As Wildfires Tear Through Los Angeles County, One Couple Steps up to Shelter Evacuees

‘I had my staff drop everything, call local hotels and start reserving room blocks,’ said attorney Gina Zapanta.

Flames from the Palisades Fire burn a home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 8, 2025. Eric Thayer/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—When Anthony Ray Souza got an alert on his phone to evacuate his home in Altadena at the start of the Eaton Canyon fire, he and his wife grabbed what they could—birth certificates, social security cards, photos—and fled.

They ended up at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, now converted into a shelter for evacuees of the fire—which has leveled most of Altadena, tearing through more than 13,000 acres and still only three percent contained as of Friday.