By Emma Fox, Contributing Writer
At 11 o’clock on the night the Eaton Fire tore into the neighborhood of Altadena, Waymon Hobdy looked out a window in his home up into the canyon at the fire which he says was about two miles away. Unalarmed, he crawled into bed and dosed off.
Waymon has lived in the area for 53 years and wildfires are nothing new. “There are always those fires up there, but they never come out here and take any homes. They take homes way up in the mountains but to come across and do this type of damage… We haven’t seen anything like this,” he says.
Waymon’s wife Vanessa, had come home at around six to the power out in the house and a orange glow in the night sky. She dragged a recliner to the window and kept her eye on the canyon until she spotted flames. She began frantically collecting non-perishable foods and all the valuables she could carry. Eventually, her back started to hurt and she returned to the recliner.
She must have drifted off to sleep because somewhere in the early hours of the morning, she suddenly awoke to a phone call that miraculously got through from her son in Indiana. As she gained back her consciousness she noticed that her house was full of smoke.
At 5 a.m. she went the bedroom with one of their dogs, Percy, to shake Waymon awake.
Vanessa was coughing and gagging as her eyes started to burn from the smoke. The couple and the dogs managed to make it out of their home safely and into separate cars
Waymon made turns by memory as the lack of service rendered any gps app useless.
In Vanessa’s car, she inched down the road, unable to see past her windshield. She began to pray for guidance. She kept moving, only stopping when fire hit the windshield or when another disoriented driver came barrelling down the wrong side of the street.
Less than 24 hours later, they drove down those same streets made unrecognizable once again by the ash and debris. It was at this time that they discovered their house had burned down.
Waymon’s father moved him and his mom to Altadena from Inglewood in 1971. Even though redlining was legally prohibited by the Fair housing Act of 1968. The effects of discriminatory housing practices lasted for generations through the biases of real estate agents. Waymon says his father always dreamed of living on the west side, but his real estate agent only showed him houses on the east side. The Hobdy’s came a long way since then, with family now spread out to five different properties. Though the houses were mere blocks from one another, all within Altadena. Two of the family’s homes were lost to the fire like branches of the family tree.
Jazmyn notes that many houses in her neighborhood had three generations living under one roof which only amplified the magnitude of this loss.
Many of the schools in the area that had been attended by generations of Altadena families have burnt down.
Jazmyn’s mom, Norma, works as a bus driver for Pasadena Unified ”She doesn’t even have a route to drive.”
Jazmyn said that the strength of the community doesn’t come from just knowing one another, but sharing the same spaces like their local establishments. These are the places Jazmyn could connect with her community on a day to day basis. Now not only are her neighbors displaced but they have no where to gather. No where left to go for friendly face and a mutual sense of community.
Jazmyn emphasized this loss of routine and what that means for her family, “Everything in the city is shut down. It is really shocking to see all the old places we used to go to. There was this place called Fox’s that was this family-owned breakfast spot that my dad used to take me to. Not like your typical franchise places, these were Altadena-made places.”
Some of Jazmyn’s fondest memories of her town are the celebrations. She recalls how excited she would get for the big rival football game each year between Pasadena High and John Muir High, even though she didn’t even go to either school. The “Turkey Tussle” was a tradition that dated back to the 1940s. Ironically, it was this rivalry that eventually came to be a symbol for unity in Pasadena. It brought people from all parts of a then-segregated city together onto the same playing field, even just for a night. The 77th annual game was played at the Rose Bowl in 2023.
Waymon has spent his life in service of his community. He was a teacher and later, a dean, at local schools. After retiring, he became a real estate agent to make sure that people had fair access to housing in the area that, only one generation ago, his own father faced discrimination.
About two weeks post-fire, Vanessa and Waymon were allowed back to look through the rubble.
Waymon dug through the ashes of what were once his belongings, looking for anything of sentimental value. He said that he hoped he’d find glove he wore as a pallbearer less than a month ago at his father’s funeral.
Though he wasn’t able to find the glove, his son, also a pallbearer, gave him his. A selfless gesture from a family member who also lost so much.
All was not lost in the fire however; Waymon was able to recover his wife’s engagement ring and his son’s dogtags.
Jazmyn says monetary donations will give her family the tools to start the process of rebuilding their lives. For example, her sister, Jozlyn Hobdy, ran a handmade candy business out of the house that burned down. She didn’t just lose her place to decompress and feel safe, but her livelihood. Jazmyn says she was in awe of her sister still attempting to fulfill her catering orders with the help of her friends the week of the fires.
There is no grace period after you lose everything, time marches on.
As he faces a very uncertain future, Waymon says, “This feels like a fluke situation and I’m thinking that it’s something that’s never going to happen again. But, now I realize it just happened and it could very well happen again.”
Jazmyn knows rebuilding is going to take a lot of time and she says, “I’m just hoping that we don’t lose this space and that it doesn’t get bought out because it took a long time for us to get here… I just don’t want anybody to give up.” She says she knows that some people will look at her leveled community and see a development opportunity. Jazmyn urges the importance of rebuilding homes because “this was everybody’s center point.”
Empathy and community have never been more important than in this moment. Jazmyn mentioned a conversation in which someone said “the buildings that burnt in the Palisades were someone’s 10th home.”
Jazmyn says in response: “I feel like across the spectrum, once a fire happens, we’re all at the same level. It’s not just a fire burning down structures, it’s home for us. It’s something that you’ve worked for. Whether it was passed down from a grandmother or something we personally worked hard for, maintaining a home is not easy.”
Jazmyn’s message to her neighbors is one of encouragement. She says, “I hope that we can take the time out to inform one another and encourage one another and give each other that support. Along with the monetary donations and the clothes, let’s donate our knowledge.”
Donate here to the GoFundMe for Jozlyn Hobdy’s candy business ‘Oh So Dulce’ https://gofund.me/f3795793
Donate here to the GoFundMe for Jazmyn’s mom, Norma’s house on Calanda Avenue and Waymon’s house on poppyfields Drive. https://gofund.me/15a473bd
