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Outside the Pasadena Job Center Juan Ruiz says goodbye to his wife Esther and daughters Naomi, 14, and Monahmi, 13, before they depart of a charter bus with other Eaton fire survivors to Sacramento to demand a rescue plan for Altadena and Pasadena\u2019s recovery on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n
The big gray bus carried a diverse mix of people for a unique field trip: teenagers, seniors, business owners, homeowners and renters, of all ages and ethnicities, but Eaton fire<\/a> survivors all, left the Pasadena Community Job Center for Sacramento on Monday morning with a three-pronged agenda: to personally ask state leaders for immediate and long-term housing help, fair insurance protections, and environmental remediation.<\/p>\n The advocacy bus tour will complete the overnight, six-hour, 385-mile drive to demonstrate the urgency<\/a> facing fire survivors in Altadena and Pasadena more than 15 months after the fire that decimated a town, killed at least 19 people and destroyed 9,000 structures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to say to Gov. Newsom, First Partner Jennifer Newsom, to the representatives of our area who we elected, SOS,\u201d said Heavenly Hughes<\/a>, executive director of My Tribe Rise, a mutual aid nonprofit. \u201cWe feel like we have been left here, wondering, are we gonna be able to resettle in the Altadena we love.\u201d<\/p>\n Hughes counts herself and her 78-year-old mother as among the two in three still-displaced Altadenans surveyed by the fire recovery nonprofit Department of Angels<\/a> in its report released early this month.<\/p>\n That report also found widening gaps among survivors, depending on their income and ethnicity, tied to their ability to stay housed and rebuild.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ask you today to hear our plea, hear our SOS for support today,\u201d Hughes added.<\/p>\n The coalition called Dena Rise Up, is made up of local groups, including the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON<\/a>); My Tribe Rise; Altadena Rising; POP! or Pasadenans Organizing for Progress; the NAACP; and CHIRLA, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. Another group, Catalyst California, a racial justice nonprofit, will meet the bus at the state capital.<\/p>\n Vlad Carrasco, director of climate justice for CHIRLA, said the bus will arrive in Sacramento with solutions to the community\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is where the rubber meets the road in terms of advocacy,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are community members going to their elected officials to let them know directly what the needs are for recovery. What else could a legislator ask for than their constituents coming to them with community-approved solutions that are actually going to be effective?\u201d<\/p>\n The Dena Rise Up group will push lawmakers to support pending or proposed legislation, including AB 1642, which sets standards for post-fire remediation; the CARE Fund which they said would help survivors meet a rebuild gap, boost community land acquisition, and affordable housing construction subsidies.<\/p>\n The Eaton Fire Survivors Network<\/a>-backed Urgent Housing Relief proposes $200,000 advance in urgent housing to every fire-impacted household, and SB 878 and SB 1301 would ensure timely insurance payouts and protection from being dropped by insurance, advocates said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want environmental testing. We want remediation now. We want, protection from non-renewals from insurance<\/a>,\u201d Carrasco, from CHIRLA, said. \u201cWe want the passage of the CARE fund, the community aid for rebuilding and equity fund. Folks are coming displaced by climate but bringing solutions to the disaster, and we hope that the governor and the legislature listens.\u201d<\/p>\n CHIRLA, on the ground in Altadena since the fire erupted, offers mutual aid and most recently, disaster case management to survivors.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to make disaster recovery as equitable as possible and as accessible as possible,\u201d Carrasco said.<\/p>\n Maria Bruno, 65, said she is going to Sacramento to ask for justice.<\/p>\n On the night the Eaton fire exploded, she only had time to gather her children, grab her grandchildren, and get in the car to flee. The family lived in their car parked near Huntington Hospital before finding temporary housing in San Gabriel.<\/p>\n Through an interpreter, Bruno said her family doesn\u2019t have the money to bridge the gap between what their insurance paid and what it costs to rebuild.<\/p>\n \u201cI am asking the governor to look into his heart and do what\u2019s right, to let him know we are still trying to rebuild our community and they need to do what they promised.\u201d<\/p>\n Retired couple Mario and Rosalia Caceres, at 71 and 68, didn\u2019t imagine themselves captains of recovery for their cul-de-sac on El Sereno Avenue in Altadena. But that\u2019s why they said they\u2019re making the trip to Sacramento, to fight so the 10 or so families on their street can return.<\/p>\n Bolstered by help from businesses in their part of their town, including Altadena Ale House, Fair Oaks Burger and 1881 bar, Mario, a retired Cadillac auto mechanic, said he gets his energy from helping others.<\/p>\n Others on the bus trip include Shelene Hearring, 69, owner of Two Dragons Martial Arts studio on Lake Avenue, who said she represents Altadena\u2019s still-struggling small businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all in the trauma, don\u2019t forget about us and don\u2019t leave us out because we\u2019re coming back,\u201d Hearring said.<\/p>\n New high school graduate Kailen Timbadia, 18, said his family, which includes his handicapped mother and sister with special needs, are still mourning the loss of their home on Holliston Avenue while grappling with \u201cvery little help we seem to be getting with out mortgages, our gap payments from insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n Longtime Altadenans Damon Blount<\/a> and Esther Lopez worry the promise of generational wealth that lay in their homes is fading for their children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n![\"Outside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PAS-L-FIRE-SACRAMENTO-01-SR.jpg\")
Outside the Pasadena Job Center, Damon Blount, who was born and raised in Altadena and lost his home of 26 years, speaks to the press before heading on a chartered bus with other Eaton fire survivors to Sacramento to demand a rescue plan for Altadena and Pasadena\u2019s recovery on Monday, May 18, 2026. Blount\u2019s two brothers also lost their Altadena homes in the fire. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n![\"Outside](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/PAS-L-FIRE-SACRAMENTO-03-SR.jpg\")
Outside the Pasadena Job Center Kailen Timbadia, 18, speaks to the press about lescaping the fire with a disabled mother and loosing their family home before heading on a charter bus with other Eaton fire survivors to Sacramento to demand a rescue plan for Altadena and Pasadena\u2019s recovery on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n