“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said veteran KABC reporter Tony Cabrera.
That simple observation expressed so much of the shock and disbelief the Los Angeles region felt in the first week of January 2025, when fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades “driven by hurricane-force winds swept over the region like a giant blowtorch,” as described in The New York Times. The conflagration claimed at least 31 lives, destroyed more than 16,000 buildings, and obliterated almost everything across nearly 80 square miles.
Researchers at UCLA have estimated property and capital losses at as much as $131 billion.
As the year anniversary passes, the daily business of adjusting to the new circumstances and the daunting task of rebuilding has forever changed aspects of Southern California life.
While the fires raged across the region, causing widespread impacts, the disaster was also personal to members of the Loyola Marymount University community; staff members lost homes and approximately 400 students were affected as the campus went into emergency management mode.
And the LMU community responded: Across all three campuses, students, staff, and faculty joined local community members to stand with and for those most affected by the wildfires. From making lunches to offering temporary housing to helping fill out claims forms to collecting and distributing supplies, the LMU community tapped into their spiritual resources to find the energy and creativity necessary to be of service.
As the fires were extinguished and the enormity of the disaster set in, the university set up an LMU Faculty and Staff Emergency Response Fund to assist those affected by the wildfires. Many units across the three campuses found ways to get involved, among them:
- Student Affairs and CSA leadership have worked closely with the local YMCA in Westchester to help organize and distribute much-needed donations to fire victims. Students and staff, alongside Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Kawanna Leggett, Ed.D., volunteered daily at the Westchester YMCA;
- The team at StudyLA made about 100 sack lunches for L.A. Family Housing in North Hollywood;
- The Loyola Anti-Racism Center helped families impacted by the Eaton fire in completing various forms, including those required by FEMA, insurance companies, and lenders;
- LMU Radio organized an internal supply drive for animals impacted by the fires;
- Many LMU students exemplified the spirit of cura personalis, harnessing their own networks to amplify relief efforts through their own personal actions.
Alumni efforts were also noted: L.A. County Fire Capt. Malcolm Dicks ’94, who led search and rescue efforts following the Palisades fire, helped rescue Patty Phillips, who was trapped by a boulder while escaping the wildfire. CBS News covered the story. And amid the ashen ruins that was Corpus Christi Church, Capt. Bryan Nassour ’01 of the LAFD discovered the 300-pound tabernacle unscathed amid the wreckage. Nassour and his crew hauled the sacred receptacle to the fire station across the street.
Once the fires were extinguished and the monumental task of rebuilding had begun, StudyLA partnered with researchers from UCLA and Purdue University in Indiana to offer homeowners in affected areas the opportunity to apply for free testing to identify wildfire-related contaminants, such as metals, PFAS, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds, in the soil, air, and water on their properties. More than 3,000 homeowners signed up for testing, which was vital for determining the levels of contamination before any construction could begin.
“This is the most impactful study I have been involved in during my 16 years at LMU,” said Brianne Gilbert, managing director of StudyLA, in February 2025. “There is a clear correlation between our work and the support we are providing to homeowners. Many individuals have expressed gratitude for our efforts, and several alumni from the affected areas have shared their pride in LMU’s involvement with this project.”
The enormity of the disaster transformed the region and for thousands of Angelenos it was also a personal tragedy. Several LMU staff members were among those who lost much during the 2025 fires. Among them was Jeff Solomon, senior director of infrastructure and operations with Information Technology Services. “I was working at LMU when my son called to tell me they were evacuating and asked if there was anything of mine I wanted him to grab,” Solomon wrote. “I told him no, just to get the dogs and go somewhere safe, although in the back of my mind I thought it was all a bit overkill, that maybe a few properties would be damaged but there was no way that the entire neighborhood of Altadena would be in jeopardy.”
Once the full extent of the fires was known, the reality of what had happened set in. “After everything was destroyed in the fire, I kept coming back to that conversation,” remembered Solomon. “Why couldn’t I have asked him to grab my favorite guitar? Or my bag of hard drives that contained all of my most precious backups and digital memories? Or that one folder with all of the most important documents?”
Solomon continued, “The loss of tangible things quickly went away as the true loss from the tragedy became clear to me, namely that the memories, the places, the entire life I had lived in Altadena was forever gone and would always be marred by the fires: the birthday parties in the park across the street, the backyard nerf-gun battles, the lazy Sunday morning breakfasts. The physical things can mostly be replaced, but it’s the loss of the non-tangible things that is so painful to think about.”
Reflecting a year later, Solomon said that the fires brought out the best in people – the adage about people showing their true selves during times of crisis had never been more apparent than in the months following the fires. “Colleagues at LMU, friends I hadn’t spoken to in years, long lost relatives, they all came out to support me and my family,” wrote Solomon. “I hadn’t really thought about the community I was a member of before, but I will tell you that the calls and the texts and the emails were overwhelmingly amazing, and the support (offers for a bed, a meal, a shoulder) absolutely helped me get through the worst of it.”
