Living in Altadena is a milestone for many Black families. Now, the community is reeling from all they’ve lost to the fire

For many African Americans who built their lives and businesses in historically Black communities like Altadena, the combined loss of generational wealth and personal heirlooms is indescribable.

Nearly every day since the Eaton Fire destroyed her home, Dr. Dorothy Ludd-Lloyd’s relatives have tried to get the 88-year-old past the National Guard so she can sift through the rubble. “We asked at several different stopping points each day if she could just get a piece of gravel,” her granddaughter, Kimberly Cooper, told CNN. “She doesn’t want not just her history, but her parents’ history, to be erased.” For six generations, the 100-year-old white house on East Mariposa Street – with its teeming flower beds and red shingles – was the family’s center of gravity. Ludd-Lloyd originally purchased the house in 1972 for her parents; a feat for a Black woman who had been kept from living in the area for decades because of racism, her family said. She later dedicated her life to curating the house in homage to her family’s history. Now, all that remains are ashes. For many African Americans who built their lives and businesses in historically Black communities like Altadena, the combined loss of generational wealth and personal heirlooms is indescribable.