The apartment at 403 Figueroa Drive, Altadena, is home to Brenda Lopez and more than 20 Spanish-speaking families. More than half of the 60 residents have lived in the complex for over 15 years. "They've known me since I was a little girl," said Lopez.
Before the Eaton fire, the community buzzed with parrots chirping, dogs barking, and children playing. Now, only half the residents have returned.
"We weren't used to the silence," Lopez said.
The Eaton fire broke out on Jan. 7 in northern Pasadena, claimed 17 lives in Altadena, burned more than 14,000 acres, and destroyed 9,000 buildings and structures.
Besides fixing the exterior windows, their management company, Regency Management Inc., did almost nothing, leaving tenants to live in ash-filled apartments without power, gas, or hot water for more than two months.
Three months after the Eaton fire, hundreds of Altadena and north Pasadena residents face a cruel irony: their homes survived the flames but remain uninhabitable. Toxic ash and residue have transformed these standing structures into health hazards, leaving families displaced.
Los Angeles City Housing officials stated that "landlords must remediate hazardous ash debris in rental units" in a statement to LAist. However, Pasadena housing officials have told tenants they cannot force landlords to carry out ash cleanup, as Pasadena's building code does not list ash as a hazardous material that makes a house uninhabitable.
Legal vagueness
"We did not offer much help to those folks, which frustrates me," said Pasadena City Councilmember Rick Cole.
California state law requires landlords to provide habitable housing, meaning landlords should clean up dangerous ash from fires in rental units, while tenants are responsible for cleaning their personal belongings.
While Los Angeles City names "ash" as debris that contributes to "nuisance" and "hazardous buildings", Pasadena Housing Department does not specifically mention "ash" as a dangerous material in their building code.
Cole explained that the reason is that there were only trees burned in wildfires in the past. But the Eaton fire is different– 90% of the houses burned were built before 1975, likely containing EPA-banned materials, including paints with lead and asbestos.
Without clear wording and enforcement, tenants had a much harder time getting safe housing after fires. City officials emailed tenants that since ash isn't covered in their housing codes, the city could not force landlords to remediate. It becomes a "civil matter" to resolve privately, taking months or longer.
Although he disliked the result, Cole said the council eventually decided that remediation" is between the landlord and the tenant, and the tenant can go to court."
Enji Chang, co-founder of the Fire Poppy Project, a grassroots organization providing tenant remediation support, explained that even though the law directly requires landlords to do the remediation, "some of them are going to do whatever they think they can get away with, and renters are the ones who have been abandoned by their landlord and the government."
The remains of the inferno
Well before Gidget Dominique, a tenant at Allen Ave in Pasadena, heard the evacuation siren, she had started packing. She eventually ended up cramming into a room at a downtown Los Angeles hotel with her husband and three children.
The City of Pasadena and the County of Los Angeles issued a public health emergency because of contamination by toxic elements like asbestos, lead, and arsenic in the air, smoke, and ash.
Matt Rahn, Executive Director of California State University, San Marcos Wildfire Science and the Urban Interface, explained that when fires burn through communities, they release a dangerous cocktail of chemicals.
The list of potential toxins is alarming: lithium, cobalt, arsenic, mercury, and lead from batteries and electronics; "forever chemicals" like PFAS from carpets and furniture; formaldehyde and other aldehydes from sofa or beddings; and numerous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from burning plastics.
Simply wiping visible ash from surfaces isn't enough, as invisible toxic compounds inside the ash have already been absorbed into materials.
How far the soot can travel depends on the direction of the wind. If it’s downwind, the practicles can travel miles away out of the fire zone. Caltech researchers found that nearly half of the uncleaned indoor surfaces in tested homes contained lead exceeding EPA limits, with contamination detected up to 7 miles from the burn zone.
Exposure to these fire-generated toxins leads to short-term and long-term health impacts, including triggered asthma, respiratory distress, and a possible surge of cardiac symptoms.
Kevin Hur, a Keck Medicine of USC otolaryngologist, explained that residents exposed to contaminated homes typically experience nasal congestion, facial pressure, and diminished smell.
Prolonged exposure can lead to chronic inflammation of the nasal area, increasing the risk of persistent infections. Beyond respiratory issues, many compounds released in these fires could raise cancer risk.
Painstaking remediation process
Stranded by endless waiting for her landlord's remediation schedule, Dominique eventually decided to clean herself. "I honestly just want to go back home," she said, "My family needs their home back."
She reached out to several cleaning companies, but all turned her down, stating that fire remediation needs professional cleaning. She later contacted several remediation companies, only to find the cost far beyond a normal tenant's range.
For a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom house in Pasadena, professional fire remediation costs approximately $7,500-$16,000.
