Kellogg-Rodriguez Family Altadena Fire Devastation

Altadena Eaton Fire losses…

Our story is a bit complicated. We did not lose our house in the fire so at this moment we are very lucky and have few immediate needs. We are safe and have our day to day possessions, and have been living in a local apartment while we completely remodel our Altadena home.

Why are we here?

In early 2024, we packed up and stored everything we owned (except for day to day temporary things that we could get by with in a small apartment) while remodeling our family home in Altadena to add a much needed bedroom and bath. This planned 6 month project has been a stressful effort for us for nearly a year in initial stages of work, but was a labor of love because we became a family with our 2 adopted children 2 years ago and our small house would soon be cramped as they grew.

On Jan 8 the storage we had secured on our property burned down completely and we lost all of the possessions we truly cared about that we safely packed away for our “real” life in our updated home. Now our wonderful kids are 6 and 3 and blissfully unaware that all our truly dear belongings from toys, bikes, furniture, hobbies, collections, memorabilia and items I imagined giving my children when they grew up are now gone. Some of the same loss so many throughout Altadena are feeling.

We are so much more devastated for everyone who traumatically lost their home, including my sister and brother-in-law one block away. As our whole town begins rebuilding, we have no dwelling loss covered by insurance but we will incur large uncovered costs to build our house as planned in this climate. Delays, material shortages or higher costs are some of the problems we are imagine we will encounter because of the vast construction in the area that will start asap. And just as of Jan 1 we were finally due to start building after months of many bureaucratic delays and challenges that had us feeling helpless and desperate as construction projects seem to do. Now hopelessness is seeping in.

Any donations will be used to help us cover monthly expenses due to the unexpected delay in continuing our home project as planned, which now seems out of reach.

If you have made it this far, thank you. And if you decide to support our need or others’ needs due to this unimaginable tragedy, I truly have no words. I am only holding onto hope that we ALL get what we need to become ourselves again. And I hope that someday soon when we are back home I will be able to pay this forward.