This Para Athlete’s Home Burned in Altadena. She’s Rebuilding It With Accessibility at the Forefront

When the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena a year ago, it destroyed more than 9,000 structures, priceless mementos, and generations worth of memories. In Katherine Beattie’s case, it also took with it a large measure of her independence—she lost not only the home of five years that she’d painstakingly renovated to be accessible, but four wheelchairs, several custom adaptive surfboards, and all of her other mobility aids, save for a pair of crutches she kept in her Jeep. She even lost the brand-new Toyota Crown Signia parked in her garage that was awaiting the installation of hand controls.

Growing up in the foothills northeast of L.A., Beattie, a TV writer and adaptive surfer who competes on the pro tour and represents the U.S. as a para surfer, was accustomed to the fires that routinely threaten the communities at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. So when her power went out in the high winds on January 7, she stayed put. The electricity came on briefly and went out again later in the afternoon, so she decided to head to her sister’s place. "When you’re a disabled person, your worst fear is to be caught in a natural disaster," Beattie says.

Driving away from her house, she saw an orange glow to the east. It was a fire that had just ignited near Eaton Canyon. "I remember thinking, ‘I guess I’m not going home tonight.’ But I didn’t think, ‘Turn around and get your stuff.’ Having been in a lot of really big fires, I thought there was no possible way it could get over to my house."

Beattie’s home, on a quiet street in northwest Altadena, burned to the ground, as did those of most of her neighbors. "We eventually got an evacuation order," she says. "But we never got an evacuation warning."

Of the 19 confirmed fatalities in Altadena, 18 were in west Altadena, long a vibrant haven for generations of Black homeowners and a place where modest homes sat side by side with multifamily dwellings, apartment buildings, and iconic properties like the Victorian-era Andrew McNally House. Beattie’s two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath house was built in the 1940s, and though it didn’t tick all her boxes, it was affordable, set on one level, and there were no steps to get in the front door—an important consideration for someone who uses a wheelchair for long distances and uneven surfaces and walks with and without her crutches indoors. "I could access the house," she says with a laugh. "It was never going to be perfect, but I grew to love it." Over time, she painted, redid one of the bathrooms, and did a gut remodel of the kitchen and added features like lowered counters, an induction cooktop with cutouts below for her knees, and counter-height appliances.

A few weeks after the fire, Katherine returned to her property to see the damage firsthand. A couple of wheelchair frames poked out from what had been her office. Underneath a piece of the roof was the frame for her WCMX (aka Wheelchair Motocross) chair with which she was the first woman to land a wheelchair backflip. The only things remotely salvageable were two of three wise men candleholders that her father had brought back from a trip to Turkey.