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Over 650 students and 100 employees at PCC have lost their homes due to the recent Southern California wildfires, and PCC has provided housing for 50 families during the recovery period. 

After the Eaton Fire broke out in Altadena on Jan. 7, 2025, only to be contained after 24 days of burning, Pasadena City College students and staff who were impacted by the fires have been fighting to regain a sense of normalcy. 

“More than a month has passed since one of the worst disasters of our lifetime during the darkest days of the fires when the flames where still raging and the sky was ominous and the filled with ash, PCC was here to help our community survive for 100 years PCC history has been interwoven with rich within the rich fabric of our community and our role as a community leader and partner continued during this disaster,” Pasadena City College President Dr. José A. Gómez said.

“We’re trying to stay strong but it’s kinda hard in every way possible. We have our car and that’s all,” student Katie Banuelos said. 

Banuelos and her family were forced to evacuate from their apartment in Altadena the night the Eaton Fire first broke out on Jan. 7. The family evacuated to Banuelos’ boyfriend’s house in Pasadena which was further away from the initial blaze. Due to the unexpected nature of the evacuation,  they were unable to save any belongings, only leaving them with the vehicle they escaped in.

About six weeks after the tragedy, Banuelos and her family are still displaced. This reality is that of several families forced to evacuate. Following the Eaton Fire, housing is in high demand and quite expensive. 

Some PCC students, including Robert Medina, a second-year student, volunteered during the Eaton Fire. Medina shared his experiences and perceptions of the tragedy.

“It didn’t feel right that I continue on with my life like it was nothing while they continue their life without anything,” said Medina.  “When I came back home on Jan. 11. The first thing that I did was call my friends, saying, ‘Hey, there’s setting up a distribution center for people who lost homes and everything. “We were loading cars for people, and helping people loading things to their car that needed help, carrying a lot of stuff.”

Medina explained his responsibilities as a volunteer and the supportive system that PCC provided. 

Everybody was like working together… there was nobody struggling to understand where they were going to go, what they were going to do,” said Medina. “There was always somebody guiding somebody like ‘Hey we got this, like just go here  we had a whole system. Even people who joined last instantly already knew what they were doing.”

Medina perceived the volunteers as  kind people with good hearts who understood  the feeling  of loss, spreading that message through their acts of service. He too has a message for the PCC community.

“Even though it seems like you have nothing you will have something and it’s going to be 10 times better than what you originally had,” said Medina. “Because as long as you have the support and know that you’re not alone in situations like this,then you can achieve anything.”

While some students have lost their homes, and some have stepped up to volunteer, others have faced different challenges after the Eaton Fire, like Pasadena City College student Lulu Mykytyn. Mykytyn is a professional horseback rider who was forced to evacuate 20+ horses during the Eaton Fire, and struggled to balance the tragedy with her school load. 

“I think it was challenging since it was at the start of the Winter session. Despite being on the more fortunate end of these fires, I was still stressed trying to manage my evacuated horses while also managing Winter classes,” said Mykytyn. “I’ve been able to return to my normal schedule for the Spring, but I feel like PCC could’ve cut us some more slack while everything was going down,” Mykytyn said. 

Pasadena City College offered numerous resources for those affected by the wildfires including monetary assistance, mental health resources, childcare, free meals, and housing. A “PCC Fire Recovery Needs Assessment Form” has been physically and digitally distributed for students to privately reach out to the school for assistance. The form asks the type of assistance you need, how immediately you may need it, if you’re a small business owner, your location, and your phone number so students can easily seek out small-scale disaster relief through PCC. 

“As they [PCC affiliates] begin the road to recovery, their needs are profound. They’ve lost homes, places of worship, schools. But PCC is still here—and we are here to help,” Gómez said.

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