Once she started cleaning by herself, her living room became temporary storage. From February to mid-March, she constantly cleaned dishes in batches and packed ash-stained belongings into boxes. "Every time I would come and clean, it felt like I was just moving one mess to another. It just felt like nothing was getting done,"said Dominique.
Cleaning without proper protective equipment left her with painful skin rashes that scarred her hands and arms.
Dominique showed her rashes from cleaning her house without a protective suit and gloves. (Chieh-Yu, Lee/Annenberg Media)
Most heartbreaking was Dominique's decision to discard her baby's keepsakes. She threw away breastfeeding supplies, newborn clothes, her baby's first shoes, and a hat. "I started crying because although we didn't lose our home, I was going to have to get rid of almost everything," she said.
Chang explained that depending on the size of the house, required time for remediation varies. For a two-bedroom apartment, it would be a five-to-six-day job, with 5 people working 8 hours daily.
"It's like moving, but 20 times worse. Because at least with moving, you just throw everything in a box and haul it away. But this is like moving and wiping every goddamn thing you ever own," said Chang.
Blocks away from Dominique's apartment, Marley Otto, a tenant who rented a room in a house on El Sereno Ave in Pasadena for 7 years, was going through similar fight. After the fire, she tried coming back to her place, but always had a dry cough when entering the house.
She was initially optimistic. "At the very beginning, we didn't realize how bad it was going to be," Otto said.They spent 8 hours with friends wearing respirators, vacuuming walls and floors, power washing the exterior, and cleaning the garden.
Otto did her own lead testing with a DIY kit. Lead presence was found in the front door, kitchen, and bedroom—basically everywhere in the house. (Chieh-Yu, Lee/Annenberg Media)
But it wasn't enough. Lead tests conducted after cleaning still showed contamination throughout the property.
For now, while negotiating with her landlord, Otto continues packing seven years of belongings, moving items to the basement in preparation for eventual remediation. She sorts through possessions, determining what can be saved and discarded.
Some Landlords are not helpful
"This is not gonna go well for you." That's what Dominique heard from her property manager when she handed over the remediation request letter. "Why do you deserve to get your apartment clean? We all did it ourselves," said the property manager.
Dominique's landlord offered $150 for the cost for remediation. (Photo Credit/Gidget Dominique)
Before the fire, Dominique had never written to her housing management, even though the property management had always been poor. Toxic mold grew in her kid's study. The floors were dilapidated in the hallway. The window was cracked, and they replaced it with another cracked window. "That's where the ash came in the first place," said Dominique.
Two weeks later, her landlord contacted her and came to inspect. He responded with a list of items he fixed, without providing written estimates. The landlord claimed insurance tests showed no lead or asbestos, without sharing the physical report. Eventually, he offered a $150 rent discount if she handled the cleanup herself.
"For all the time I've been putting into the apartment, $150 is nothing," Dominique explained. Since January, she has kept paying rent although she could not live in the uninhabitable house.
Things weren’t easier for Otto.
Multiple remediation companies have provided estimates around $20,000.
She sent remediation estimates from professional cleaning companies to her landlord on Jan. 27, but her landlord didn't forward them to insurance until March.
Throughout January and February, like Dominique, Otto also continued paying rent for a home they couldn't safely inhabit. When she asked for reimbursement, her landlord wrote a 13-paragraph email about how she is a good person who believes in God, but didn't mention reimbursement.
Otto's landlord's insurance company insisted there's minimal damage, refusing to approve remediation costs. However, the letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stated the house is uninhabitable.
"Insurance guy told me the letter from FEMA doesn't matter, because they didn't have a hygienist out to do testing," said Otto. “But it's a letter from a federal agency. I think it matters.”
As a voiceover artist who worked from home, Otto couldn't access her recording studio since the evacuation. "I'm living off my insurance money," said Otto.
Otto is scheduled for a double mastectomy with reconstruction at the end of April. The surgery requires a sterile recovery environment, something her smoke-damaged home cannot provide.
***
From January to March, the residents at the apartment were living in an uninhabitable apartment without power, gas, or hot water. And their management company, Regency Management Inc., never revealed the lead and asbestos testing reports, nor did they announce a timeline and plans for remediation.
Instead of fixing the apartment, the Regency Management tried to force people out.
Their on-site manager spread disinformation among residents. She warned them if they stayed, that police would escort them out, and that their belongings would be thrown away. Others—particularly undocumented residents—were threatened with calls to report them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Weeks after the fire, the property manager went door by door, pasting notices on the resident’ door. The notice was actually a letter from the landlord's insurance company to FEMA, proving that the apartment is “currently inhabitable and has no utilities.”
The letter was written in English. However, all of the residents are Spanish speakers. Instead of clarifying, the management group told renters that the letter was an eviction letter telling the tenants to leave.
