Michiko Oba is 77, a retired secretary with the Pasadena public schools, raised here by Japanese parents. Hooman Sabeti is 39, an immigrant from Iran who works in construction. Their neighboring houses at the end of East Pine Street were somehow spared from the Eaton Fire, while the homes in all directions are gone. They are now both living among the wreckage.
They have no electricity. No running water. No stores, no restaurants within the cordon. They could leave — to the wider region — but would not be able to return until restrictions are lifted.
Sabeti cannot keep his anger from rising. He had told another neighbor to cut her trees — they were a fire hazard, he insisted.
“The neighbor didn’t listen to me,” he said. Now their home is gone along with their trees.
Firefighters have been checking on them. Capt. Jamie Hernandez and his crew of Los Angeles County firefighters filled buckets with water so they could bathe. Firefighters shared burritos for lunch one day, sandwiches the next.
“You look all around their houses, it’s gone,” Hernandez said. “You don’t see any houses besides their two.”
Oba’s parents bought her house in 1959. She and her husband moved in about four years ago, after her mother died. They fixed it up, with Sabeti’s help. Since the fire, her husband has been staying at her brother’s in Monterey Park. Her husband had a stroke, and she doesn’t want him to breathe this air.
Without Sabeti, Oba would have to leave. He can fix anything.
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