‘Everything is just gone’: Bruins grapple with homes lost in LA wildfires

Smoke comes down a mountain as a fire burns in Pacific Palisades. Dozens of Bruin families are raising funds after losing their homes and possessions to the Los Angeles County wildfires. (Aidan Sun/Assistant Photo editor)

By Shaanth Kodialam
Jan. 11, 2025 9:52 p.m.
This post was updated Jan. 12 at 9:01 p.m.
After hearing from a neighbor that his family’s Altadena home had burned down, Zion Berry knew he had to see it for himself.
He drove to his home of over 12 years Wednesday after his neighborhood had been destroyed by the Altadena fire, which started near Pasadena and Altadena on Tuesday and has since claimed over 14,000 acres.
While driving and walking through his hometown, the first-year music performance student said he saw power lines on fire, street signs missing and chimneys with no houses left standing, including his own. What he did not expect, he said, was for the fire to reach his neighborhood, let alone his front doorstep.
“Everything is just gone,” he said. “Every house is to the ground. There’s nothing to recognize.”

The impact of the nearly weeklong set of unprecedented Southern California fires has ripped through the lives of Bruins and families with ties to UCLA, prompting classes to be canceled and thousands of students to flee the Hill as evacuation warnings inched closer to campus.
However, as of 9 p.m. Saturday, there are no evacuation warnings or orders in place for the UCLA campus.
[Related: UCLA students react to LA wildfires, evacuations, loss of homes]
UCLA announced plans for campus operations to remain remote until Friday in a campuswide email around 1:20 p.m. Saturday. Meanwhile, many Bruins with ties to the Palisades and Altadena fire areas have just begun to process the aftermath of what experts estimate will be one of the costliest fires in American history.

Berry is among the dozens of Bruin families trying to raise funds as they attempt to rebuild their homes and lives destroyed by the wildfires, according to the GoFundMe website. He said he was among the more fortunate in his family because many of his personal items were already with him at UCLA. But for at least another week, he said he is not ready to get back to schoolwork and is planning to ask for extensions on his assignments, he added.
“We’re just focusing on finding out a place to live,” Berry said. “School is the last thing I’m thinking about.”
[Related: Students show support for UCLA professor who loses home to Los Angeles fires]
On the other side of Los Angeles, where the Palisades fire has claimed over 23,000 acres and burned down thousands of structures, others in the UCLA community shared that uncertainty.
William Simon, an assistant adjunct professor of economics, said Tuesday that around half the houses on his Pacific Palisades street had been destroyed by the flames. He and his family have lived in the area for over 30 years, having bought a piece of land there that is used by a local YMCA youth group, he said.

The fires destroyed local businesses deep into nearby neighborhoods, he added, including the residence of his family doctor of 25 years.
“It looks like a bomb went off – but from the inside,” he said. “It’s like, block after block after block of destroyed houses.”
[Related: LIVE: JANUARY 2025 FIRES]
Simon, who was staying in a Santa Monica hotel Wednesday, said Wednesday evening that he did not know if his house would survive the fires. Reached by email Saturday, he said he was among those who were fortunate enough to have a house still standing.
“It’s surrealistic,” he said of the damage. “It’s places you’ve been going to for 34 years – done, destroyed, disappeared.”
Dustin Bell, a first-year political science student, said his house in Altadena is no longer standing.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I know a lot of people … that are personally affected. It doesn’t even feel real.”
Following calls from the Undergraduate Students Association Council and students on campus to move classes online for week two, the university announced Saturday that it would do so. In a letter to the Academic Senate, all 15 council members wrote that they believed “it would be irresponsible to continue to conduct business as usual.”
“This transition would provide students with the necessary adaptability to manage their well-being and academic responsibilities while minimizing the risks associated with the current environmental crisis,” the letter reads.
Berry said that when he was at the scene of his now-destroyed house, he realized not much managed to survive.
Among the items lost were his saxophone and guitar, his sister’s childhood American Girl dolls and his childhood toys he was planning to save for kids of his own, he said.
Driveways were filled with melted cars that were unrecognizable, he said. But the one his family had parked on the street was the only one left standing.
“We can’t get up there yet and move it,” he said over the phone from a friend’s house in southern Pasadena. “But it’s nice to know that there’s this one thing that was saved there.”
Contributing reports from Natalia Mochernak, Daily Bruin contributor.