The Eaton fire took their home. But they don't have to start from scratch

“We were expecting a blender,” said Steven Seagle and laughed, as he looked around at the “home kit” he received with his wife, Liesel Reinhart, and their children.

The Reinhart-Seagle family were pleasantly surprised with their new dining and living room, and lots of other essentials, all set up by volunteers.

They are parents to three foster children and have lived in Altadena, just north of Christmas Tree Lane, for 20 years. Before that, they lived a couple of streets over, so as long-time Altadena residents, fires and strong winds are not new and come with practiced precautions. 

“We always felt like our house was too far down to be threatened,” Reinhart said. “I used to tell everyone, ‘Don't worry about it. A lot of houses would have to burn before this house burns.’ And it turns out we were right, unfortunately.”

The Eaton fire burned down their home and everything in it.

The idea of rebuilding their lives as they once were is a daunting one with spreadsheets, insurance and construction costs looming over their heads. 

The couple, while not fans of being on the receiving end of help, couldn’t help but apply to Home Bank L.A., the new wildfire initiative by A Sense of Home (ASOH), “We came around to this when we saw that its core mission was emancipating foster youth because that’s exactly who we were interested in adopting: foster youth who are going to emancipate and saying ‘No, no, you don't have to go family-less. We’ll be your family,’” Seagle said. “That gave me total peace of mind.”

“Decision fatigue is 100% getting to us,” Reinhart said. “But this has no decision fatigue. This is thoughtfully done. [They] thought of everything. Now we can just eat a piece of pizza and load a truck.”

They had purchased their 1912 home from Five Acres, an agency that provides community-based therapy for families in crisis, foster care and adoption services.

When the house went on the market, the couple was interested in purchasing it despite the competition. “We said, ‘If you sell us the house, we’ll fix it up, we’ll adopt some kids from you and we’ll give them the house,’” Seagle said. 

Reinhart added, “16 years later we did. Now, we don't have a house to give them, but that's okay…Everything that we [received] here will also be added to the pile of things we can give them one day.”

In 2020, one month into the pandemic, Seagle and Reinhart met Johnny and Madison, their now adopted children, online. With two years of a pandemic to get to know each other and become a family, the group is close-knit, with Madison and Johnny’s older brother Guillermo moving into the family. 

As they enter into the warehouse with a U-Haul and enjoy the pillowy, yet firm, couch they’ll be taking home with them, the parents are simply happy they can provide their children a fully-furnished home. “I can't tell you how terrifying it would be if you were a foster kid who turned 18, and then you're just on your own, and people think everything will work,” Seagle said. “Having an organization that says ‘We're going to furnish your whole house’ is amazing. And with such nice stuff is wild.”

As the family works to rebuild their lives in their four-bedroom home in Arcadia, they are physically rebuilding their home that was destroyed in the fire. Amidst the construction,  decisions to be made and the materials that made up their 1912 home that they can’t get back, there are a few things that survived that might make this heavy process lighter, including the massively beautiful Morton Bay fig tree in the front yard and a decorative bathroom tile made by Seagle that mimics one from the 1920s. “We can't make the same house, but we can have little pieces of the old one,” Seagle said.

“There's so much of that in Altadena,” Reinhart said. “Any house you drove by had these amazing architectural secrets and qualities inside of it. When people talk about the character of Altadena, it's not just the shape of the home on the outside but also the little built-ins. It was a very tranquil setting with a lot of poppy fields, orange groves and avocado trees. A lot of people chose to live up there in the 20s and 30s and beyond. There’s a lot of thoughtfully designed homes, and we're hoping it can retain that unique character.”

To support the survivors who have lost everything in the fires, Home Bank L.A. is offering comprehensive “home kits” filled with 330+ essential home items, such as furniture, kitchenware, bedding, cleaning supplies, health and hygiene products, and other household necessities, to ensure that families and individuals can move forward with dignity and comfort. 

“We say ‘home bank’ because someone needs a whole home set,” said Georgie Smith, CEO and Founder of ASOH. “[People] need everything to set up a home, not just furniture. We don’t make them go around and choose all of those items; that would take them hours. They’d be overwhelmed. Why not give this space to volunteers to, through the love of volunteerism and the love of community, create a beautiful home for them, and then welcome them and give them that sense of community?”

With the support of brands such as Living Spaces, Amber Interiors, Four Hands and Pizza Girl, and through a thorough application where displaced Angelenos can specify all of their needs, Home Bank L.A. has the resources to help 400+ applicants three times a week from their El Monte warehouse. 

If you or someone you know has been displaced by the L.A. wildfires or would like to volunteer or donate, visit Home Bank L.A.