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When the firestorms of January 2025 raged through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, they left 31 people dead and historic destruction in their wake. Recovery will be a long, uphill road, and rebuilding will take years and dedicated planning. This podcast takes a deep dive into the circumstances that led to the fires, how people can prepare for future wildfires - which are inevitable - and how Angeleños can come together to rebuild our beautiful city.
Rebuild:LA is the proud winner of the 2025 Award of Excellence from the Communicator Awards and the 2025 Silver W3 Award!
64 Episodes
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Send a text On this week's Rebuild:LA, host Cameron Barrett discusses the state of mental health among fire survivors with Shari Sinwelski, the Vice President of Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. 14 months after the January Firestorms, as many as 8 out of 10 fire survivors are reporting struggling with their mental health. How can you do a mental health check in? Is it time for you to take advantage of the six free counseling session Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services offers to all fi...
Send a text To mark the first anniversary of the Palisades Fire, the Palisades Recovery Coalition (PRC) gathered with neighbors and community leaders at the famous Eames House, a mid-century architectural landmark in the Palisades that was spared by the January 2025 Firestorms. At the event, PRC presented nearly a year of qualitative research done in all seven distinct neighborhoods in Pacific Palisades - Marquez Knolls, Alphabet Streets, Castellammare/Paseo Miramar, The Bluffs, Huntington, H...
Send a text In Part II of our coverage of the Eaton Fire Survivors' Network (EFSN) press conference marking the first anniversary of the January 2025 Firestorms, EFSN's Executive Director, Joy Chen, brings state politicians to the podium to discuss the work they're doing to provide relief to fire survivors. A slew of legislation has been passed or is currently under consideration in Sacramento. She also welcomes the California Community Foundation's President and CEO, Miguel Santana, who lays...
Send a text We're back! Welcome to Season 4 and Episode 61! We couldn't think of a better way to mark the first anniversary of the Eaton Fire and look forward to the next year of rebuilding Los Angeles than to reintroduce you to the Eaton Fire Survivors' Network (EFSN) and its amazing Executive Director, Joy Chen. On the first anniversary, Chen arranged a press conference where she brought together elected officials, philanthropists, activists, and dozens of survivors to tell their stories of...
Send a text Rebuild:LA is marking the 60th episode and announcing a brief hiatus, before we begin our third season and bring you more stories of the efforts to recover and rebuild in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. We'll return on February 3, when we bring you an update on the extraordinary work being done by the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, including the status of their efforts to investigate the insurance industry, as well as legislative initiatives to help fire survivors. Until we ret...
Send a text With Us, an immersive art exhibit in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, has opened, and it is a compelling experience for anyone who visits. Extreme Weather Survivors and the Department of Angels collaborated to produce the installation, which brings together video, still photography, original art pieces, and the compelling survivors’ soundscape you’ll hear in this episode. Our anniversary show was recorded directly from the exhibit. We collected short interviews with thos...
Send a text Sierra Kos tells us about the exhibit, With Us, an immersive LA fire experience, in this special bonus episode of Rebuild:LA. The event is on Sunday, January 4, from 12-4 PM and is free to attend. You can get your tickets here: With Us Tickets Kos and her collaborators wanted to bring the first-hand accounts of surviving the Palisades and Eaton Fires to the people of Los Angeles. The exhibit uses sight and sound and offers visitors a chance to hear from survivors in their own voic...
Send a text In this, the second part of our special two-part holiday edition of Rebuild:LA, host Cameron Barrett sits down with an Eaton Fire survivor and the president of an organization that lent him a hand. Both guests happen to be Los Angeles Fire Department Captains. In part I released last week, Captain Jerry Puga told the story of turning his back on his burning home, knowing he couldn't save it. And his friend, Captain Chris Stine, the President of the Los Angeles Firemen's Relief Ass...
Send a text The first of our special two-part holiday edition of Rebuild:LA has host Cameron Barrett sitting down with an Eaton Fire survivor and the president of an organization that lent him a hand. What makes the conversation unique is that both guests are Los Angeles Fire Department Captains. Captain Jerry Puga lost his home in the Eaton Fire, evacuating with his family just minutes before the fire took out his whole neighborhood. And his friend, Captain Chris Stine, is the President of t...
