After losing their home in the Eaton Fire, Altadena residents Jonathan Sims and Kyle Shire bring The Hollywood Reporter along to search through fire-ravaged rubble in the hopes of finding a family heirloom Sims' grandfather brought back from WW2.
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00:00All right guys, everything is working. All right. Okay, let's go. Let's try it. Sure,
00:03let's try it. Let's try it. Let's try it. So we live at the top of Altadena,
00:07so we're trying to get up to our property. I know it burned down.
00:30So what can it take for us to do that? Probably contact the station. Yeah,
00:41and that's probably your best bet. The Sheriff's Information Bureau cleared
00:45me to go in because we're pressed. So could we just go to like any of these guys who are
00:50on the sides and talk to them? Sure. Okay, great. Should we try and get closer? Yeah,
00:54we should just go. Okay. All right, good morning. Hey, we lived at the top of Altadena at McNally.
01:01You don't know where that is. Our house burned down. My grandfather was in World War II and was
01:09given a katana near Okinawa after the bombing, and it didn't make it out of the house.
01:13You're asking me basically if you'd go in the house and get your katana.
01:16So yeah, we tried to get in a few days ago and were turned away. I've got ID here,
01:23so does Kyle. I'm going to call my sergeant and let him know what's going on.
01:27So yeah, this is my grandfather. He was a Marine Airman. It's right there. As you can see,
01:34that's like the real deal. You're the deputies, right? Yes. And what did they tell you?
01:38They said we're cleared to go in. You can go in there if you want to. Okay, well, we'll have to
01:44find some Altadena sheriffs now. Yeah, look at that. How does that happen? That right there was
01:51in the middle of the road. It was right there when I came through. How many days ago was that?
01:56It was the morning of the fire. Oh, that's not days ago. Yeah, it was. I mean, it looked like
02:00something out of Children of Men. Like, it was like, just unreal. Just unreal.
02:09Better seen that the entire town hasn't burned down. When I was here, there was so much smoke,
02:13it looked like everything was gone. We are here in Altadena right now,
02:18and we're told that we need to find an Altadena sheriff's deputy to escort us in.
02:22That's crazy right there. It was just a house. Okay, thank you so much.
02:26So they're asking dispatch for us, if we can help. Oh, this is going to be sad.
02:35You know, I've already resigned myself to everything's gone. So anything, anything.
02:41A shard of a teacup. I saw Eaton Canyon. I've never felt fear like that before in my entire
02:49life. It was like primeval, because it looked like a volcano had gone off in my neighborhood.
02:54It looked like hell had opened up.
03:02Do you need to get in right at this location? You could go over there.
03:06Yeah. I'm hoping if we have this escort, maybe they'll let us on.
03:14I'm happy that Altadena is still here. I thought it wasn't.
03:183528 Loma Alta and Fair Oaks, basically.
03:28Thank you. We're in.
03:36Yep, she said stay right behind him.
03:39Stay right behind him. Okay.
03:43Oh my fucking Christ. Jesus.
03:54This is where I would get my brakes checked. This is a really killer southern fried chicken.
04:01This was our jam right here. It's here. Oh my God. Oh my God. And the mural's still there.
04:10It's morbid now because it's sitting. I'm sorry, but this is, I'm really happy to see that grocery
04:14store, this grocery store. Oh, this is what we got to stay right behind him. So, so sorry.
04:19Got to stay right behind him. All right. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
04:23No, this is true tragedy. No, this right here, the Fox was an amazing place to get breakfast
04:29and everybody who works here was so sweet. Oh, this is the first liquor store we went to. I know.
04:36This really hurts. This was a wonderful pizza place called Side Pie. Yeah. It started during
04:41the pandemic. It started up here. It just was somebody's house and it had a wonderful
04:45beer garden and they started making pizza during the pandemic. Right here was the bunny museum.
04:50This was the bunny museum right here. Oh God. No, it's true. Oh God.
05:02I'm feeling really overwhelmed. It's like, it's like every landmark that made this,
05:09like that old, old to the end of that strip. So it's chilling because you go there,
05:15there was pictures of the place you were standing from a hundred years ago, 20 years ago,
05:20and these mounds are covered in snow. Oh my God. And I wonder if those pictures are there now.
05:26You know, it's, it's, it's awful because in your brain, at least mine, because I haven't been here,
05:31all of these spaces still exist. You know, even though conceptually, I know that they're,
05:36I knew that they were gone. It's like seeing it. There's, there's just a cold
05:40tonality to it. And seeing all that rush, just twisted and black like that is like a horror
05:48movie. It's just so surreal. How selective the fire was. It's so weird, but that's what's fucked.
05:53It wasn't like white. Like it's just, it's, it took what I wanted. It took what it, it took what
05:58it took. I think the chimneys are, that's the scary. That's creepy. It's the fact that it's
06:05just the chimneys that are better out. It took me a while to realize after I was looking at it,
06:09just look at this, look at this, just look at this. There's fucking nothing. There's nothing.
06:16Oh God. This is going to be hard. Here we go. That's it. That's it. That's it.
06:27Oh God. No.
06:29That was Greg and Cynthia's. And this was us. My God. Yeah. This is, this is our place.
06:41My God. Yeah. This is, this is our place. It doesn't make any sense.
06:53It doesn't make any sense.
06:59Those were right. Those were my, that was my, that's where all my parents notes ran.
07:05Dude, there's nothing. It's just ash.
07:19So it's just ash. So, so the sword would be, see that?
07:25Please be careful, Tom. Please be careful. Fuck, man. Fuck.
