Deputies, firefighters answer different call: rebuilding fire survivor’s Altadena home

There were no patrols needed at the lot on Terrace Street in Altadena on Tuesday, not for the crew from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Nor were there fires to put out for the Los Angeles County firefighters working alongside them, unless you count the playful banter exchanged over the sound of drilling, hammering and sawing.

There was, however, plenty of goodwill coming from Rosa Fernandez, 72, stationed under an EZ-Up with her 2-year-old rescue Maltipoo Donut on her lap.

After all, the 48 deputies and firefighters volunteering with the San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity on June 16 were working on her home.

“Seeing how generous and loving this community is has changed me,” Fernandez, a retired social work facilitator said. “I’m no longer lost and confused. I am not afraid now to reach out for help. There’s so much love.”

Fernandez lost her home of 23 years, and its colorful garden of native plants and Talavera pots in the Eaton fire. The space she welcomed the first responder crew to is a different Altadena than the one most of them witnessed burning for 24 days in January 2025. The inferno killed 19 and razed more than 9,000 structures.

The two groups of first responders included men and women from L.A. County Sheriff and Fire departments, including the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team and officers from the Special Enforcement Bureau in Los Angeles.

Capt. Ethan Marquez of the Altadena Sheriff’s Station came up with the idea of gathering first responders for Habitat for Humanity after helping construct Habitat’s first rebuild on Pine Street for Ken and Carol Wood, longtime Altadena residents in their 80s.

“We’re trying to not just respond to calls for service, but give back to the community and let everybody know that we’re humans too. We saw what happened. We were here,” Marquez said. “We were here the entire time during the fire, and we want to do our part to help the community rebuild as fast as possible.”

Marquez and his counterpart, Assistant Fire Chief Patrick Sprengel, organized two shifts of volunteers who labored from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m., their presence marked by the police vehicles and fire engines and trucks around the site.

Sprengel said the two teams work together often, meeting at a variety of incidents such as wildfires, traffic snarls and evacuations, so men and women from both departments have a good rapport.

Sprengel, who was on the ground from the earliest hours of the Eaton fire, said the conflagration was the worst he has seen in his 32-year career.

“I live adjacent to the community here and I get the opportunity to drive through on a regular basis, and every day there’s an additional building on every block,” Sprengel said. “It just gives me hope. It shows the tenacity of the community that they’re working to get Altadena back to where we want it to be.”

Sheriff Robert Luna donned a hard hat and picked up a drill even though he admits his wife is the handy one in the family.

“It feels so good to be giving back in this way,” Luna said, after drilling holes for electrical wiring inside the structure. “Our deputy sheriffs and the firemen from L.A. County put their lives on the line during and after the Eaton fire, to make sure that we saved as many lives as we could. To come back and do something like this, we’re out here hand in hand with our community and this is how we’re going to progress forward together.”

Staffer Rene Martinez of Habitat for Humanity supervised the deputies and firefighters at the site, finding the caliber of their skills to be excellent.

“I only had to tell the firefighters to run ceiling joists up there, and they asked what size,” Martinez said. “I didn’t have to explain much at all.”

Habitat for Humanity is working to raise funds to build 100 homes in fire-ravaged Altadena, having started construction or completed 10 homes in town with another 30 in various stages of permitting. Homeowners choose from among 40 ready-to-roll, preapproved designs from the Foothill Catalog Foundation, culled from architectural styles prevalent in Altadena before the fire.

Fernandez’ home is a custom Lewis, a Craftsman-style bungalow with a full front porch, painted in the exact eye-catching teal of her previous home. The main house, at 1,259 square feet, will have three bedrooms and two baths, while the accessory dwelling unit will have two bedrooms and one bath.

From her vantage point seated under a sun shelter outside the construction zone, Fernandez said she can see the future: a beautiful new bungalow in “my teal” shade of blue, with space for succulents and vegetables in front and in the back, and inside, a happy riot of Talavera elements, from a mural in front of the kitchen sink to pottery on many surfaces.

“I admire and respect the Mexican culture so much, my daughters said all I needed was a piñata hanging from the ceiling fan,” Fernandez said.

“I hope,” she add, “I hope I can have that again.”