Portrett Busby’s Story: A Family Home Lost in the Altadena Wildfire

For most of her life, Portrett Busby has measured time by the memories made inside a single-family home on Calaveras Street in Altadena, California. It’s the house where she grew up, later raised her own children, and watched four generations of her family gather for holidays, birthdays, and everyday moments that defined “home.”

The house was originally purchased decades ago by Portrett’s grandfather, now 85, along with his mother and aunt, after the family relocated from Indiana. Over the years, it became the heart of their family — a place of care, fellowship, and continuity. Portrett’s grandparents raised their children and grandchildren between two nearby homes in the neighborhood, including the Calaveras Street house and another just blocks away on Terrace.

Holidays and milestones were always centered there. Thanksgiving, Easter, birthdays — nearly every major family gathering took place on Calaveras. Portrett’s grandmother, one of ten siblings and now the last surviving sister, became the family matriarch, known for keeping the doors open to relatives near and far.

Over time, the home became even more central to Portrett’s daily life. Her mother moved in with her three children to help care for her aging parents. Later, Portrett’s sister brought her own son — the family’s first great-grandchild — into the home. Eventually, Portrett raised her own children there as well, making the house a true multigenerational anchor.

The surrounding Altadena neighborhood felt like an extension of the home itself. A historic daycare around the corner that had been operating for more than 40 years had served multiple generations of local families, including Portrett’s. Nearby schools, corner stores, and churches were all within walking distance. Everything about that area was home.

But in January 2025, everything changed.

Fires began in the mountains. Smoke gathered, the air thickened, and ashes drifted down, but the family didn’t feel immediate concern. They’d seen fires before, but the flames always stayed in the hills. These flames didn’t.

The winds were violent for days, whipping hard enough to make it difficult to even stand outside. As the fire intensified, parts of Altadena began receiving evacuation orders, but still not their section. Portrett’s brother, her uncle, and neighbors worked together into the night, hosing down the roofs and yards of three or four houses on their street, including their own. They hoped to buy time or at least slow the fire if it came down the hill.

Then the power went out.

That had never happened before, not even during previous fires. That was the moment they realized this was different. The smoke was too thick, the wind too strong, the fire too close.

Her brother and uncle went room to room, telling everyone to pack what they could — medication, a few pieces of clothing, blankets, birth certificates, and little else. There was no time to gather keepsakes or photos. They loaded the kids, the grandparents, and the dogs into the cars and pulled away at about 1:30 a.m.

Hours later, around four or five in the morning, a neighbor who had stayed behind called to say sheriffs were going door-to-door ordering everyone out. Their street was no longer safe.

The family fled first to Van Nuys, to the home of Portrett’s aunt. But by morning, another fire broke out near the Hollywood Hills, close enough that they had to prepare to evacuate again. There were fires everywhere.

Still, they held out hope that maybe their home had survived.

That hope was shattered around 6:00 a.m. then her sister’s fiancé, driving to work in Pasadena, passed their street. He called immediately and sent a video. Their entire block was engulfed in flames. The Calaveras house, the neighbors’ houses, even the historic daycare — all burning.

In one night, her grandparents lost the home they had owned for decades. Her cousins lost not just one, but both of their grandparents’ houses, the one on Calaveras and another just a few blocks away. Two generations of memories were gone in hours.

For Portrett’s family, the loss wasn’t just of a structure, but of a legacy; the place where her grandparents built their lives, raised children, welcomed grandchildren, and created the safe haven the whole family relied on. It was the home her daughter was born in, the house every family member knew they could return to.

In the months that followed, the family began the slow work of rebuilding, not just homes, but a sense of normalcy after everything familiar was gone. And as Christmas approached, the weight of the loss felt especially heavy. After the fire, Portrett worried about what the holidays would look like for her children. Traditions had disappeared overnight, and the idea of creating Christmas magic after losing nearly everything felt overwhelming.

That’s when The Salvation Army stepped in again.

Through The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, Portrett’s children received Christmas gifts, transforming the family’s first Christmas since the fire from one marked by grief to one filled with joy and hope. For Portrett, it meant her children could still experience the wonder of Christmas, even in the shadow of tragedy. For her grandparents, The Salvation Army also helped connect them with organizations offering housing support, easing the uncertainty they faced after losing the home they had built their lives around.

That relationship only deepened through the crisis and into long-term recovery.

“We’ve been getting consistent help from The Salvation Army since day one, and now we’re almost a year in… we can still call on [them] if we need anything,” said Portrett. That ongoing support, whether practical assistance, emotional care, or simply knowing someone will pick up the phone, has been a key part of their recovery.

A year after the fire took everything, Portrett is focused on moving forward, rebuilding her family’s future one step at a time, and creating stability for her children. With the steady support of The Salvation Army, she’s determined to rise from the ashes and give her kids the life they deserve — proving that even after unimaginable loss, hope can still take root.