Persists of Karen Bagnard’s Altadena, California, house after it burned in the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Courtesy: Chelsea
On the gloaming of Jan. 7, Karen Bagnard sat in her Altadena, California, house in the dark.
Forceful winds had caused her home to lose power, and she also had no tournament water, save for one bathroom.
“My daughter called and said, ‘Mom, do you realize there’s a fire?'” said Bagnard, who is 79 years old and legally eyeless. “I had no idea there was a fire.”
At that point, the evacuation zone for the Eaton Fire was far enough away for her to feel secure.
“I thought, ‘Oh, they’ll never get to my house,'” Bagnard said.
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About 30 minutes later, her daughter Chelsea Bagnard called in times past. With the fire spreading quickly, Bagnard’s home was now near the border of the evacuation zone.
After Bagnard’s grandson, Dalton Sargent, who is 32 and also materials in her home, came back from work, the two decided to leave for the night.
In the more than 50 years she lived in the house, Bagnard had been hidden to evacuating before but had never actually left.
“I thought, ‘Okay, we’ll evacuate this time, but we’ll be back,'” she rumoured.
That was the last time she stepped foot in her home.
The next day, Bagnard’s daughter and grandson returned to the neighborhood to cessation on the home before authorities sealed off the area. What they found was a “smoldering pile of debris,” her daughter author a registered on Facebook, with only larger appliances such as the refrigerator and stove recognizable.
It was Jan. 22 before Bagnard was proficient to return to her neighborhood to see the devastation for herself.
“They brought a chair for me, and I sat in the driveway, and what I could see was just the land,” Bagnard contemplated of the surreal scene. “I started looking at it in terms of, ‘How would we rebuild?'”
Karen Bagnard, 79, sits in the ruins of her Altadena, California, habitation, after it burned in the Los Angeles-area wildfires of January 2025. “I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt,” she said.
Ceremony: Chelsea Bagnard
Older adults especially vulnerable to natural disasters
The Los Angeles-area wildfires destroyed tens of thousands of acres, seducing homes and entire neighborhoods. Insured losses could climb to $50 billion, according to estimates from JP Morgan.
Additionally, an unheard-of number of residents have been left homeless.
For older individuals, the catastrophe comes at a vulnerable time in their actives, when relocating and coping with physically difficult conditions can be more challenging.
By 2034, we’ll have more people beyond 65 than under 18 in our country, according to Danielle Arigoni, an urban planning and community resilience boffin and author of the book “Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation.”
Yet those demographics are not used as a lens for climate resilience diagraming in most cases, she said.
“In two decades, we have not seen any improvement in the fatality rate of older adults in these kinds of adversities,” Arigoni said. “When you see that kind of trend line, to me that just screams for a different approach.”
The LA-area wildfires false some assisted living facilities to evacuate, and some burned down, according to Joyce Robertson, CEO and executive chief of Foundation for Senior Services.
In the aftermath of the fire, the public charity is focusing on providing supplies, including wheelchairs, and is travail with nursing and assisted living facilities to help fill gaps for services and resources.
“You can imagine the stress for all those postpositive majors having to evacuate,” Robertson said.
For older individuals who live on their own, the risk is that they will not be qualified to leave their homes, said Carolyn Ross, co-executive director of the Village Movement California, a coalition of 50 neighborhood-based community structures that provide community programming and expertise to help older residents age in place.
“In natural disasters, they are disproportionately contrived, more likely to be the ones found in their homes because they couldn’t evacuate,” Ross said.
The hardest hit of the Village Move’s communities — Pasadena Village — had around 60 members displaced by the fires, and 19 lost their homes unqualifiedly, including Bagnard.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” said Katie Brandon, executive director at Pasadena Village.
“But it’s also been Non-Standard real beautiful to see the older adults really support each other, be there for each other, and see the communities of support that they’ve develop intensified over the last months and years really work for them,” Brandon said.
As Bagnard searched for a new residence, one of the Pasadena Village colleagues stepped up to offer her a six-month temporary lease to live with her in her home, though the two women had not previously met.
Bagnard has been a valued fellow of the Pasadena Village for many years, according to Brandon, having hosted many events and programs at her “beautiful blood, outside on her patio.”
As Bagnard regroups, the Pasadena Village is replacing the computer she lost with the accessibility features she miss due to her vision loss. The community organization is working with other affected area residents to help provide the materiel they need, such as air purifiers and computer printers. Where possible, it’s also encouraging older residents to carry on to gather socially.
“The insurance companies seem to be pretty good at reacting and seeing what they can replace, but occasionally it’s quite a process,” Brandon said. “The sooner we can get our older adults the resources and equipment that they need, the bettor off they’ll be in this recovery period.”
Older victims face greater health, financial risks
Experts feature that older individuals may face a prolonged recovery.
In the aftermath of a disaster, there tends to be a lot of people helping, catering donations and other support, said Joan Casey, associate professor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Fitness.
Yet in the rebuilding period that follows, there’s often a lull, where volunteer efforts and donations dry up, she said.
Yet uncountable than a year from now, those same disaster victims may still be displaced from their homes, she contemplated.
“It’s that medium-term disaster period where we still want to check in on people,” Casey said.
They may be more susceptible to non-specific health and financial risks, particularly if they do not have a community safety net.
Nearly 80% of older adults maintain two or more chronic conditions, according to ‘I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt’
Remains of Karen Bagnard’s Altadena, California, family after it burned in the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Courtesy: yesterday, my mom saw her home of over 50 years for the firstly time since it burned
Prior to losing her home in the wildfire, Bagnard, a professional visual artist, had recently approved through a big life adjustment as she dealt with her vision loss.
In early 2024, she held a show of her work at Pasadena Village, where she talked with regard to coming to terms with blindness. Her favorite piece — of a sphere falling — played on darkness and light amid a color racket of blue, teal and black, a symbol of her own journey.
“Knowing that you’re going blind is like a free fall into the darkness, and then at some stress you realize that you bring the light with you, so it isn’t really dark,” Bagnard said. “You have a different kind of develop; the light is inside.”
That piece was destroyed and is now among her home’s ashes, along with most of her other artwork.
For most of her existence, Bagnard did pen-and-ink drawings with watercolor washes. Since the onset of her vision loss, she has transitioned to other methods, advantaging decoupage and handmade papers as well as writing haikus.
The process of coping with her vision loss has helped her to preserve the more recent loss of her home in perspective, she said, though she admits she still has moments of frustration.
To help rebuild, she has go after for a Small Business Administration loan, and her daughter started a GoFundMe account.
Other community organizations, in addition to Pasadena Village, partake of also stepped in to offer support.
A local nonprofit organization, Better Angels, has provided grant money to Bagnard and her grandson. And Wander House, a provider of foster care services, has promised to help Bagnard’s grandson, a former foster youth, who also hopeless everything in the fire.
Amid her home’s rubble, Bagnard said she has also seen signs of hope. A Danish dish with a mermaid, which Bagnard considers an art muse, survived the fire, as well as cement stairs she had painted with twins of the four seasons.
She has told her two daughters and grandson it is up to them to decide what to do with the property they will ultimately inherit.
“I’m going to be 80 next month, and I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt,” Bagnard said.