“And everybody was just freaking out,” said Lopez, describing the scene. “They’re like, ‘Where are we going to go?’” Not until Lopez clarified the real content for the other tenants did the chaos end.
After three months, although the power and gas in the apartment have been restored, the residents are still living in the apartment with no hot water and no clue about the cleaning and remediation. Some residents have no means but to clean it by themselves.
The insurance company's letters to FEMA were pasted on every door of the apartment. The on-site manager said it was an eviction notice. (Chieh-Yu, Lee/Annenberg Media)
More than 20 families lived in the apartment at 403 Figueroa Drive, Altadena. (Chieh-Yu, Lee/ Annenberg Media)
The living space of Zoela Ramirez, one of the tenants of the apartment, was filled with all kinds of items that needed to be cleaned. (Chieh-Yu, Lee/Annenberg Media)
Rosa Ramirez, one of the tenants of the apartment, said her fish survived the fire, although the water was murky with ash. (Chieh-Yu, Lee/Annenberg Media)
Some landlords want to have their say
As discourse around the Eaton fire focuses on tenant struggles, landlords like Theo Waddell and Ivy Greene found themselves vilified while navigating their own devastating losses. "Most landlords I know aren't wanting to just take advantage of renters," Waddell said.
Waddell owns a 2-structure property in northwest Pasadena. They lived in the guest building and rented out the main building. While their home burned, the tenant housing survived with severe smoke damage.
Waddell immediately stopped charging rent and refunded January's payment. However, as a property owner, he had to continue paying the mortgage, insurance, and property taxes.
After the fire, the remaining structure tested positive for lead. Waddell is ready for remediation. However, his tenant hasn't removed personal belongings from the main building. "We've asked them 3 times when they plan to do that, and they haven't given us a date," said Waddell.
This created a frustrating cycle—repairs couldn't start until the tenant's possessions were gone, but the tenant couldn't live safely until repairs were complete.
***
For Greene, her home and rental property on Casitas Avenue survived the fire, but were so contaminated that even a brief visit left her ill for a day.
Since the fire, Greene found it exhausting to negotiate with insurance companies, even over trivial issues like whether fallen leaves qualify as "debris." After two months of back-and-forth, her husband removed the toxic leaves himself while wearing protective gear.
Unable to reach an agreement with insurance, Greene couldn't remediate her property. She told her tenants she would stop collecting rent. "We would never charge someone for an uninhabitable property," she said.
Cherryl Weaver, a real estate agent serving Northeast Los Angeles at Re/Max, points out that landlords are also suffering after the fire.
She had a client who rented out her house in Altadena. Initially, the tenants refused to return until proper testing was completed. Testing revealed asbestos. So the landlord spent weeks doing remediation, including moving out belongings, hazmat cleaning, multiple rounds of testing, and insulation removal – but afterward, the tenants said they're not coming back.
Their total loss—including cleaning costs, making the unit rentable again, and lost income since Jan. 7—is around $30,000, and insurance would only cover 80% of it.
For landlords, remediation means at least 18 weeks without rental income, plus negotiating with insurance companies, tenants, and cleaning companies. If tenants decide to leave, landlords must return deposits.
What's worse, after the fire, insurance premiums are rising by 38%.
Weaver said both sides face stress. "From what I understand, these tenants were the sweetest people in the world. But this is very stressful, and it brings the worst down to everybody."
Way to back home
On Apr.19, over a hundred days after the Eaton Fire, Dominique and her family finally settled into their home. She moved almost all porous bedding and items into storage. Her landlord haven't replied yet – the manager told Dominique not to bother him as he is on a cruise tour.
Throughout 3 months, there is still visible ash and soot in public areas. But Dominique no longer felt desperate. She planned to move out of the apartment where she have lived for over 13 years. What happened in the last three months is enough to destroy all trust.
After the fire, rent has surged uncontrollably. "We don't have enough housing– and now we have even less," said Weaver.
The loss of approximately 9,000 homes has exacerbated an already tight housing market, with rental prices increasing 4-6% overall. Two-bedroom apartments now average $3,500-$3,600 monthly, while single-family houses with the same configuration command $4,000-$4,500.
Still wanting to stay close to home, renters from Altadena are spreading out to Pasadena, Arcadia, and Alhambra.
"There's no one that walks away unaffected," said Weaver.
Time has passed, and people are moving beyond trauma. Some residents rebuild their cherished homes, while others seek new beginnings elsewhere. Like the fresh green sprouts now dotting the once-charred mountains of Pasadena and Altadena, these communities are still finding their way home.
The Apartment at 403 Figueroa Drive(Chieh-Yu, Lee/Annenberg Media)
