The Devastating Toll of the L.A. Fires
A visual record of the impact on L.A. County.
Burned-down beach houses line the PCH in Malibu, 2025. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.
In a few horrible weeks, 57,000 acres of L.A. burned, the largest urban fire in the history of the West. That’s the equivalent of four Manhattans. 12,000 homes were destroyed. 200,000 people were displaced. 29 people died. $250 billion in property and capital losses have been tallied so far. Businesses small and large were decimated. Seaside mansions, humble apartments, multigenerational bungalows, diners, shopping malls, schools, nursing homes, churches, art collections. The list is eternal, the toll incalculable. Here is just one partial and heartbreaking visual record of the destruction.
A Lesson from the Past
Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Thayer/Getty Images
As anyone who’s lived long enough in California knows, there is an inevitability to the fires, but these two photos taken nearly 90 years apart are a stark reminder of nature’s fury and the topographical reality that we must now address with better land management and better building practices. They’re also a statement of our steadfast refusal to cede our place on these perilous, beautiful bluffs and this coastline like no other.
Above, a map showing the location of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, and Altadena, which was devastated by the Eaton Fire. Pacific Palisades and Altadena are about 25 miles apart, as the crow flies.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Swaths of neighborhoods are leveled in Altadena, 2025.
Matthew Lutts mlutts@ap.org
The charred shell of Altadena Community Church.
Thomas J. Story
Pools and chimneys are all that remain on thousands of lots in Pacific Palisades.
Thomas J. Story
The twisted vestiges of Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates.
Thomas J. Story
Pylons are all that are left of beach houses along the Pacific Coast Highway.
Thomas J. Story
The ruins of a Gelson’s in Pacific Palisades.
Kirby Lee/Associated Press
Homes in Altadena burned in the Eaton Fire.
Thomas J. Story
Destroyed homes in Marquez Knolls in Pacific Palisades.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
A single home stands intact on a fire-ravaged street in Malibu.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Torched beachside homes flank the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
A Community Forever Changed
With a pre-fire population of just over 40,000, Altadena has always had a strong community identity. This unincorporated part of L.A. County has a richly diverse population and has long been home to many artists and creative types. The thousands of structures that were lost in the Eaton Fire will undoubtedly be rebuilt, but the community will never be exactly as it once was.
Thomas J. Story
Of the 28 houses that made up the modernist Gregory Ain Park Planned Homes community in Altadena, 21 were lost in the Eaton Fire.
Thomas J. Story
Scripps Hall, an iconic 3-story 1904 Craftsman building that most recently made up part of the campus of the Pasadena Waldorf School, was almost obliterated by flame.
Thomas J. Story
In operation since just after WWII, Fox’s restaurant was a local lunch and brunch go-to for generations of Altadena residents.
Thomas J. Story
Though the hardware store that used to stand here was gutted, this mural—which pays tribute to the Mount Lowe Railway that once shuttled visitors to the top of Echo Mountain—somehow survived.
