Rebuild:LA
When the firestorms of January 2025 raged through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, they left nearly 30 people dead and historic destruction in their wake. Recovery will be a long, uphill road, and rebuilding will take years and dedicated planning. This podcast takes a deep dive into the circumstances that led to the fires, how people can prepare for future wildfires - which are inevitable - and how Angeleños can come together to rebuild our beautiful city.
Rebuild:LA is the proud winner of the 2025 Award of Excellence from the Communicator Awards and the 2025 Silver W3 Award!
Episodes
53 episodes
Rebuild:LA Episode 053: What Did the Fires Leave Behind in Our Soil with Dr. Seth John and Sujeet Rao of USC’s CLEAN Project
We know that the Palisades and Eaton Fires left devastation in their wake, devastation that wasn’t just burned structures and displaced lives, but dangerous contaminants that remained in our soil and groundwater. How far-reaching was the contam...
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Season 3
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Episode 53
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43:03
Rebuild:LA Episode 052: Just Because Your Home Is Still Standing, Doesn’t Mean You’ve Escaped the Fire with Eaton Fire Residents United’s Nicole Maccalla
Dr. Nicole Maccalla spent the first two days of the Eaton Fire on the ground, fighting to save her home. She thought that if she could just keep her house from burning, she would be okay, and when the fire was finally out, she could return to t...
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Season 3
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Episode 52
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43:48
Rebuild:LA Episode 051: 70% Of Survivors Can’t Return Home with Department of Angels’ Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti
In the second of our two-part episode with Eaton Fire survivors Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti, host Cameron Barrett asks the two about their work on the Department of Angels' quarterly survey of fire survivors, Community Voices: LA Fire...
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Season 3
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Episode 51
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39:49
Rebuild:LA Episode 050: No Warning - Surviving the Eaton Fire with Department of Angels’ Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti
Andrew King and Angela Giacchetti didn’t know each other on January 7, 2025. They lived only a few blocks apart - in Altadena. When the Santa Ana winds got so strong that power started failing, King loaded his two kids and his wife into their m...
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Season 3
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Episode 50
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45:07
Rebuild:LA Episode 049 - Rebuilding Is Reimagining with Malibu Mayor Marianne Riggins
Malibu is no stranger to wildfires. The city had just recovered from the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which destroyed hundreds of homes on both sides of Pacific Coast Highway, when the firestorms of January 2025 struck. The Palisades Fire destroyed 700 h...
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Season 3
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Episode 49
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37:12
Rebuild:LA Episode 048 - This Ain’t Your Dad’s Fire Service with Battalion Chief Andoni Kastros (ret)
The American Fire Service is in the midst of a rapid transition period that many have described as a crisis. From a massive brain drain happening in departments that are losing many seasoned firefighters to retirement, as well as a fundamentall...
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Season 3
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Episode 48
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42:40
Rebuild:LA Episode 047 - Is Orange County Prime for the Next Megafire with Irvine Ranch Conservancy's Oscar Hood
Oscar Hood is trying to stop a Palisades Fire from happening in Orange County. As the County Coordinator for Wildfire Prevention and the Government and External Affairs Analyst for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, he’s managing over 40,000 acres o...
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Season 3
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Episode 47
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38:50
Rebuild:LA Episode 046 - Using Robots to Fight Wildfire with BurnBot’s Ford Ainslie
It’s like a Zamboni for firefighting. We’re talking about BurnBot’s RX2, and if you haven’t seen video of it in action, make sure to click on the resource link below. The company brought together two widely different California realities - Sili...
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Season 3
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Episode 46
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39:49
Rebuild:LA Episode 045 - Finding Your Way Home with After the Fire’s Jennifer Gray Thompson
In 2017 Jennifer Gray Thompson found herself living in her car with her dogs after evacuating from the Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County. The experience made her feel alone, lost, and unable to navigate back to the life she had enjoyed before she cam...
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Season 3
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Episode 45
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46:05
Rebuild:LA Episode 044: Saving History from Wildfire with Headwater Economics’ Ryan Handy
The Palisades and Eaton Fires destroyed a lot of history. Will Rogers’s ranch home, Pasadena Waldorf School, Robert Bridges House, The Bunny Museum, Andrew McNally House, Theater Palisades, and The Zane Gray Estate are just a few of the thousan...
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Season 3
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Episode 44
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42:32
Rebuild:LA Episode 043 - A 50-Year Perspective on the January Firestorms with Chief Kim Zagaris of the Western Fire Chiefs’ Association
When you’ve been in the California fire service for 48 years, like Chief Kim Zagaris, you’re likely to take a long view of how we’re doing when it comes to wildfire response. Chief Z as many know him, was State Fire and Rescue Chief for the Sta...
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Season 3
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Episode 43
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40:07
Rebuild:LA Episode 042: There Aren’t Enough Firetrucks for Every House with the LA County Fire Department Community Brigade’s Brent Woodworth
There have always been people who have stayed behind to try to protect their homes during a wildfire. It happened in the Palisades and in Altadena this January. As always, there were varying results. Some claimed to have saved their homes and e...
