Everyone saw the images of homes burning throughout greater Los Angeles earlier this month in what has now been called one of the most destructive urban fires in United States history.
That included two Juneau residents, one of whom fled the Eaton Fire as it consumed the community he had lived in for decades.
On the night of Jan. 7, Juneau resident Drew Dembowski had just returned to his home of nearly 30 years. The idyllic brick ranch house sat at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Altadena.
Dembowski had just returned to California from Juneau the day before. He was there to finish getting his home ready to put on the market. A guest appearance with the Juneau Symphony in 2017 first brought Dembowski to Alaska. He fell in love with it, and kept coming back as principal bass. Then he fell in love with Katy Giorgio, the symphony’s principal trombone.
After spending his entire career as a studio musician in LA, he was finally ready to retire and live full time in Juneau with Giorgio.
“This was like my big move,” Dembowski said. “I lived here 68 years. It’s time for a change.”
But on that Tuesday, the Santa Ana winds had raged all day, putting the entire bone-dry LA region on edge. Back in Alaska, Giorgio was on edge too, watching coverage of the Palisades fire. As night fell, Dembowski sent her a screenshot from a fire tracking app. It showed a new flame icon in nearby Eaton Canyon.
“I knew immediately, when I saw that map,” Giorgio said. “I was like, ‘This is not good. I think we’re going to lose the house tonight.’”
With the flames rapidly approaching his neighborhood, Demobowski had just enough time to walk through his home to take pictures and grab a few essentials. In a video he captured just before getting in his car, embers sail through the air as the wind shakes trees and street signs. Small fires ignite in the brush across the street.
“I stuck around the house longer than I should have,” he admits.
By the next morning, it was gone.
“I just spent a year and a half and a half-million dollars remodeling the house to sell,” Dembowski said. “It was supposed to be listed in a couple of weeks, and now it’s just a pile of rubble.”
Giorgio caught a flight to LA the next day to help him sort through the aftermath.
Like many Southern California homeowners, Dembowski’s insurance of 28 years dropped his coverage a year ago. He could only find home insurance through a state plan offering the most basic coverage. And then there’s all the other things to think about in the aftermath of a disaster.
“Drew had one pair of pants, like in Los Angeles … that’s all he had,” Giorgio said. “But it was also, like, spending time calling the utility companies.”
They drove up to the house to take pictures and see what was left – a foundation of singed bricks and some surprisingly fire-resistant lawn furniture. The Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures and left 17 people dead. The cause is still under investigation, but the community is forever changed.
“Altadena was such a beautiful place. It was an old area with lots of big trees and old houses. And it is just, it’s just gone,” Dembowski said.
The area was known for being the home of many artists and musicians, as well as a historic Black community.
“That’s what I cry about, is, of course, the house, and the things in the house, but it’s really like, that was such a beautiful area and, and I just don’t see it recovering in the same way,” Giorgio said.
It’s easy to count up the things that they lost in the fire – a collection of about 1,500 mountaineering guides Dembowski assembled over 40 years, his bikes and vinyl records, Giorgio’s orchids – but he’s quick to point out that he’s one of the lucky ones.
He already had a place to stay nearby and a home in Juneau to return to. And he was able to save his prized possession – an upright bass from 1790 that he’s owned for half a century.
“Had I lost that instrument, that would have changed my dynamic a lot,” he said. “It’s been my dance partner.”
Months of uncertainty lie ahead. Instead of listing his home on Zillow, he’ll file insurance claims. He knows he won’t recover the full value of his home, but he’s making peace with that. In a way, it’s a relief after struggling for so long to part with it.
“And you know, that’s taken care of now, not the way I would have chosen, but it’s – it’s given me the freedom to move forward and to get where I was hoping to get a little bit sooner,” Dembowski said.
In the end, he has his health, and his loved ones, and his bass.
“I’m counting my blessings,” he said.
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