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 minivan and took off to a nearby hotel in Pasadena. Better safe than sorry, he figured. Giacchetti and her husband were new parents. Their son was only nine months old, and their main concern was him. But they figured they could wait until the evacuation order came. Even if authorities told them to “get ready,” they still planned to go, because of the baby. Better safe than sorry, they figured. Yet the order never came. When they lost power, they packed the car and headed to a friend’s house in Silver Lake. Neither family ever thought that one of the deadliest wildfires in Southern California was just getting started. It would be several months later when King and Giacchetti would meet, as they started their work with the newly formed non-profit, born of the fires, the Department of Angels. This week, King and Giacchetti sit down with host Cameron Barrett for the first of a two-part episode to tell their harrowing stories of evacuation and their long roads to recovery.