07:42Come on. Please, please, please.
07:48All right. Stairs were here.
07:55This is from it. Oh my gosh. Is that the hilt? It's part of the scabbard.
08:08If that didn't melt, my desk was here. It was right here.
08:17God, we should have brought the shovels. Maybe we wouldn't, maybe we wouldn't have got in though.
08:21Oh, I need, I need, I need goggles.
08:25It's the scabbard.
08:32Oh, fuck.
08:36That's it. John, you found it? What's left of it. Not the, uh,
08:44the, uh, Arthurian ending I had hoped.
08:54Can it be forged anew? Is this Narsil? I was hoping that it would be, you know,
09:04fine. That's silly, right? I mean, I'm sad. I'm sad.
09:14But I came back for it. Maybe it can be reforged. See, this is what's wild.
09:21That's, that's fine. It's just weird how some things, I would have thought the sword would
09:26have been fine. I don't know why I thought it'd be fine. You know, I guess that's just kind of
09:32denial. Now that I really look at it, it's really just bent in one place. Also, that's still sharp.
09:40Are we taking that with us? Are you kidding me? I still don't understand because it still is like,
09:47there's, there's like a schema in your head for like what your house is supposed to be and what
09:53your home is supposed to be. And right now this isn't it. It feels like I'm somewhere else.
09:58There's just nothing left. What is that? I have no idea.
10:05I have no idea. Oh, Kyle, look right there. Do you see anything? Look right there.
10:19Oh, shit. What is that? My mom gave me that when I moved here.
10:28It was hanging next to our, because it probably collapsed when the ceiling
10:33collapsed. It was hanging by the ceiling. There's like layers to this shit. Like it just,
10:41holy shit, that's wild. Oh, I'm sorry. It's just everything in my car
10:47has been my only possessions for a week. And I thought everything in here was gone.
10:53I've done a 180 on this. This is a project.
10:56It's a project and it's not that fucked up. It's just really bent here.
11:03So the filing cabinet I kept all the letters from my parents in.
11:20My grandfather was a very, you know, he was just like a big old jolly man to me. The older I got,
11:26the more I learned that he was like a war hero, this pillar of his community, you know, and there
11:32were all these stories. I didn't even know about this when I was a kid because that's just the kind
11:37of guy he was. Like he didn't brag about this stuff. And after he died, we're talking about,
11:45you know, who gets what of this stuff. And my uncles and my dad started talking about this
11:51sword. And I guess it just symbolizes that, you know, people go through phases in their life
11:57and they change. And there's more to people than you really think, you know. But I was hoping
12:03that we could come, that I could leave with this thing and take something from it. I'm just amazed
12:07it's still sharp. It's still sharp. We can fix this. We can fix it. This happened so quick.
12:20I can't, I can't tell you if it was seven days ago or seven minutes ago or seven years ago.
12:26This happened so quick. My life changed. Our life changed. Yeah, it's still sinking in. Like it
12:31doesn't, it's not real. I've lived in LA for 15 years. You've been here for over 20. Yeah. And
12:38we had so much of our lives leading up to, I mean, my mom got me this bat when I moved here.
12:47And it's exemplary of all of the things that I acquired my 15 years here. And I struggled and
12:52I worked so hard and I wanted to go home so many times, but I kept doing it again.
12:57And now all that's just gone. It sucks. But like, you know, I have so much pain and John has so
13:04much pain and so much of us is gone, but our neighbors, Greg and Cynthia, and so many other
13:09people around here who have generational attachments to this place lost so much more
13:15than just their worldly possessions. They lost their whole community. And what I'm feeling is
13:21so much pain. They must be feeling it 20 fold. These are wonderful, amazing middle-class people
13:26that need help. Please, if you can't help, we can't start 2025 with one of the oldest
13:34communities where black people were allowed to own houses. We can't start 2025 with that
13:40community going away. I am heartbroken over my things. I'm so much more heartbroken over what
13:46my neighbors have lost. We're just one or two, two people. This is, this is a zip code.
13:53We're not thinking straight. This is trauma. I wanted to take something from this house,
13:57something from my past so that this didn't get the last word. That's what this was. I didn't
14:02want to let this get the last word about what I have moving forward in my life and what I have to
14:07remember my family by. I don't want this to get the last word about what this community is and
14:12what it can be. And that needs to start with people seeing the devastation. Like it's the only,
14:16this is the only thing I have left. I want all these people's homes back. I want all these
14:21I have left. I want all these people's homes to be rebuilt. We need to hold everybody's
14:24feet to the fire over this to make sure that this community gets built back as strong
14:28as it was before. A thank you card to our home that we can leave and thank our home for being
14:38ours and being so good to us. We can maybe leave it in the plants because it's green
14:46because it used to be green here. So I wanted it to be the way it used to be. I know,
14:53I know. Let's do that. Let's do that. There's just too many good memories to,
15:00there's just too many good memories. I'm sorry I didn't, I'm sorry I didn't know to say goodbye.
15:09You know when you, you like when you move out of somewhere it's like you take a mental snapshot
15:14of it in your head when, when you're leaving and that's something I always try to do when I know
15:21I'm going to be somewhere for the last time. But that night, that night I just assumed I was coming
15:27back. So I didn't know. I just want to be sitting right there. My couch was right there. I just
15:40want to be sitting right there for this not to be real. Let's go find a spot for it.
15:58Dear Chief Mark McNally, thank you for being our first home. We will always remember you.
16:02Hey, this is our new house. This is our new house. We're walking in.