As the Los Angeles region continues to battle multiple raging wildfires, we’re hearing more inspiring stories from California’s heavily entrenched car culture. That includes this cockle-warmer from Pasadena, where a fabricator rushed to save his lowrider collection as the flames advanced on the northern suburb.
The Eaton Fire started as a flare-up in the brush of Eaton Canyon just after sunset last Tuesday. By the time rush hour had ended, flames were already licking at the communities of Kinneloa and Altadena. Evacuation orders went out almost immediately as the winds carried embers deep into the neighborhoods that litter the foothills below Angeles Crest National Forest, igniting fires in buildings as far south as Woodlyn Road. Throughout the night and the following days, Pasadena residents like Instagram user @doublepumphydraulics fought against time, fierce winds, and falling water pressure to protect their homes and automobiles.
The worst of the fire’s advance happened in the northern and western parts of the suburb, where it leapfrogged its way through the historic neighborhoods flanking Altadena’s Lake Avenue, charring vast swaths of normally quiet Los Angeles suburbia.
Facing evacuation orders as homes and garages burned around them, many stayed to do what they could to shield their neighborhoods from the relentless flames. @doublepumphydraulics and his neighbors managed to hold the line. Just one of his cars was damaged—what appears to be a 1961 or ’62 Chevy Bel Air convertible—and he said it suffered only the charring visible on the bumper below and some burns in the top itself.
Even after evacuation orders were rescinded for some parts of Altadena, the threat lingered. As of Tuesday, the Eaton Fire covers more than 14,000 acres and is now approximately 35% contained, but several northern sections of Altadena remain under an evacuation order with dangerously high winds expected to continue throughout the week.
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