At Jackie Robinson’s High School, Altadena Rebuilds After Fire
June 25, 2025 at 10:05PMOne in every four students at John Muir High School lost their homes or were displaced by the Eaton Fire, which tore through Altadena, California in early January. Among them is Jasmine Collins, a third-generation Muir student. Everything saved from the home she shared with her mother, Brenda, and siblings fits into their truck. Her water polo team gives her purpose and stability:
Forty-eight days after the fire, Jasmine is wearing her new varsity letter jacket, with the Michigan-style “M” on the front and her last name on the back. A few days ago, her coaches surprised her with it. They pitched in to buy it for her. “She hasn’t taken it off since,” Brenda says.
The jacket represents so much to Jasmine. It comforts her to wear it, to wrap herself in a reminder that she hasn’t lost everything, which is important in what Issa [the head water polo coach] calls “the hard stretch” of surviving this fire. “It’s real now,” she says. “Everyone is realizing, ‘This is our life.'”
Money from online fundraisers is drying up. Donation centers are packing up and closing. The rebuilding process is slow. But life and the news cycle roll on.
The people of Altadena know that while their loss feels singular, their pain is not unique. They’re every community facing impossible questions after a loss. They’re Asheville, North Carolina, after Hurricane Helene; Waverly, Tennessee, after devastating flooding; Uvalde, Texas, after another deadly school shooting; Paradise, California, after the Camp Fire.
“I don’t know that we can hold on to what Altadena was,” Issa says. “But if we’re choosing to stay, then we’re going to have to embrace that it’s never going to be the same again.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/06/25/altadena-fire-espn-john-muir-high-school/
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