“We had 85% of our personal property declared a total loss inside the house and had to just be thrown in a dumpster by guys in hazmat suits,” Pemberton says. “The inside of our house is a shell of what it used to be. Anything cloth or fabric or electronics had to be thrown out because they just can’t clean the toxins out because a lot of the houses that burned were old, full of asbestos and lead paint and arsenic, so we didn’t know we were breathing that stuff, too, while fighting the fire. I did have an N95 mask [and goggles] on.” All of the Pemberton family’s doors and windows needed replacing as well.

Pemberton says he has kept a “dad text group” going with all the residents in the neighborhood who helped fight the fire, just in case the need should ever arise again to mobilize.

Pemberton’s next-door neighbor, Charles Collins, was the first Altadena resident to decide to stay and fight to save his home.

“When he got back,” Collins says, “Nick was very calm—no panic—just a sense that he was going to do what was necessary to get this done.”

A Changed Neighborhood

Looking back on it a year later, Pemberton applauds the efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the federal response to clear and clean up lots and prepare them for rebuilding. But many of those lots still remain empty, he says.

“[The Corps] was just a well oiled machine. They cleared all of the private property lots within a matter of months. There was a parade of excavators that came here and did all of that work,” he notes. “They did a fantastic job clearing all of the lots.”

“Clearing debris is the first step toward recovery, and we are committed to helping residents in communities across LA County rebuild,” said Col. Eric Swenson, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Recovery Field Office.

Unfortunately, moving on to the rebuilding phase has been harder. Pemberton says that even a whole year after the fire most permits in Altadena have still not been issued by Los Angeles County for his neighbors who lost their homes. Less than 12 homes have been rebuilt so far.

“What I hear when I talk to the guys who are helping me on my house, they’re champing at the bit to get to work on the new houses, but waiting on the permits [from the county] to break ground,” he says. “There are actually lots of resources waiting to be deployed that can’t be deployed because of the permitting issue.”

As for future preparations on their own street, no major changes to water infrastructure going into and out of Altadena have happened yet, either. Pemberton says he and his neighbors are continuing to keep their pool water reservoirs filled, as pool water was used not just by his group of neighbors but also by private homeowners trying to fight the fire in Pacific Palisades.

“The swimming pools weren’t used by the firefighters and they were a great resource for us,” he said. “I don’t know if authorization was needed, but they lost time having to go back south, however many miles or blocks, to get water. Our water truck, at one point, refilled their truck.”