February 2025

January 2025

Hectic Evacuation From Eaton Canyon Fire

By Sue Addelson
Posted: 02/02/2025

“My experience with the fire was a bit hectic.”

With these words, Villager Gail Anderson began her saga of evacuating from the fire. It’s an opening line that rings true for dozens of Villagers who also had to flee their homes in the middle of the night. 

Gail was prepared. Or so she thought. The night before, some of her neighbors told her the evacuation was coming and what to get together. So, when they came through her neighborhood and said the fire was a block away, she was packed and ready to go. 

But go where? 

Gail and her youngest daughter went to the Pasadena Convention Center, the Super Center for evacuees. “I was stunned. There were so many people,” she recalls. “When I saw all those people—some in their PJs, or just whatever they were wearing--carrying whatever they could grab, it was devasting. They had dogs, cats and I don’t know what other pets. There was a window where we could see out, but they didn’t give us any information. We didn’t know what was going on.”

Fortunately, within a few hours, Gail’s daughter found a room at the Marriott in Monrovia where they stayed for three days. Marvelously, the houses on Gail’s block were spared. There was still a lot of smoke but she moved back anyway. “I wanted to be in my home,” she says. 

Pasadena Village, both staff and villagers, stayed in close touch. When the Village President checked in, about two weeks after the fire, Gail was still shaken from the stress, and worried whether her water was safe and the air clean. Dick assured her the Village would help. She asked for an air purifier…two, if possible. “Just call Nathan and tell him what you need,” Dick told her. Our Relief Fund made this possible to get Gail the air purifiers immediately. 

This fire wasn’t the first time Pasadena Village has been there for Gail. “I can’t say it enough. I've gone through a couple of difficult things, and the Village has been there and helped me out with no questions or anything. They just say, OK, what do you need.” Just a month earlier, when Gail had surgery, so many Villagers came and visited, the staff at the hospital asked if they were family or friends. “I told them family.”