Remains of Karen Bagnard’s Altadena, California, house after it burned in the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Courtesy: Chelsea
On the night of Jan. 7, Karen Bagnard sat in her Altadena, California, house in the dark.
Forceful winds had caused her home to lose power, and she also had no running water, save for one bathroom.
“My daughter called and said, ‘Mom, do you realize there’s a fire?'” said Bagnard, who is 79 years old and legally blind. “I had no idea there was a fire.”
At that point, the evacuation zone for the Eaton Fire was far enough away for her to feel safe.
“I thought, ‘Oh, they’ll never get to my house,'” Bagnard said.
More from Personal Finance:
How climate change is reshaping home insurance costs
California wildfire victims may receive a one-time $770 payment
Top-rated charities active in Los Angeles fire relief efforts
About 30 minutes later, her daughter Chelsea Bagnard called back. With the fire spreading quickly, Bagnard’s home was now near the border of the evacuation zone.
After Bagnard’s grandson, Dalton Sargent, who is 32 and also lives in her home, came back from work, the two decided to leave for the night.
In the more than 50 years she lived in the house, Bagnard had been close to evacuating before but had never actually left.
“I thought, ‘Okay, we’ll evacuate this time, but we’ll be back,'” she said.
That was the last time she stepped foot in her home.
The next day, Bagnard’s daughter and grandson returned to the neighborhood to check on the home before authorities sealed off the area. What they found was a “smoldering pile of debris,” her daughter wrote on Facebook, with only larger appliances such as the refrigerator and stove recognizable.
It was Jan. 22 before Bagnard was able to return to her neighborhood to see the devastation for herself.
“They brought a chair for me, and I sat in the driveway, and what I could see was just the land,” Bagnard said of the surreal scene. “I started looking at it in terms of, ‘How would we rebuild?'”
Karen Bagnard, 79, sits in the ruins of her Altadena, California, home, after it burned in the Los Angeles-area wildfires of January 2025. “I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt,” she said.
Courtesy: Chelsea Bagnard
Older adults especially vulnerable to natural disasters
The Los Angeles-area wildfires destroyed tens of thousands of acres, ruining homes and entire neighborhoods. Insured losses could climb to $50 billion, according to estimates from JP Morgan.
Additionally, an unknown number of residents have been left homeless.
For older individuals, the catastrophe comes at a vulnerable time in their lives, when relocating and coping with physically difficult conditions can be more challenging.
By 2034, we’ll have more people over 65 than under 18 in our country, according to Danielle Arigoni, an urban planning and community resilience expert and author of the book “Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation.”
Yet those demographics are not used as a lens for climate resilience planning…
Read More: This 79-year-old lost home to California wildfires, hopes to rebuild