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Season 3
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Episode 42
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49:44
Rebuild:LA Episode 041 - Forgotten Altadena with the Future Organization’s Aimery Thomas
This week social scientist Aimery Thomas of the Future Organization joins Cameron Barrett to talk about ARISE - Altadena Resident Impact Survey and Evaluation. It’s a report he and his partner compiled after they surveyed 1,200+ Altadena reside...
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Season 3
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Episode 41
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43:25
Rebuild:LA Episode 040 - It’s Been 8 Months. Now What? With Palisades Fire Survivor Kari Weaver
Our conversation this week is with Palisades Fire survivor Kari Weaver, who lost her home in the alphabet streets. It’s been 8 months since that windy, dry Tuesday morning, January 7, when the Palisades Fire started in the highlands. And it was...
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Season 2
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Episode 40
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43:49
Rebuild:LA Episode 039 - How New Legislation Will Help Victims of the LA Firestorms with CA Senator Ben Allen
California Senator Ben Allen is our guest this week, squeezing our interview into his jammed legislative schedule. Allen grew up in Santa Monica and represents California Senate District #24, which includes his hometown, as well as Malibu and t...
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Season 2
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Episode 39
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44:54
Rebuild:LA Episode 038 What Can We Do To Make Evacuations Work in the Next Wildfire with MySafe:LA’s David Barrett - Part II
The death toll from the January Firestorms has climbed to 31 with the discovery in late June of the remains of Juan Francisco Espinoza, a 74-year-old man who didn’t escape the Eaton Fire when it raged through Altadena. The discovery of yet anot...
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Season 2
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Episode 38
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38:14
Rebuild:LA Episode 037 Why Didn’t Evacuation Plans Work in the Palisades and Eaton Fires with MySafe:LA’s David Barrett - Part I
This week is the first half of another conversation we’re stretching over two episodes, and that’s because of the complexity of what we’re discussing - evacuation. Why didn’t it work in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena when wildfires raged th...
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Season 2
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Episode 37
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25:24
Rebuild:LA Episode 036 - How Difficult Is It to Harden Your Home? We Asked Two Fire Chiefs How They Hardened Their Own
This week Cameron Barrett sits down with two Fire Chiefs who have just completed projects in their respective homes to give them the best chance of making it through a wildfire. Chief Frank Bigelow is CAL FIRE’s Deputy Director of Community Wil...
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41:59
Rebuild:LA Episode 035 CAL FIRE’s Uphill Battle with Zone Zero with State Fire Marshal Chief Daniel Berlant - Part II
Part II of our conversation with State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant finds us tackling one of the most contentious topics in wildfire prevention - Zone Zero. The state is still trying to define exactly what Zone Zero will entail, but homeowners a...
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Season 2
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Episode 35
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33:10
Rebuild:LA Episode 034 How Is CAL FIRE “Treating” Our Wildland with State Fire Marshal Chief Daniel Berlant - Part I
This week is the first of a two-part conversation with State Fire Marshal Daniel Berlant. He leads the wildfire prevention and preparedness efforts for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). California is home to ...
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Season 2
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Episode 34
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26:32
Rebuild:LA Episode 033 - What Would You Pack If A Wildfire Was On Your Doorstep with MySafe:LA’s Chris Nevil
It’s been six months since the firestorms of January tore through the communities of Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The worst wildfire disaster in Los Angeles history, the Palisades Fire killed 12 people, destroyed 6,837 structures and burned ...
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Season 2
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Episode 33
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34:37
Rebuild:LA Episode 032 - California’s Chaparral Could Be Our Best Fire Protection Plan with Richard Halsey of the California Chaparral Institute
What if saving California’s chaparral ecosystem means we’d be protecting California communities from wildfires? Richard Halsey, the founder of the California Chaparral Institute, says our state’s most abundant biome, chaparral, actually protect...
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38:31
Rebuild:LA Episode 031 - Scenes from MySafe:LA’s Wildfire Fair
MySafe:LA's Wildfire Fair took place this past Sunday at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Our non-profit organized the event to help residents have a one-stop solution to finding wildfire information and products. The fair ...
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Season 2
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Episode 31
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18:01
Rebuild:LA Episode 030 - A Fire Retardant You Could Drink with M-Fire’s Silvio Lanzas
Our guest this week is Silvio Lanzas, the former Fire Chief for the City of Glendale, and the current Chief Operating Officer for the fire retardant manufacturer M-Fire. The company produces and applies a product called AF31 that is water-based...
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Season 2
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Episode 30
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39:35
Episode 029: UPDATED! Rebuild:LA - Delay, Deny, Discourage, and Underpay with Joy Chen of the Eaton Fire Survivors' Network
Five months after the Eaton Fire came charging out of the wildland and destroyed much of the historic city of Altadena, there are still hundreds of families who haven’t been able to return home or start the long process of recovering. This week...
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Season 2
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Episode 29
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42:54