Altadena Cars & Coffee Honors Classic cars burned in Eaton Fire

It is 8 a.m. on Saturday and cars are starting to ride in the parking lot next to a coffee not formed in a company in Altadena. There is A Green 1979 MERCEDES 300SD Turbo Diesel In the area, sitting next to a rusty vintage Mustang. In front of it, a brilliant Volkswagen MK4 R32 takes the slit next to a long, 1948 Chevrolet truck with a low truck from 1948, which rolled in its mermaid horn.

To reach this week Altadena and coffee cars Meetup, a Saturday meeting place for car lovers, participants had to cross a game of Altadena, houses and companies reduced to rubble by the late Eaton. Tyreke and Traivon Jackson Has spent their share in Lincoln Avenue and rue Figueroa, where they worked on cars as long as they remember. Passers -by would not have known what was on the batch before the fire, but now, with fences and a destroyed foliage, the damage is clear.

“We have lost an Impala '64 convertible, a '79 Monte Carlo, two knives '87 and a city coupe '83,” said Traivon Jackson. There was also a 2002 Camaro on the Lot, plus a 2005 Chevy Silverado, a Ford F-450, a boat and its trailer. While the last two have been mainly vaporized by fire, the burned shells of the others remain, steel sentries left ravaged by the flames.

Dave Stone estimates that between 4,000 and 5,000 cars burned in Eaton's fire, and he would know. As @Not_ev_altadena on InstagramStone has spent the last three months documenting the cars left behind, including those in the jacksons. He also created car meetings for those who follow or were presented on his account. Never really a guy in the car before, Stone started walking in the burn scar in the immediate wake of the fire. Near the Altadena Country Club, in the middle of a group of houses that were destroyed, he spotted A Ford-Scorched truckframed perfectly by palm trees. He thought it was “obsessive beauty”, so he took a photo on his phone, and in the days and weeks that followed, he captured more photos of the cars left.

Stone, who works in the music license, did it, he said, in part because his 13-year-old son loves cars, but also because he felt as if he had to. Although he lives just south of the Altadena border in Pasadena, his heart broke for his neighbors and friends, as well as for the community he admired. Stone has decided to put all of his car photos on Instagram, overcoming his “Not EV” account After the sentence The Environment-Painting Protection Agency on gas cars after removing their batteries. (Electric vehicles get a blue lightning, which is then white painted when their batteries are removed.)

“Some of these cars saw the First World War, the Second World War and Vietnam,” said Stone. “They lived Disco and Heavy Metal and the Challenger explosion and the invention of the Internet and Barack (Obama) and September 11 and the war in Iraq. And then at the very end of their lives, someone would not say something is not what it is not. Outside so that someone knows not to try to withdraw from lithium.

Now said Stone, he has taken more than 9,000 photos of lost cars from Altadena. He posted a lot on his Instagram, writing emotional full to accompany the clichés, like “they are weekend cars. Those at the back. In the garage. Behind the side of the house. You have to move all cars off the way. Find the women's keys in one of her handbags. He said he wanted to be like “the lorax for cars”, quoting the popular character of Dr Seuss, and hopes that his account can help the owners of cars not only cry but start to heal.

And for some owners, the healing process has been stimulated by posing for photos with their cars or driving through Altadena and coffee cars. If people want to come, take a latte and look at the beautiful cars, they can, but they can also use time to connect with others who know almost exactly what they are going through.

Will Stifel is next to his 1952 Ford F1 truck, which launched Dave Stone's interest in photographing cars burned by the late Eaton.

(Dave Stone)

This is why Will Stifel was there. His 1952 Ford F1 truck was the subject of Stone's first photoAnd he had been in his family for 50 years. It was in the film “Million Dollar Baby”, which shot in Altadena, and although Stifel originally thought that the truck – like the house it was seated – was a total loss, it has received a glimmer of hope in recent days. An El Sereno Auto Boutique offered to try to repair the truck, which has little damage to the side that did not face the fire. The engine is still intact, and with only 56,000 miles on the truck, it would be a shame to hurt it.

