As the Eaton Fire bore down on his family’s home, Alexander Ballantyne remained vigilant throughout the night. While the sky filled with smoke, he recounted, the 25-year-old monitored the Watch Duty app, and kept hitting refresh on his computer in search of updated evacuation orders in his Altadena neighborhood in Los Angeles County.
At 3 a.m. on Jan. 7, the raging wildfire was no longer distant. It lit up the San Gabriel Mountains above Harriet Street. Sleeping nearby were his elderly uncle and aunt, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, and another aunt who had taken refuge with them.
Suddenly, smoke billowed into the house. Ballantyne roused the two women and grabbed his aunt’s wheelchair, headed to the Ford Bronco. Fearful of looters, his uncle stayed behind for a short time, and ended up virtually licked by flames.
Their family’s home was gone, he told his nephew a short time later in a nearby Macy’s parking lot on Lake Street.
Reflecting on how he managed this tragedy, Ballantyne recalled earlier hardships that had prepared him.
“My experience in foster care kind of made me more suited for stuff like this, just in terms of having to be adaptable, and having to change in a split second,” he said. “The way I looked at it from day one is that materials can be replaced. I’m just thankful we all got out with our lives.”
According to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, The Imprint has learned, 199 children and youth in foster care were displaced by the epic wildfires that have torn through the region since Jan. 7. None have been injured in six fires, authorities report.
The tally includes 33 children and young adults who lost homes in the Eaton Fire in Altadena. Of the hundreds evacuated, dozens have now returned home. But still others have had to live elsewhere due to the poisoned air, now filled with a toxic stew of heavy metals, asbestos and arsenic. Heavy rain on Sunday has also brought a risk of mudslides in areas affected by the fires.
