so that's what I'm like, and then this is the funny part, because, like, I was terrified, and we're all, yeah, my husband's like, what did you do?

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Speaker 5

34:33

Okay, that's so, so, like, we're all just on end, you know, like, I'm like,

34:39

and so,

34:41

yeah, I was thinking, like, how am I gonna get this off my records, everything else.

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Speaker 3

34:49

But then this is okay, this is where it turns funny. So then he's like, Okay, I'm gonna train. It's above my paper, and I have to transfer you over. Even though he said he was a captain, I have to turn you over to our paid up for. Hermit, which Cash App? Do you

35:03

know? Oh,

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Speaker 5

35:06

because I was

35:11

still so busy to go, Zell, no,

35:16

but then I go, I gotta verify this.

35:20

I called the courthouse because

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Speaker 2

35:21

I was so nervous, and they're like, No, for sure, for them to ask, which, ask you, what I use, is crazy.

S

Speaker 3

35:29

Literally, probably just going through all the way, wow, he knows, like, he can say that it was, that it was lost, like in the mail. That's insane.

S

Speaker 2

35:39

It's so people are

35:43

insane, yeah. So there is a lot of

S

Speaker 2

35:45

put those people in the same category of whoever was also create starting fires during all of that. And just all of you can go, yeah, be in a pocket somewhere.

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Speaker 3

36:00

But the other side of it is just how generous Yeah, people are being, yeah. And like, because we work in, you know, The Social Impact Firm. We work in social responsibility. And so I do want to highlight, like, the amount of businesses that like, this is their moment to like, show and shine easily. Wow, you know. And so like, I D, and probably the first couple nights, like, yeah, some businesses, would you mind sending me a few things I don't have clothes. And three or four brands sent me stuff, like, packages, yeah, which was so kind Nordstrom is doing 20% in the area, off of everything. And they have, you know, gift bags, yeah, they have little notes. Like, this is from the Santa Anita mall, Nordstrom. And like, they'll want, I think I went there the third day of, yeah, I want to have just a little bit of makeup and some sense of normalcy. And the woman, like, walked me around the thing, and she's, like, she gave me some stuff. So shout out to Nordstrom. Shout out to like, J

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Speaker 6

37:07

Crew, yeah, they were, they were doing giveaway. Lulu was giving $2 so

37:13

I got, like, you know, maybe

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Speaker 2

37:15

was doing like, everything, like 40% or like, it was one you can take a few items from clearance just for free, yeah? And then it was, like clearance on top of the clear. So you're paying like $1 or $2 yeah,

S

Speaker 3

37:28

yeah, yeah. And then diori did, yeah, I know.

S

Speaker 2

37:36

Hello, I believe was doing like a warehouse of things, yeah,

S

Speaker 3

37:39

before I gave, like, a bag, you know, gift bag away. I'll link to all the ones, yeah, I felt really that were really generous, yeah? And then there's some that were not generous at all, and could not even give you a 10% Yeah, or try and even, like, replace something that I just bought, yeah, yeah. And so it's really eye opening, like, for those of us that shop or that Yeah, our paycheck, yeah, right. And so I'm not going to, like, call out all the bad ones. Sure. I will call out the ones I know of, I know there's way more Yeah, that are doing good things. And like, even I always say it wrong, I bet you know it Gigi. Goriana, oh,

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Speaker 2

38:26

I think it's jorianna. Joriana, yeah, and they're here. Yes,

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Speaker 3

38:31

Amy, I just gotten a little dog necklace to because I my dog had passed and keeps 18 years. Yeah. So weird. Dog. And so I got, like, a really, it was nice dollars, wow, necklace, like recently, and I went into our Pasadena tour, and she wrote a note the general manager there. I wish I knew her name, but she wrote a note, and she followed up with me a week later and sent me the full $400 and I got the necklace. Wow, so, but you know what that does? Yeah, now with the lifelong Yeah. I mean honestly, like, talk about social responsibility, and then the other places I may not even

