Family who lost 9 homes in Eaton Fire vows to rebuild

A family vowing to rebuild after losing nine homes in the California wildfires received a surprise donation Friday on “Good Morning America.”

The Jenkins family of Altadena, California, will receive a $135,000 overall donation from the nonprofit Global Empowerment Mission, which is dedicated to helping people in disaster zones get back on their feet, and their partners, Bethenny Frankel’s BStrong and Stable Road Foundation.

“It’s a small step, but trust … everyone is doing what they can all throughout the world to support everyone here,” Global Empowerment Mission spokesperson Michael Capponi told the Jenkins family.

The Jenkins family says the donation will help bring their family closer and help with immediate housing needs.

“We’ve got family scattered from here to Orange County [and] Arizona,” said Ed Broussard, one of the family’s cousins. “Thank you.”

Broussard and his extended family previously all lived within a 2-mile radius of each other in Altadena for generations. They lost everything last week as the Eaton Fire roared through the town.

Four of the sisters in the Jenkins family lost their homes. In one sister’s home, as Broussard and his cousins Will Chandler and Marcus Betts showed “GMA,” there were only charred party chairs and tables left.

“They have the party chairs and tables over here from when we would get together, do game night. My aunt Paula, that was her thing — game night,” Betts said.

“It’s a lotta legacy that we wanna hold onto. We don’t want that to go with the houses, and so we need to be here to make sure the legacy stays here,” Betts added.

Betts, Broussard and Chandler say they’re committed to helping build back Altadena and their families’ homes.

“We’re rebuilding. I’m not going anywhere. I don’t care who it is. My family, we are staying,” Broussard said. “We got electricians in the family. We got carpenters in the family. We’re rebuilding.”

The historic area of Altadena, one of the first areas in the U.S. where Black and brown people were allowed to buy real estate, is one of the many communities completely leveled by the devastating Los Angeles area wildfires.

The Eaton Fire, which first started on Jan. 7, is now 65% contained but has burned over 7,000 structures and at least 14,000 acres so far. Firefighters continue to battle the Eaton Fire as well as the Palisades Fire, also in Los Angeles County, and the Auto Fire in Ventura County. About 82,000 people are still under evacuation orders and about 90,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Before the wildfires, Altadena was home to about 42,000 and known for its picturesque landscape in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.