It is a paradox: this is the place the flames tore through—yet people are smiling.
“Mommy! Papi!”
The calls ring out across the parking lot, directed at Kiseon Lee, 81, and Jeongja Yoo, 75. The couple answers with warm embraces, holding neighbors close like family.
At 1 p.m. on February 6, the parking lot of Fair Oaks Burger in Altadena was filled with nearly 500 residents. For 38 years, Lee and Yoo have run the beloved hamburger shop. On this day, they were not serving customers—they were serving their community.
The couple hosted the “Altadena Wellness Event,” offering support to residents affected by the devastating wildfire. Susan Park, a local community activist, helped spread the word through social media and assisted with coordination.
That afternoon, Lee and Yoo distributed 1,000 servings of homemade chicken tacos. The neighborhood around them had been reduced to ash, but Fair Oaks Burger narrowly escaped the fire. Still, the restaurant remains closed due to disruptions in basic utilities, including water service. Without access to their kitchen, the couple prepared the tacos at home instead.
“There’s a saying that a close neighbor is better than a distant relative,” Yoo said. “Altadena residents have been our customers for so long—but more than that, they are our neighbors. We live our lives together.”
Across the street, an elderly white woman whose business was destroyed in the fire approached the couple with tears in her eyes.
“I’m so happy to see you again,” she told them. “I hope you reopen soon. I want to eat your hamburgers again.”
The gathering was intended not only as relief but as a step toward Altadena’s recovery. In particular, it carried special meaning as the first privately organized aid event held in the community since the wildfire.
Word of the event brought an outpouring of support. Seven nonprofit organizations—including World Food Bank, Altadena 2030, Feed the Children, and World Class Kitchen—joined the effort, providing canned food, bottled water, snacks, clothing, hand sanitizer, and other essentials.
Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) were also on site, offering assistance with compensation claims, employment guidance, and recovery resources.
Lee says reopening the restaurant remains a painful question.
“I want to open again,” he said, “but so many of our longtime customers lost their homes. Even if we reopen, I don’t know if they’ll be able to come back.”
Still, he recalled one moment that has stayed with him since the fire.
“It’s such a bleak situation,” Lee said. “But when people saw that our building hadn’t burned down, they were happier for us than I was myself.”
It is that response—neighbors rejoicing in one another’s survival—that has given the couple the strength to keep going, and to help their community rise with them.
Susan Park, who helped organize the event, said Altadena faces unique challenges in the aftermath of the disaster.
“Altadena doesn’t have its own municipal government, so recovery is moving slowly,” she explained. “Follow-up action from Los Angeles County has been delayed, and support from nearby Pasadena has also been limited. That’s why residents keep searching for ways to help one another through grassroots efforts.”
Even as the Lees struggle under the weight of uncertainty, they continue to practice what they believe in: mutual survival.
Though the restaurant has been forced to shut its doors, the couple has continued paying wages to its five full-time employees.
“Before they are employees, they are our neighbors,” Lee said. “They have families. Things are difficult, but we are still paying them. We’ve worked together for decades—these are people we’ve shared life with. I can’t turn away from them.”
Many of the volunteers distributing tacos that day were the couple’s two daughters, along with staff from Fair Oaks Burger.
Lee looked out at the crowd lined up in the parking lot and smiled.
“Most of the people standing in line today are longtime customers,” he said. “They treat us like family—and we’re the ones who are grateful.”
In the ashes of Altadena, it is this bond that keeps people smiling. The fire may have scorched the streets, but it could not burn down a community’s spirit.
Altadena is rising again—on the strength of its people.
BY KYEONGJUN KIM, HANKIL KANG [kim.kyeongjun1@koreadaily.com]