Send a text Imagine a rocket launcher…that shoots water balloons. Inspired by the defense technology known as Iron Dome, a group of Israeli entrepreneurs has developed a defense mechanism against wildfires they're calling FireDome. In host Cameron Barrett’s conversation this week with FireDome’s co-founder and CEO, Gadi Benjamini, we learn about a cutting-edge technology created to save lives and property. Resources: FireDomeFireDome in Action VIDEOContact Gadi Benjamini Support the show
Send a text We know that the Palisades and Eaton Fires left devastation in their wake, devastation that wasn’t just burned structures and displaced lives, but dangerous contaminants that remained in our soil and groundwater. How far-reaching was the contamination, and how concerned do residents need to be? Thanks to the University of Southern California’s CLEAN Project, there is now a way for anyone living in Los Angeles County to get answers to those questions. And the help is free! This wee...
Send a text Dr. Nicole Maccalla spent the first two days of the Eaton Fire on the ground, fighting to save her home. She thought that if she could just keep her house from burning, she would be okay, and when the fire was finally out, she could return to the place she and her children had called home for the last 11 years. But what she found was a house that might have been still standing, but could not be lived in. Everything inside was covered with ash, and she soon found out, other things ...
Send a text In the second of our two-part episode with Eaton Fire survivors Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti, host Cameron Barrett asks the two about their work on the Department of Angels' quarterly survey of fire survivors, Community Voices: LA Fire Recovery Report. The research is uncovering some difficult truths about the recovery and rebuilding efforts in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. 70% of those surveyed say they can’t return home. Nearly that many report struggling with their menta...
Send a text Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti didn’t know each other on January 7, 2025. They lived only a few blocks apart - in Altadena. When the Santa Ana winds got so strong that power started failing, King loaded his two kids and his wife into their minivan and took off to a nearby hotel in Pasadena. Better safe than sorry, he figured. Giacchetti and her husband were new parents. Their son was only nine months old, and their main concern was him. But they figured they could wait until th...
Send a text Malibu is no stranger to wildfires. The city had just recovered from the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes on both sides of Pacific Coast Highway, when the firestorms of January 2025 struck. The Palisades Fire destroyed 700 homes in Malibu and drove clouds of soot and ash from the smoldering Pacific Palisades over the city and onto its world-renowned beaches. 700 homes were lost, and the city’s main artery, Pacific Coast Highway, was blocked by fleeing residents...
Send a text The American Fire Service is in the midst of a rapid transition period that many have described as a crisis. From a massive brain drain happening in departments that are losing many seasoned firefighters to retirement, as well as a fundamentally different generation of firefighters coming up through a traditional system not known for easily changing, the fire service is facing challenges it’s never had to navigate before. At the same time, wildfires are increasing in complexity an...
Send a text Oscar Hood is trying to stop a Palisades Fire from happening in Orange County. As the County Coordinator for Wildfire Prevention and the Government and External Affairs Analyst for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, he’s managing over 40,000 acres of open space in one of California’s smallest, yet most populous counties. How is he and his team working to keep wildfire at bay in the OC? He joins Cameron Barrett this week to talk about everything from roadside native plantings to prescri...
Send a text It’s like a Zamboni for firefighting. We’re talking about BurnBot’s RX2, and if you haven’t seen video of it in action, make sure to click on the resource link below. The company brought together two widely different California realities - Silicon Valley technological innovation, and the ever-increasing risk from wildfires. This week on Rebuild:LA, host Cameron Barrett talks to their Director of Partnerships and Growth, Ford Ainslie, about how BurnBot’s RX2 and other robotic techn...
Send a text In 2017 Jennifer Gray Thompson found herself living in her car with her dogs after evacuating from the Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County. The experience made her feel alone, lost, and unable to navigate back to the life she had enjoyed before she came face to face with a deadly mega fire. Her solution? The creation of After the Fire, a non-profit that has become a leading resource for communities all over the country who are facing the same trials she did back in 2017. After Fire was on...
Send a text The Palisades and Eaton Fires destroyed a lot of history. Will Rogers’s ranch home, Pasadena Waldorf School, Robert Bridges House, The Bunny Museum, Andrew McNally House, Theater Palisades, and The Zane Gray Estate are just a few of the thousands of structures lost in the fires. They all were touchstones in the communities where they were located. What does their loss mean to the Pacific Palisades and Altadena? What could we have done to protect them? And what do we need to do to ...
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