Help Fire Victims Recover What's Left: Save the Tiles

Team fundraiser

Eric Garland and Meg Pinsonneault are organizing this fundraiser to benefit Altadena Historical Society.

Tax deductible

My name is Eric Garland, I am a longtime Altadena resident (my kids are fourth generation), we are displaced by the fire and trying to help our neighbors and friends who lost everything through a project called "Save the Tiles" (savethetiles.org)

I took this photo with my daughter, walking our block on our first day back in the burn area. When Lucy said, "dad that beautiful fireplace is all they have left," we looked around us and saw chimneys everywhere. And not just brick chimneys, but beautiful original tile fireplaces. We knew we had to try to help but had no idea how.

Fortunately Cliff Douglas was way ahead of us. Cliff and his family are local business owners who sprang into action. Out of his own pocket, Cliff with help from his wife Janet and daughters Darcy and Devon began to help homeowners rescue, repair and restore whatever he could. When my neighbor Stanley and I pledged to support his efforts, a volunteer army was born.

The owners of these lost homes tell us that these handmade works of art mean the world to them. They are not "just stuff," they are personal and town history. The hearth is the center of the home. Batchelder and similar tiles are world famous and were made locally, by hand, more than a hundred years ago.

We are doing all we can to control costs of tile removal and repair with our all-volunteer army. We are now more than 100 locals strong, with teams identifying and locating more than 200 surviving fireplaces, conducting online and phone research and owner outreach, and most importantly, Cliff Douglas Masonry and the Douglas family have been volunteering their time and money to move quickly to rescue the tiles.

Please help us bring some joy and comfort to Altadenans who have lost almost everything. Altadena Historical Society has generously agreed to be our non-profit sponsor so that this is a tax-deductible gift for you.

Anything you can contribute will go directly to covering our hard costs: procuring equipment from scaffolding and tools to tile storage (for owners who have no home) and most urgently: more skilled masons and teams in the field. We must surge our current efforts quickly because the Army Corps of Engineers is already clearing and grading lots. We are truly in a race against time before this important link to our neighbors' lost homes is gone forever.

This is a period of profound loss for a wonderful community and real people are hurting. We meet them every day in the ashes, where many tears are shed. Our gratitude is difficult to express. Our beautiful mountain town burned. But miraculously, hundreds of original historic tile fireplace surrounds have survived in Altadena. We are spent, exhausted, overwhelmed by the road ahead but equally energized, hopeful and overwhelmed by the generosity of this great town. Altadena is always there to remind you that there’s no place better.

We are acting fast before bulldozers arrive to sweep this history away forever. Please help us save the tiles!