Ms. Aurora Barboza Flores is a math teacher here at Glendale High School, and she has also served as our resident math department head. She came to the U.S. from Mexico at nine years old and has lived in the LA area ever since. Ms. Barboza is one of more than 80,000 people, and twenty-four Glendale Unified School District staff members, who have lost their homes and were displaced by the recent LA fires.
When Ms. Barboza first bought her home in 2019, housing costs were already very high. Buying a home was no easy feat on a single income, especially as a public school educator. She had to make sure she could find a house that she could afford.
She was stressed thinking about all of the different expenses that would come with purchasing a house, as well as all of the different living expenses that arise.
On the evening of January 7th, Ms. Barboza left work at about 6:00 p.m. It was still quite windy outside, and she had no idea that there was a fire going on. As she was driving through her neighborhood, she noticed that the power was out in another part of Altadena.
When she finally arrived home and everything appeared to be normal, she decided to go to sleep, spending the night in Altadena. She didn’t realize that anything was wrong until she received a call from the director of a program she’s involved with, called Math for America Los Angeles. She was confused as to why her colleague was checking in with her, but the director told her about the Eaton Fire that was threatening homes in Altadena.
Ms. Barboza then heard movement from her neighbors outdoors. She went outside and it was still very windy. She asked two of her neighbors if they were evacuating and they both told her that they were. They pointed to the mountain behind them, and they saw a red glow in the sky.
Ms. Barboza immediately started to pack. She had to think about what people usually tell you to pack, like important documents and photo albums. She always said that this is when having a Mustang is not very useful, as there’s not a lot of space inside.
Ms. Barboza left her home at around 8:30 p.m., and she drove to her parents’ home here in Glendale. She invited a couple of her neighbors to the house as well. She also called and invited her close friend and fellow educator, Ms. Staci Thompson, who was currently just watching the fire and waiting. At 6:00 a.m. the next day, the fire was practically across Ms. Thompson’s street so she went to stay with Ms. Barboza.
The next day, on Wednesday morning, Ms. Barboza, Ms. Thompson, and three other Altadena friends found themselves evacuated in Glendale. One of these friends told Ms. Barboza that certain people had lost their homes. Videos were circulating among neighbors, and Ms. Barboza wondered how people were getting access to the area to be able to record those videos in the first place.
Later that day, another neighbor sent a video showing that houses in her small cul-de-sac had burned down. The video then panned over, and the two houses across the street were also destroyed.
Ms. Barboza also heard rumors that one of the houses in the background was still standing. The way she saw it, it was either her house or her neighbor’s house that had survived the fire. All she could think about was what kind of cruel reality this could be.
On Thursday morning, Ms. Barboza, Ms. Thompson, and her friend Denise decided to drive out to Altadena to check on their homes. From where they parked, Ms. Barboza’s house was still about a two-mile hike. They saw that Ms. Thompson’s house was still standing, but all of the houses across the street from her were burned to the ground.
At this point, Ms. Barboza was thinking, “I have to go check my house.” They were all wearing respirator masks and goggles, because the air was still thick with smoke. Ms. Barboza was nervous to be walking past downed power lines, fallen trees and burned cars. Along the way to her home, she saw that every single house was burned down.
When she finally arrived on her street, sheriff deputies were stationed there and would not let her through. She ended up going through another street that she knew was open.
She finally saw her house and had the realization that it was gone. Neither her nor her neighbor’s house was standing. Seeing the devastation made her realize that she had to get out of there.
When she got back to Glendale, she got to work immediately. She contacted her insurance company, filed for FEMA aid and dealt with not having anything to wear, except for the clothes that she had packed in a small suitcase.
Ms. Barboza came back to school the following Monday, because she felt that she needed to be here at GHS. She also needed to get work done, and her students in Math II needed to be able to go on to Math III. She didn’t want them to feel that since her house had burned down, she wasn’t going to teach. It also felt nice to be here, because she needed to have a sense of progress.
A friend who had evacuated with Ms. Barboza that day created a GoFundMe for her. Through the GoFundMe page, a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle contacted her and was writing a story about educators who had lost their homes in the LA fires.
She was interviewed, the story ran on a Sunday, and she didn’t think anything of it. One of the producers of the benefit concert, FireAid, had read the article and emailed her. They talked on January 20th, Martin Luther King Day, and the producer asked her if she’d like to attend the concert.
Ms. Barboza agreed, but she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She didn’t know how many people would see it, or that it would be televised almost everywhere. She just thought that she was going to a concert for free.
About four days later they gave her all of the details. She learned that she would be speaking onstage and would be receiving transportation to the event.
During rehearsal, someone asked her how she was feeling. She was wondering why people kept asking her that, and she replied, “I guess I’m always just trying to function.”
She met Quinta Brunson about forty minutes before going on stage and knew who she was. They chatted for a bit and Brunson was obviously very supportive of public education, given the role she plays on Abbott Elementary.
Even when they were right backstage about to go on, Ms. Barboza said that wasn’t very nervous. It was only when she saw all of the people, all of the jumbotrons and the monitors, that she started getting nervous, because then the spotlight was literally on her. She essentially had an “oh, crap” moment. If she had known all of these things ahead of time, she probably would have said no and told them to get someone else who was “more important”.
Ms. Barboza has been elated to see how the community of Altadena has come together through this crisis. There have been many relief funds, including FireAid and The Grammys.
Even her students have stepped up. On that first day when we all came back, four girls brought her big bags of clothing, and she has received a lot of help from the entire student body and her colleagues. She was surprised to see how much we’ve been able to step up and stand together. Ever since she came to Los Angeles when she was nine years old, she’s known that there is something about this city that keeps us here.
Ms. Barboza is staying positive and is planning to rebuild her house. Oftentimes dealing with insurance is hard, but you have to put emotions aside and just do the work. We wish her the very best during this time, and our hearts go out to all of the members of our Nitro community who have been affected by the Eaton fires.