“Everyone in Altadena is dispersed in the wind at the moment, so you must have these events to meet,” said Stifel. “It's good to be able to talk to people how to rebuild, or take a cup of coffee and feel normal.”

For Lauren Ward, another participant who was presented on the @not_ev account, being at Cars & Coffee concerns the community. She lost her house and three cars – A Chevy 3200 van from 1957, a Volkswagen MK4 R32 2004 and a Volkswagen MK4 GTI VR6 2001 – and even if it has managed to replace one of the VWS since, it is still tearing itself apart by speaking of the effects of fire.

“You need something that seems normal,” said Ward. “Many of us do not have houses where we have houses in which we cannot live, but come here with a car – any car, really – gives you the impression that there is still a feeling of community. Our neighborhoods could be gone and our neighbors could have left, but through cars, you can always connect. ”

Ward particularly likes the way Altadena Cars & Coffee welcomes all the automotive corners, of those who have lost classic cars to those who cry their Forester Subaru Forester of the late model. There are discounts that go and people with Instagram accounts dedicated to their cars, but there are also people like Kevin Kuzma, who lost the chevrolet 210 of his deceased mother. She died a few years ago and left the Corail Canyon color carWho had less than 50,000 miles on it, to his two sons. Although she had never repaired her as she wanted, Kuzma's brother thought he could try, provided Kuzma could store the car until he could go from Portland to recover it.

Now, in what Kuzma calls a “very improbable” result because the DMV and the insurance have deemed the '57 “non -repairable”, it was Sold for people behind conventional cars Pasadena. They plan to replace the engine and the interior but the clear coating of the car of the car as is. They hope to take the burnt relic at car fairs from later this year. Kuzma calls for the sale of the car “the best absolute scenario by considering what happened” and said that he and his brother planned to go see the car once she is on display.

The fate of the 57 is not too different from another car stone presented on its Instagram. He recovered a lot of the 1985 Slantnose Porsche 911 Slantnose with the help of people he had met through the account and I took him to an event at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Stone thought that the scorched shell could serve as a tool to raise awareness of the enormity of what was lost in Altadena, including not only the cars but also those who loved them.

Who understands Oswald “Ozzie” AltmetzWho lived opposite Kuzma and died in the fire Eaton. His grandson, the resident of Colorado, Tyler Walton, found @not_ev_altadena when he was scrolling on Instagram earlier this year. Walton, a repairer and body painter, invited Stone to visit the property of his grandfather not only to capture photos of his cars, including a Volkswagen Westfalia 1971 and a Chevrolet Bel Air 1971, but also because he wanted to celebrate the life and heritage of Altmetz, as the years he spent in Rod's cars of Rod de la Rod “Von”. Parade. He was in town for the memorial of his grandfather as well as for the Petersen event, but he first stopped to pay tribute to Altadena.

Dave Stone recovered this 1985 Slantnose Porsche 911 Slantnose burned in the fire Eaton to display an event from the Petersen Automotive Museum to raise awareness of the impact of the fire.

(Dave Stone)

“Cars and coffee are great,” said Walton, “because it doesn't matter where I'm in the United States, I know I can go to something like that and be surrounded by people who speak exactly the same language as me.”

The Meetup has exceeded the parking lot of the coffee not formed in a company and it is planned to move to Bulgarini, an Italian restaurant in Altadena. The event will always have a coffee not formed in a company, said Stone.

Due to people like Altmetz, Ward and the Jacksons, Stone said he was now determined to make Cars & Coffee the best car meeting in all of California. “We had all these crazy cars and manufacturers, like these incredible and talented people, but nobody knew it,” he said. “I spoke to people who said” I didn't know my neighbors had this car “, or” I didn't know they were also car people. ” I suppose that it took all the fences and houses that burn for us to find ourselves. »»

For more information on future meetings, follow @altadenacarsandcofete on Instagram.