‘People saw dollar signs’: a year after devastating wildfires, an LA community is fighting displacement

Sisters Ellen and Eshele Williams on the lot where Ellen's home, lost to the Eaton fire, once stood in Altadena, California. Behind them, a construction crew is working on building a new home. Photograph: Stella Kalinina/The Guardian

Ellen Williams’ left hand played with her long dark hair as her right hand guided the steering wheel, her phone resting face-down in her lap. Born and raised in Altadena, an unincorporated area in Los Angeles county, she didn’t need to look at a map as she drove to where her home of 22 years burned down.

We passed empty lots with gaping holes where foundations once stood. The banging of hammers rang through the neighborhood and wood frames rose from the dirt, the smell of fresh lumber in the air. Perched on street corners were signs declaring: “Altadena is not for sale.”