A California single mother who lost everything in Altadena this week during the Eaton Fire is hailing her community’s resilience, telling Fox News Digital that “we have not lost our tenacity and our spirit.”
Brenda King said Friday that she has lived in California and Los Angeles for more than 20 years, but she “always knew there was something so special about the energy of Altadena,” describing it as a “paradise because of all the tender love and care that all of the citizens put into it and the way they preserved everything.”
“The day the fire broke out, it’s so bizarre because literally I just figured it out. I had just figured out a little promotion for myself at work,” the writer and intimacy coordinator told Fox News Digital, mentioning how her 5-year-old son was going to get his own room in the property she was renting.
King recalls finding her son his “first big boy bed” on Facebook Marketplace and organizing his toys and favorite books on a shelf. Yet that vision was cut short when the Eaton Fire started bearing down on her home.
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Brenda King, left, said her child was in elementary school at the time of the fire. Her chicken and dog were safely evacuated from the property she was renting in Altadena. (Courtesy Brenda King)
King told Fox News Digital that she was out with a friend and was driving when “suddenly I see what looks like hell opening up on the mountain.”
“Just this long line, going from the top and coming towards my house. And we were just looking at it and I was like, ‘Oh my God, where is that? That’s so close to my house,'” she continued.
“I was like, ‘They’re going to get this under control, but I just have to go home and get my dog,’” she added.
King says she returned to her home to save her pet, grab a few of her son’s possessions and other items, including photo albums from her childhood.
She then fled Altadena, but later called a neighbor whose father remained there “and she just said, ‘OK Brenda, it’s gone. Everything’s gone.’ And I just couldn’t believe it.”
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What remains of the home that Brenda King was renting in Altadena, Calif., following the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles County. (Courtesy Brenda King)
King says despite losing her home and nearly all of her possessions, the community she was a part of in Altadena “doesn’t go away.”
“I was watching the news and I was watching my beloved city just burning everywhere,” King told Fox News Digital. “And the news reporter — I don’t even think she was a resident of Altadena, but she was saying that she had been in other fire zones and she was just astonished that so many people were there and they were still helping and they were putting water on their neighbor’s lawns and they were just still there fighting to preserve whatever is left of our city, which is essentially nothing except our lives.”
Cars are left charred inside a dealership in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
“People have lost their lives in Altadena. And I am so wretchedly sorry for that. But we have not lost our tenacity and our spirit,” King said.
A GoFundMe titled “Help Brenda Rebuild After Wildfire Loss” has now been set up to help King in the wake of the tragedy.
Shane Torre, left, and Stephanie Rodriguez embrace as the look at what remains of their home destroyed by the Eaton Fire on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP/John Locher)
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“I’ve lived in so many different places, and Altadena was my heart,” King told Fox News Digital. “I’ve never found happiness and community and love anywhere else in L.A. the way that I personally found it there.”
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.