Cathy Smythe stood on the grounds of what had been her home on Altadena’s Alta Pine Drive, sifting through ash and rubble.
She and her husband had left in a hurry before the flames swept down from the nearby San Gabriel mountains, consuming their home of 24 years along with most of the surrounding houses.
Now she surveyed the damage.
“There’s a lot of memories in this house,” Ms. Smythe said, her voice cracking. “It’s hard to leave.”
About 100,000 people were ordered to evacuate this week in the face of the Eaton fire, hurriedly leaving homes, cars and prized possessions — the makings of entire lifetimes — amid howling winds driving an insatiable firestorm.
With the winds subsiding, at least temporarily, on Thursday, the still-raging fire eased away from Altadena and back into the foothills, giving residents their first chance to return.
Wildfires have long been a part of life here, but locals tend to think of them largely as the source of bothersome smoke. The Eaton fire upended that notion, destroying as many as 5,000 structures, leaving little behind but brick chimneys and the blasted-out carcasses of washing machines, barbecue grills and pickup trucks.
But Ms. Smythe discovered that the safe containing her first wedding ring had survived. She put the ring in her pocket.
Rosa Bugarín managed to save some personal documents but little else as she evacuated with her two children early Wednesday. They had lived in their Altadena house for 20 years, pouring their savings into a remodel as they turned an 800-square-foot bungalow into their dream home.
“I thought I was going to come back to my house very ashy and maybe trees fallen down,” she said. “But not burned down.”
José Nájera also hadn’t thought the fire would amount to much. He had left with his family around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday because of the smoke, before the flames had reached their home on Mountain View Street. He came back with relatives on Thursday to sift through the wreckage.
There was nothing to find. Mr. Nájera’s sister excitedly lifted a key from the jumble of metal, glass and ash — only to realize that whatever lock it opened was long gone.
A few houses down, Ariana Vasquez was leaving mounds of kibble and bowls of water around what remained of the gate outside her home, hoping the cats she had had to leave behind would return. She had also come looking for the urn holding her father’s ashes, but failed to find it.
Two sisters, Andrea and Greta Gurrola, stood together crying in the front yard of what had been their great-uncle’s house on Monterosa Drive, one of Altadena’s hardest-hit streets. All they found intact were a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe in the back of the house and a statue of Jesus.
Before coming back, the sisters had seen clips online of people making light of the devastation.
“I watched a TikTok Live of someone recording the burning, and they’re like, ‘Oh, eat the rich,’” Greta said.
Altadena did have some wealthy people, Greta acknowledged, but many here, like her great-uncle who came from Mexico, had put everything into their homes.
“At his age, 80, he has to rebuild it?” she asked. “This is everything he’s ever worked for.”
