
I met ShelterBox USA ambassador Rene Amy, reeking of smoke and wearing turquoise women’s pants, after the Eaton Canyon fire destroyed his Altadena home on Jan. 7, 2025.
“Fashionable, I must say,” Rene joked and laughed, as is his way. “They belong to my partner Jean. They’re all I could grab from home.”
A year later, Rene’s property at 279 W. Calaveras St. is an empty lot, except for a new mailbox, 19 blackened tree stumps, and piles of tools along a charred cyclone fence.
“Where the hell am I?” Rene asked me. “I realize that it’s my property, but emotionally, it’s an unfathomable wasteland.”







