New home rises from Eaton Fire devastation, but 84-year-old owner has different plans

ALTADENA, Calif. () — Alice McFerguson said the night the Eaton Fire destroyed her Altadena home is one she will never forget.

Neighbors helped the 84-year-old evacuate as flames closed in.

“They told me, ‘The house was on fire. Get out of the house,'” she recalled. “So I got my purse and my safe, and that’s all I saved, and what was on my back was my nighties. If they had not been here, I would have been gone.”

Her next-door neighbor, who tried to save McFerguson’s home and car, said saving her life was what mattered most.

“What was most important was saved. That’s her life,” said Samuel Earl Veaseu. “The people around her love her.”

Eighteen months after the deadly Eaton Fire, McFerguson’s new home is finished.

Everything inside is new after the fire destroyed the original house.

Despite losing nearly everything, the 84-year-old said she is counting her blessings.

“You can lose everything, material things. You can always get that back, but you can’t get a life back. The most important thing was me,” McFerguson said.

McFerguson’s new home stands as a testament to patience, determination and faith.

“What I’ve seen all along is her unwavering belief in God and her gratefulness for the people who love and care for her,” said Candace Veasey, who helped rescue McFerguson.

As beautiful as her new home is, McFerguson is not moving in.

Instead, she is renting the house to a minister from her church. She said she is comfortable where she lives now and, at 84, does not want to move again, especially because the memories of that night remain vivid.

“It’s hard for me to accept what happened, and every day of my life now, I ask God to protect me and thank him for saving me,” McFerguson said. “Because I could have been gone.”