“If we had five more minutes, what would we grab?” Catherine P. ’28 said slowly, reminiscing on the feeling that had she had five minutes more, she could have taken one more memento, one more memory. 

Catherine had many items she wished her family grabbed including her grandfather’s professional baseball jerseys, a cookbook and recipe book her grandmother wrote, and her archery regional jersey. But at 3:30 a.m., when her family received a mandatory evacuation order, she grabbed the most precious things she could think of first: her brother, two dogs, and pet snake. The following night, Catherine learned that she had lost her home when the news broadcast a landscape view of Eaton Canyon. “It just looks like a war zone. Everything is gone,” she said.

Five Westridge faculty members and nine families have reported losing their homes to the Eaton Fire, and nearly 100 Westridge students were forced to leave their homes under mandatory evacuation according to Ms. Sarah Jallo, Assistant Head of School for Strategic Priorities and Enrollment Management. Burning more than 14,000 acres, the Eaton Fire that ignited on Tuesday, January 7 at approximately 6:30 p.m., left many Westridge families displaced for weeks, some with no home to return to at all.

They were among the thousands who evacuated, searching for short and long-term housing. The first few days after the fire broke out, the high demand for hotels and illegal price gouging have put a financial strain on families. Sophomore Clara T. and her family have been forced to move between six locations while waiting to return to their Altadena home. “The changing of houses has been difficult because after every other day, it’s just packing up everything and moving,” she said. “It’s just the uncertainty of it, but we’ve been really grateful for everyone who have offered their home.”

While being away from home has been difficult, community losses make the thought of returning home even more difficult for evacuated families. Students have lost favorite stores and childhood schools. Among them was Saint Mark’s School, an elementary school many Westridge students previously attended. Sophomores Pip D.-C. and Clara T. both attended the elementary school and grew up in Altadena. 

Pip has had to relocate six times. “Everything that I’ve ever known is [gone], like my elementary school, where I first learned to swim, my grocery store, the florist…It’s just all gone,” she said.

For Catherine P., who also attended Saint Mark’s, “[Hearing about Saint Mark’s] was a little more shocking…I didn’t think it would even touch that area,” she said.

Amid evacuation and devastation, displaced students shared the importance of reconnecting with the community and returning to normalcy. Catherine had many memories in her home, specifically, the small creek in her backyard. “I would go down there with friends, and we would have picnics and just hang out down there,” she said.

Returning to Westridge after the four-day closure allowed Catherine to reconnect with her friends and community. “Just hanging out with someone at lunch or after school. Just physically being in the same area is nice, it doesn’t have to be about what happened,” she said. 

For senior Sydney S. the return to school has provided normalcy while being away from home. “Everything feels so normal [at Westridge], and I like that. It’s really hard for me to go to [the hotel room] after school and realize this whole other reality,” she said.

In the first week back, teachers were instructed to give students an easier workload and not assign homework. Nina K. ’26, who moved five separate times in the span of less than three weeks, has been focusing on her mental health through her hobbies, like reading and exercising. After her house is cleaned, she will eventually return to her home. “I think everything will be okay,” she said. “It’s weird to think about the damage and everything. I haven’t seen Altadena yet, so I find myself thinking about that a lot. But relatively, my life is somewhat returning back to normal.”