A person sifts through items at an aid center for people affected by wildfires at Santa Anita Park Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Arcadia, Calif. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

After covering the Eaton fire early into the morning, KNX News reporter Nataly Tavidian learned that her childhood home was gone. 

“My dad bought this home in 1998,” she told her radio station last week. “He was in his 20s and he looked at the backyard and he looked at the mountains and he said, ‘I'll take it.’ And he loved this home and he built this home and it's just, it's surreal.”

California journalists covering the devastating wildfires in and around Los Angeles right now are showing the world what’s happening in California. For some of them, the story is tragically personal.

Here’s a look at some ways to support journalists who’ve lost their homes, a small sampling of the stories they’re telling and a collection of ways to help. Please reach out to me at [email protected] for other journalists who should be on this list.

• A GoFundMe has been set up for Tavidian’s family. KNX reports that her mother and brother still lived there.

• David Rodriguez is a partnerships producer at LAist. Here’s the GoFundMe set up to help him recover.

• Rebecca Stumme is a senior producer for live programming and events at LAist. Here’s a GoFundMe to support her family in rebuilding.  

• Josie Huang is a “Weekend Edition” host and reporter at LAist. Here’s the GoFundMe to support her family in rebuilding.

• The Hollywood Reporter’s Mikey O'Connell wrote about losing his Altadena home. Here’s a GoFundMe to support him. 

• Journalist Lucy Sherriff wrote for the BBC about losing her home in the Palisades. Here’s a GoFundMe set up to support her.

Where to find help:

• AAJA has emergency grants available for chapter members.

• Adam Rose from the Los Angeles Press Club created this list with many more resources and emergency grants for journalists. 

How to help:

• The Los Angeles Times has this guide on how to help people affected. 

• And LAist has a number of great wildfire quick guides, including how to help victims, check on your home, return home, find resources for victims and evacuees, talk to kids about the wildfires, drive in high wind and fire conditions, and take care of your mental health. 

Read, watch, listen:

• Read about the NBC journalist who helped save a horse from the Eaton fire in this story from my colleague Amaris Castillo. 

• The Los Angeles Times wrote about TV reporters covering the fires in the places they’re from. 

• Read about the CBS News crew that saved one family’s dogs, Alma, Archie and Hugo.  

• James Rainey wrote about the Pallisades fire and the place he grew up for the Los Angeles Times.

• If you’re not familiar with the area, Colleen Shalby, Melissa Gomez and Brittny Mejia wrote about Altadena, a place with “soul, solitude and community,” for the Los Angeles Times.

• Matt Pearce, a journalist and president of Media Guild of the West, wrote on Substack “How California lawmakers can support getting more of the best L.A. fire coverage.”

• See images from photographers and youth reporters at Boyle Heights Beat.

• And from NPR, learn about the leader of an Altadena weather and climate Facebook group who offered critical early warnings to his community. 

That’s it for me this week. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, from there or covering the wildfires, I’m thinking of you. 

❤️

Kristen