39:13

but it,

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Speaker 2

39:15

I mean it at this point, and we're kind of seeing that just in the Z, I guess, of our world, in our social capacity, outside of even, you know, fire and just like this incoming, you know, administration and just things shifting so significantly, we're having to be a little bit more conscious of that social responsibility. You know, I think we were trying with our thrifting, with our second hand and our farmers markets and things. But now I think we're finding that next layer to it of just, you know, seeing, you know, certain companies or certain you know, who are very loud about supporting certain administration, and then shifting that to like, Okay. Now, how does that relate to what comes into my home and what comes on my body and things like that? And. I think that matters, like, if you're if your social responsibility speaks louder than your capitalism, because at the end of the day, that's going to be the thing that saves us, not the other thing, you know. And so really, looking at those companies in those spaces, especially in places like Pasadena, like it's so our old town is like, you know, it's buzzing on a weekend, but like day to day, it's just like a little small town, little town, one little strip of a place, you know, where things you go to return and you just do day to day things that really matter. So that's honestly, really, I really like, yeah,

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Speaker 3

40:36

and I do want to say how, I mean, you can hear it when you're talking about it like we have such a deep love for our community. It's such a special community. Yeah, I have the honor of being a part this term with this leadership. Pasadena, we just started a couple days ago, and it's a lot of the city leaders coming together and just their heart for the community and wanting to make a difference and inspiring. And, you know, people ask like, Well, are you going to leave? And I'm like, my heart's here, you know, and now even more so, because, you know, like, beauty from action. Yeah, that's my motto. We have to think six months ahead, because we have to plan now. So, yeah, okay. But people were like, I'm so sorry about your home. What are you gonna do? You know? Like, oh my gosh, I don't know. But one thing that I did know, and I know even more now, is that, absolutely, we're rebuilding. This is home. This is My heart beats for Pasadena. I'm kind of a nerd, where I drive around and I just smile, and is it just, it's such a beautiful community of diversity of age and people and backgrounds, stories, people have been here. I mean, you heard like on the news? Generation

41:51

50, 6070, yes, yes. Generation,

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Speaker 3

41:54

yeah. Have lived in our community? Yeah? And I'm just grateful to be a part of

S

Speaker 2

41:59

that. Yeah? I guess that would be my question. Then is, you know, we asked the what, the What now, or we ask that what's happening day to day. I guess my question is, if it's not daunting and if it's not annoying, yeah, what, what now and what next? You know, I love the different places that you are planting roots in community aspect in terms of, like, Okay, what is rebuilding, repurposing look like kind of that, like 10 toes down, energy of like, you could leave, but there are things that could happen anywhere, you know. And so I'd rather choose to invest in a place with knowing it's just like love and relationships. There's risk, you know, and the same goes for where we plan our roots. So what's what's what now and what next?

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Speaker 3

42:49

Yeah, well, I know for me, I am asking kind of those tough questions of, why did this happen? Not in an accusatory way, but in a preventative way? Let's never see this happen again. You know, there was a lot of human error, in my opinion, and so for me, that's why I'm happy to be a part of leadership passage and things like that. We're going to be asking some of these questions so that we can rebuild in a safer way, yeah. And also, you know, I want to be a part of, like, preparing my community for challenges that, you know, one thing I heard was that the Hollywood Hills area, which is a huge fire area, and then they had a fire during these times. I heard one of the residents interviewed and said that they do fire drills in that area, and they have comparative measures, like with the fire department. I mean, I don't know, like, I want to look into that. Sure. That's just what this one person said, but probably most of California, but especially in fire zones, we need to have these community plans and fire drills. Our kids have them at school like we should probably have them in the communities, right? Like we were so as a community, there probably were some families that were prepared. So I don't want to speak for everyone, yeah, as a community, the majority of us were so unprepared. I mean, I'll be honest, even my wallet worked, you know, I was so unprepared, yeah? I mean, even things like the electric fence, yeah? Just knowing, like, Okay, what's the backup of that? Because we would have had more things, yeah, you know, if that so I want to be a part of kind of diving deep into those questions for the purpose of them, creating projects that then prevent things in the future. And I think we can work together as a community like and care for one another and rebuild and yeah, that like we're stronger for the community itself. I don't know, but I do know that it's like a pretty like, really awesome. We call it Dina, right? Like. Like, Altadena, Pasadena, it's just a really awesome group of theirs. Like, if you're on all the chats and all the like, the majority of it is like, Oh, I have this resource. I have this like, let's, let's get on a zoom altogether. Use the same builder. Let's do, let's make sure that, like, our kids have a learning pod because our school burnt down. Like, let's find a way to, like, find solutions, yeah. And so often we can be very like doomsday in these days. But like, I've seen Altadena like rise up as like solutions focused, which I think is so beautiful, and I hope that I can just be a part of

