One year after the Eaton and Palisades fires, LA County published a recovery review
On Jan. 7, 2026, Los Angeles County marked one year since the Eaton and Palisades fires, reporting 31 deaths and thousands of homes and businesses destroyed. Its review traced recovery from permits and utility restoration to longer-term rebuilding and resilience work still under way.
Period covered: 2026-01-07 retrospective
This report describes the dated record. For services available now, visit local providers.
A year of recovery work
On Jan. 7, 2026, Los Angeles County marked one year since the Eaton and Palisades fires, reporting that they had claimed 31 lives and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. The County’s anniversary review gathered rebuilding stories, assistance information and accounts of emergency-response changes. It highlighted the first West Altadena family to complete a rebuild and receive a certificate of occupancy, alongside broader work still under way. [1]
The County described recovery as a partnership among its departments and other agencies, with an all-sectors rebuilding approach spanning public agencies, private industry, philanthropy and community organizations. Its review was a progress account at the one-year point: the featured completed home stood alongside thousands of other rebuilding efforts, rather than marking the end of reconstruction. [1]
These are separate measures reported by the county. Applications and permits do not represent completed homes, and assisted residents are not a permit count.
LACEHH original graphic · Sources: Los Angeles County.
Permits and business support
Over the year, more than 2,800 permit applications had been submitted and more than 1,100 rebuilding permits issued to residents moving forward with reconstruction. County One-Stop Permit Centers had assisted more than 14,000 residents. The County also reported tripling permitting speed and reducing or deferring fees to save residents up to $30,000. [1]
The County said it had distributed more than $55 million to stabilize small businesses and restore essential services, and had supported displaced workers. Those measures placed household reconstruction within a wider recovery effort involving businesses, workers and services needed by affected communities. [1]
Utilities restored, then rebuilt
In Pacific Palisades, LADWP’s account describes an urgent restoration phase followed by longer-term system work. Water pressure returned Jan. 16, 2025, nine days after the fire began. Crews manually shut off leaks at more than 5,000 service connection meters at damaged or destroyed properties. By March, the department said electric service had been restored to all standing structures and safe drinking water fully restored after more than 450 water-quality samples were tested. Crews also flushed more than 100 miles of mainlines, as well as tanks, hydrants and service laterals. [2]
By July 2025, LADWP had rebuilt the power distribution system to provide temporary service, installing more than 1,800 poles and more than 334,000 feet of conductors while working toward undergrounding where feasible. In its January 2026 update, the department reported more than 8,700 feet of installed trench on the Sunset Boulevard backbone and 32 completed underground structures. [2]
Longer projects remain in progress
The January update also described block-by-block engineering assessments for undergrounding, a new 12-kilovolt system and substation upgrade, and replacement of about 99,700 feet of water mainline pipe at an estimated cost of $77.7 million. LADWP said its water resiliency plan was expected in 2026. These projects extend the recovery beyond immediate service restoration and into infrastructure designed to support future reliability. [2]
The County’s review and LADWP’s update cover different parts of the same recovery: housing permits and business assistance alongside utility repair and system planning. The County’s Jan. 7 statement reported 31 deaths at the anniversary; it did not present that figure as a later revised count. [1] [2]
Sources & further reading
- One Year Later: Recovery, Resilience and Lessons Learned After the January 2025 WildfiresLos Angeles County · 2026-01-07
- January 2025 Wildfires: LADWP one-year updateLos Angeles Department of Water and Power · 2026-01; one-year retrospective
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