CHICAGO (WLS) — It has been six months since the deadly Eaton and Palisades wildfires swept through Southern California, scorching thousands of acres and leveling entire neighborhoods. Dozens of people lost their lives.
Becky Schlikerman and Kim Janssen, former journalists from Chicago, managed to escape safely, but lost their cherished home. It was a 1950s original house located at the end of a cul-de-sac.
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Just two or three days after it went up in flames, they began calling architects and lining up a team to rebuild their house in Altadena, California.
The couple said they have two years of insurance assistance, setting up a tight timeline.
Now, six months after the fire, the ABC7 I-Team has reconnected with Schlikerman and Janssen, who stated they are among numerous families pursuing legal action against the utility company.
READ MORE | 2 former Chicago journalists lose home in Los Angeles wildfires: ‘Fire lighting up the sky’
Walking through their now empty lot, the couple admitted it doesn’t look like much progress, but the clean slate follows countless hours of physical destruction coupled with waves of emotional strain.
“All of a sudden you add a second job basically of, you know, working to get your house rebuilt,” Schlikerman said.
It took almost no time at all for the Eaton fire to torch the home and the life Janssen and Schlickerman had created.
No question that if Edison had made the decision to turn the power off that morning after the system was showing signs of strain in the wind, that the Eaton Fire would have been avoided
“It changes you. It’s still changing now,” Janssen said.
When ABC7 last met the couple on January 12, they could only point to the few recognizable items left charred in the ashes. Their years of combined reporting experience helped them realize what was ahead.
“We kind of almost knew what you needed to do. Like we had experienced it through other people so many times, we sort of understood the steps that to take to move forward,” Schlikerman explained.
But in the throes of the permitting process, rebuilding is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive.
“We owe more on our mortgage than our land is likely worth. So we would be severely underwater if we wanted to sell this land and move on,” she said.
Janssen underscored the financial uncertainty.
“We’re bleeding money. Nobody can really say with accuracy how much anything is going to cost, because nobody knows there’s such a there’s going to be a real shortage of labor and materials,” he said.
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Los Angeles County and many individual homeowners have filed lawsuits against Southern California Edison alleging the utility’s equipment sparked the deadly Eaton Canyon fire.
Attorney Doug Boxer is leading one of those lawsuits.
“No question that if Edison had made the decision to turn the power off that morning after the system was showing signs of strain in the wind, that the Eaton Fire would have been avoided,” Boxer said.
The utility removed chunks of a charred transmitting tower from the base of Eaton Canyon in early in May as part of its investigation.
Dave Eisenhauer of Southern California Edison said the utility is exploring every possibility into the cause of the Eaton Canyon fire. That investigation could take as long as 18 months.
“This is all part of an effort to get as much information as we can to have a thorough and transparent investigation into the cause of the Eaton Fire,” he said.
Cellphone and surveillance video captured flames below and around the transmitting tower as winds raged on January 7.
Schlikerman and Janssen recalled high winds that sent a tree crashing through their home hours before it was turned to ash. Now, as the former Chicagoans map out a new floorplan on freshly-raised and fenced-off property, a sign of natural hope has returned.
“Our bear came back,” said Schlikerman, referring to a neighborhood bear that was a frequent sight. In this case, it is a good news bear.
The couple is hoping their new foundation will be poured sometime this fall, when they’ll likely be among the first people back in their neighborhood.
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