‘We got really lucky’: Why California escaped another destructive fire season in 2022
Baldwin fire burns west of Los Angeles in 2019. (Photo: Matt York/CNET)
Baldwin fire burns west of Los Angeles in 2019. (Photo: Matt York/CNET)
A post-fire recovery effort in Los Angeles during the December 2017 firestorm showed how difficult it can be to recover even after a devastating blaze.
About a month after the fire scorched the skies and ravaged thousands of homes in the city, many residents were still in shelters.
More than a year later, their lives had been rebuilt. But some of them were fighting flames again.
After fires scorched Los Angeles and surrounding areas on Sept. 8, 2017, those fighting fire crews did what they could to return to their communities, but the damage they caused left residents devastated.
“There were so many people who had so many people in their lives. And I think the fire changed all of their lives, in terms of how they have spent their time, the friends they lost. It was very, very difficult,” says Andrew McAllister, whose house was destroyed in the fire, which also destroyed his car and a number of other vehicles.
McAllister is now running a recovery company with his brother, Robby McAllister, who lost his home and a business he ran with his wife, Jennifer.
The two men, who moved to the area from Colorado, began their search for a new home in January. They decided on a home just outside of downtown Los Angeles, where they bought their house last year.
Robby McAllister, right, and Andrew McAllister, left, look at their rebuilt home near downtown Los Angeles after their community was ravaged by a series of fires they fought on Sept. 8, 2017. The fire changed Andrew McAllister’s life as well as his brother’s, who lost his home
