Perello Family's Journey to Rebuild Home

Hello friends and family.

Our name is Ibarionex and Cynthia Perello of Altadena, California

As you can imagine, the horror we and so many others experienced as a result of the destruction the Eaton fires caused in our little (but mighty) city of Altadena, CA, a horrible devastation, to say the least.

Our spirits are torn, we're are heartbroken beyond measure, and yet we’re still trying to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps in the midst of this situation to rebuild our lives, as well as support others in need.

January 8th, we lost EVERYTHING in this fire.

Evacuating: Initially, when we saw the flames glowing high in the Angeles Forest hills, it was a familiar scene.

The high-velocity winds that propelled the fire had a physical voice—an angry and unforgiving one—and it blew glowing embers and smoke in our direction. With no power, no light, and no reliable means of emergency information. We knew we had to leave our beloved home quickly.

There was an electrical outage that night, so we used the flashlights from our smartphones to retrieve a few essential items, including medications, electronics, a hard drive, and a large bag of dog food. The cremations of my sister-in-law Jacquelyn and the urns/ashes from our furbabies, Traci, Spencer and most recently, Zoey our spirit-pup. We fumbled around a darkened house, trying to remain calm and yet think reasonably while faced with an impossible situation.

We had minutes to evacuate our beloved home. We literally left with the shirts on our backs, pajama pants, the slippers we were wearing, along with our recently adopted furbaby, Gracie.

As most of you know, we lost my beloved mom in 2022, and we made sure to take framed photos of her and family members, etc.

We tried to take what we could and left everything of any monetary or sentimental value behind. My tears are flowing heavily as I continue to bravely type these words.

We are grateful to be alive; however, we are sad that some were not able to say the same.

Everything is gone.

We’ll never hear or see those familiar sights, scents, or sounds of comfort, which made our home a place of love and comfort that Ibarionex and I spent years building together, along with those we’ve always opened our house up to.

For those who mourn on various levels of loss, we share your deep pain. You are not alone. We are with you and support you 100%.

We are praying for all those affected by these fires, for our neighbors and friends who also lost their homes, and for our beautiful Altadena.

This GoFundMe page was set up to help us rebuild our life from ground zero. No amount will be too small or too high.

Our family graciously welcomes any donations.