Christine Cyr Clisset: So, we're coming up kind of the west side of the burn scar now, but you can also still see the difference between the mountains that are green and the mountains that are burned.

Christine Cyr Clisset: This is my colleague, Michael Cohen.

Michael Bradley Cohen: My name is Michael Bradley Cohen. I am a deals writer at Wirecutter for all of those who follow along over Black Friday.

Christine Cyr Clisset: Michael goes by Mike and he used to live in the neighborhood we're driving through right now, Altadena, just outside of LA. Exactly a year ago, on January 7th, 2025, the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted. They would ultimately become among the most destructive in California's history, eventually burning down more than 16,000 structures, including nearly 6,000 homes in Altadena. Mike's home was one of them.

Michael Bradley Cohen: I lived in Altadena. It was the first home we ever bought. It has gotten so much better already. And even driving up Lincoln, like all of this was covered in ash and debris and everything. Um, and to see all the lawns back and to see like people here is all really, really exciting. Um, again, we're still kind of just skirting the Burnscar. Um, but we'll turn right on Altadena Drive and then we'll head in.

Christine Cyr Clisset: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset and this is the Wirecutter Show. Today's episode is the first in a three-part series. It's an expansion of what we normally do on this show. We're going to focus on the disaster, collectively known as the LA wildfires. We'll be talking about some specific pieces of advice in the context of emergency preparedness, but we're also going to hear the human side of this story. We'll talk with Mike and another colleague of ours, Gregory Han, who lived through the eaten fire, about the things they've learned over the past year, about the unpredictability of natural disasters and just how long, arduous, emotional, and expensive the road to recovery can be.

Christine Cyr Clisset: We're dedicating three special episodes to this conversation because frankly, there is a lot to learn and not just for people who live in Los Angeles or other wildfire prone areas, but for anyone who might face a natural disaster and wonder, "What can I do to prepare?" At Wirecutter, we offer advice and recommend gear to prepare for natural disasters. Unfortunately, climate change is making these weather events more frequent, more intense, and more unpredictable.

Christine Cyr Clisset: Mike and Gregory lived through a disaster. And because the wire cutter ethos runs deep, they were thinking the whole time like true wire cutter writers. People who consider the details, who take notes on the lessons they could share with others. They came through it with guidance that could apply to any natural disaster, like what you need to understand about home insurance in case you ever really need to use it, or the ways you can invest in your home and community now, wherever you live, that may pay off in an emergency a lot more than you think.

Christine Cyr Clisset: That's when our colleague Gregory Han reached out.

Gregory Han: I'm Gregory Han. I am a contributor at Wirecutter, but also a design writer and co-author of three books. The latest with my wife about trees, previously about mushrooms. I live in Altadena.

Christine Cyr Clisset: Gregory was born and raised in Los Angeles. His home is still standing, but it was severely polluted by the fire, and so he and his wife were displaced for months. We asked him to work with Mike on a story about their collective experiences in the aftermath of the fires.

Michael Bradley Cohen: We started just having conversations about what we were going through. Yeah. I think one of the first things that we really connected on was almost reframing the scope of the article that at one point was how to rebuild in the 6 months after a fire. And we both kind of chuckled because we were like, six months after the fire, you will still be mired in a thousand governmental agencies.

Michael Bradley Cohen: And we were in the midst of those, not in a place or position where we could speak to with perspective what was working, what wasn't working. I knew so many of my neighbors and people within the community were completely lost. So we reframed it more as like things we wish we had done or known better or practiced before the fire. Something everyone can read before any disaster happens.

Christine Cyr Clisset: Although many people might associate fire as the central problem of the LA wildfires, extreme wind had just as much to do with the disaster. In early January 2025, the Santa Ana winds peaked in Los Angeles. These extreme winds and dry conditions caused small fires that may have otherwise been contained to spread quickly.

Gregory Han: I was definitely on edge prior to the wind arriving and I was aware of the severity of that possible weather situation because of a local young meteorologist who gave microclimate reports of just Altadena and he warned people maybe a week in advance. His name is Edgar McGregor.

Gregory Han: On the afternoon of January 6th, Gregory, Emily, and their two kittens left Altadena with enough clothes for one overnight. He took a laptop and some cat food, and we thought we'd be gone for a day, maybe 2 days. But then, as the day progressed, the fire completely changed its direction, and I became very aware that we were not going to be returning home.

Christine Cyr Clisset: Mike didn't have to evacuate his home in Altadena because he wasn't there. He and his wife were on vacation in Mexico. They kept a close eye on a WhatsApp thread with their neighbors.

Michael Bradley Cohen: And then someone shared with us this app Watch Duty and we all downloaded it and we were all glued to it because it had the most upto-date information about how big the fire was and where it had reached. In an emergency, LA County is responsible for sending out evacuation orders via cell phone in Altadena. But in West Altadena, those evacuation orders didn't go out until 7 hours after the fire started. And for reasons we still don't know, Mike says he and his neighbors never got the warnings.

Michael Bradley Cohen: Mike's neighbor Jamie was staying at Mike's house to look after his dog. We got woken up in the middle of the night by our neighbor who was across the street waiting in her car for her evacuation orders that never came. And she was the one who called and said, "Are you in the house? The lights are on." She's like, "You got to get out. Your yard is on fire. Your house is on fire."

Michael Bradley Cohen: When we tune into the doggy cam, the fire alarms are already going off. The house is filled with smoke and I'm shouting into my phone, "Wake up! The house is on fire, Jamie." Jamie wakes up, takes a look around and says, "We're safe for now, but we're leaving." And then my wife and I just sat in bed and watched the feed of the house as it filled with smoke and the flames came through the windows and the sparks just poured off the roof and then eventually the feed cut out.

Christine Cyr Clisset: Is there any advice you would give someone?

Michael Bradley Cohen: Two answers. On like a personal side of things, it would be when you're going through a disaster like this, it tells you really quickly what is most important and what is worth packing in a bag. From a practical standpoint, when a natural disaster is happening, if you're looking around for the people who know what to do, they might not be there. So, you have to be that person for yourself.

Michael Bradley Cohen: In a disaster, it's probably happening so fast that there aren't uniformed crew members with organized instructions. So, you have to be in charge of your own survival. But he says one big lesson has stood out to him over the last year. He is so grateful that he knows his neighbors. We look out for each other or we're trying because nobody else is going to do it for us.

Gregory Han: There's a level investment that you need to make within your own immediate community that will become very very valuable almost immediately. I think it's important to prepare to be there for other people, too. So that is a resource you can't buy, but it's something you can invest in by just saying hello and speaking to your neighbors and connecting in a way that may pay off in life situation.

Christine Cyr Clisset: This is Gregory and Mike's first big lesson. Invest in your community. A good first step is to create an easy way to communicate with your neighbors. This could be a text chain or a group chat through something like WhatsApp. The next lesson Gregory and Mike learned is about recovery. What do you actually need to think about and do once the immediate disaster is over in order to begin piecing your life back together?