Ted Koerner stood in the front yard of his home on Wednesday, tears welling, hands proudly clasped behind his back.
The Eaton fire didn’t leave much of his old home on Alta Loma Drive in his beloved Altadena. “Ashes and chimneys,” he said, much like the thousands of homes across the unincorporated town that were reduced to nothing the week of Jan. 7, when the catastrophe ignited.
But on Wednesday, Koerner and his faithful dog, Daisy May, stood ready for a new chapter in what is now their newly rebuilt home, which on Wednesday officially became the first primary residential rebuild in Altadena to get a certificate of occupancy, meaning they can live in it safely under county code.
All of a sudden, from smouldering rubble months ago, his front yard was the scene of a signing ceremony, where Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella signed a certificate and handed it to Koerner, grasped by county Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
It was the culmination of a long journey, one that Koerner felt fortunate and “humbled” to have made relatively quickly. Even as journalists and neighbors explored his airy new 2,160-square-foot home, Koerner, 67, and county officials were mindful of the thousands still contemplating moving back, or whether they ever can amid costs that county officials estimate have risen from $500 per square foot to more than $700, and a time when underinsurance and economic uncertainty persist.
Still, it was a giant moment for an Eaton fire survivor determined to have moved back into a home before Christmas, and for the county leaders, who lauded him Wednesday as a trailblazer who Barger said can be a symbol and “help to other survivors who don’t think they can navigate the system.”
“The day Jossef gave me the keys in the driveway, and said we’re gonna leave now, we’re done, I looked around and said ‘hey, we did it,’” said Koerner, his voice pausing to hold back tears, referencing his contractor, Jossef Abraham.
“It’s been a long year,” he said. “But it’s a wonderful day.”
Koerner described a rebuild journey that was daunting enough, but supported by friends and loved ones and his own determination.
He remembered estimates in early January that it would 12 to 18 months for the Army Corps to clear the foundations, a deflating prospect for the survivor, who has lived in the area since 1989.
“That was a little discouraging,” he said.
But things started moving months later, he said, noting Barger’s push to get agencies to clear the scorched foundations, which in six months were indeed being cleared at a faster rate.
Ultimately, his builders framed the entire house in three days. And that unlocked his vision for the property.
“It very suddenly became not an image of ashes and chimneys but it became an image of, ‘there is a home on my property again, and that means I will go home.’”
It wasn’t until August until he realized, “you we’re gonna go home. It took that long to realize you we’re gonna home,” he said, pointing to an oak tree at the front that survived.
Koerner acknowledged he’s among the fortunate ones who were in a position to front the money for his rebuild. But he had challenges and triumphs along the way.
“The mortgage servicing industry is the biggest hurdle,” he said. “They are holding insurance money. And they won’t give it back.”
He began the process with upwards of $700,000 of his own retirement money, after finding out that it would be hard to unlock the insurance payment.
Getting going fast was vital, he said, because of the increasing costs of construction materials. Getting that paid up front would help down the line, with newly imposed tariffs impacting the cost of building.
“Why would you put tariffs on lumber, glass and aluminum right now,” he said. “Thanks, but that’s not helping.”
Ultimately, he said, he contacted Fannie Mae, which owns the mortgage. That would lead to the mortgage servicer finally sending the first installment payment.
He said he had praise for the county’s permitting process, which Barger in June had urged to move faster, after her own pledges to cut red tape in the rebuild process. She had directed the county’s Public Works Department to “drill down” on the issue, with hopes of finding where the bottlenecks were.
From design approval to the finished product, it took four months and five days to get his home rebuilt.
County officials, and Koerner himself, readily acknowledged how fortunate he has been to rebuild, even as thousands contemplate whether they even can.
“Financially, not everyone has a retirement they can pull from to frontload the build,” Barger said. “Ted’s fortunate and took a risk quite frankly.”
She said she’s happy for those who have already started the rebuild. But there still remains the journey ahead for many survivors, upwards of 2,300 who have applied for permits to rebuild. And Barger said she’s focused in Altadena on the more than 4,000 who have not begun the process.
“What we’re most concerned about is trying to give people certainty about whether they can return,” said Pestrella, the Public Works director. “The financial uncertainty is most driving whether they can rebuild.”
The dollars and cents are still at the core of rebuilding issues.
“When they see that number it could be very discouraging,” for people who want to build, said Pestrella, citing his own department’s efforts to streamline the process.
Koerner’s new certificate comes as a spate of new ones have been issued in the area recently.
Pasadena resident Jun Lujan, on Tuesday, Nov. 25, became the first homeowner in the Eaton fire burn area — which spans from Pasadena to Altadena to Sierra Madre — to receive a certificate of occupancy for a rebuilt primary home post-fire in the city of Pasadena.
Last month, a two-bedroom, 630-square-foot accessory dwelling unit in Altadena received a certificate of occupancy. The ADU replaced a garage that burned in the Eaton fire.
Koerner still has hope for his beloved town, and its future. And he still has his friends and loved ones, who he said got him through the dark days of living in a small hotel room, and just getting through the challenge.
“I have a number of friends who got me through this,” he added, noting the people who took him out to dinner every night for weeks; the friends who “stuffed my car full of clothes”; those who just checked in on him.
When they come visit he and his Daisy May, they will get to see a stunning view from his new home – Downtown L.A. out in the hazy southern distance. Closer still, his hometown of Altadena, the lots, some empty, some in some stage of rebuilding.
“To look those people in the eye, in this house that they got me back to, will happen a lot,” he said of the coming days.