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Speaker 2

45:36

that, yeah, yeah. And if you look at which I loved, you know, amongst all the social media friends of things, there's so many spaces that we're really speaking to and highlighting the history of Altadena and just resiliency is literally in its roots, you know. And and it's in this oil you can't, you can't burn that, you know, and so I think we'll continue to see that. I'm like, this is a place where, you know, we don't have kids, but like, this is where we envision, you know, if we decide to that this were would be where we raise our family, and being part of that, rebuilding and restoring and allowing all the aspects of it to be now and our in our soil, you know, and moving forward in that way. Is there any last things you want people to know and you want to share? Yeah,

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Speaker 3

46:32

I mean, there's probably so much like, I feel like I'm not doing our community enough justice. Of like, all the things though I want to the positive things I want to call out and the things for like that people need to know. Yeah, but I think if I could just leave it with this is like, two things. One, just don't forget like, Don't forget us that are dealing with it on the daily. Like, this is going to be now, they're saying maybe a two year journey for us, and that's just to get back in our homes. And, I mean, there's like, the grief of it, you know, we're parenting. I saw a post the other day, you know, kind of like, I don't love, like, the a lot of the fluff on social issues, but there is this one post that was talking about just the like, the reality of like, parenting through this. And it's just like, you know? And it said we're basically like, forming the kind of humans our kids are going to be, and you want them to be those that don't break, but they bend, yeah. And that's like, this is where I want to get emotional. I i get to parent my kids in a way that will teach them that they are resilient and that they can face anything, and that they when hard times come their way, and they're gonna know how to step up to the challenge. But I also want them to know that they don't have to be strong through it, that they can feel it, and that they can heal and not just be like I hate, I hate the phrase, kids are resilient, because resiliency is built, yeah? And when we dismiss, it's a way to dismiss kids and just kind of like, get through things, yeah? Or be like, they're resilient. They'll get through it, yeah? But us adults, we know that a lot of our trauma, yeah. From. My hope and prayer is for all the kids that are going through this right now, that they that we as adults, even though we're having to deal with our own trauma, that we also feel and work through it, but we help them feel, yeah, and work through it, and feel in what makes sense for them. Three kids, four kids that are going through it, even though my head, my oldest is out of the house. It's still his family and his dad. Yeah, they all grieve differently. And so having to be aware, you know, and this is going to be a long journey for this community, for Los Angeles and our families that live other places and friends like Just don't forget that we still have these, these kind of lifetime things we're gonna deal with. The other thing is awareness, and I think I mentioned it earlier, just know that you know you might be an Uber driver and there might be a fire victim in your car, and so maybe you don't talk about how devastating it was for you to drive through the neighborhood and that you're never going

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Speaker 5

49:20

back, because we have to go back.

S

Speaker 3

49:25

And so just kind of having awareness of what you're saying, because you may be sitting next to or driving someone, or, you know, somebody that is like in that moment. So

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Speaker 2

49:35

yeah, thank you for sharing. Yeah. Thank you for letting us all into this season, even though it feels like a long season to this season of your life and how we can, as a community, come alongside you, I know we'll share some resources that are more specific and that we talked about in in the links and you. Yeah, Dina strong, Dina strong, but Dina strong. Dina strong. And like you're rocking the hat, yeah, thank you. Thank you for letting me come alongside you in this and maybe we'll do more. Maybe we'll continue the conversation as things come up, you know, because I feel like, like you said, this is not just a one time thing. This is now people's lives, you know, and even though we may be experiencing it offhand, being sustainable with it of just continuous resources and things you're learning along the way, you know, I think are so applicable to that sustainability and to that pre that proactive way of approaching it as well. So

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Speaker 3

50:45

yeah, I'm thankful for Yeah. Thank you for doing our city Yeah. Always

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Speaker 2

51:01

say, hey, that's good. Yeah, I'm rooted. I say that the they birthed me, but LA and specifically passed you, yeah. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

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Speaker 7

51:12

you for taking the time and joining the social impact podcast. We hope you found it informative and useful. We'd love it if you hit that subscribe button on whatever platform you're listening to so you don't miss a single episode. We'd like to introduce the Dena report. This is our brand new project to support the Altadena and Pasadena Community as we rebuild after the Eaton fire. If you go to the social impact.co and find on the menu the Dena report, you're going to find weekly resources and vetted white pages. We hope that this is a service to our community as we come back stronger than ever, we'll see you next week right here on the social impact podcast. You