As the Eaton fire raged through Altadena on January 7, Vicken Marganian found himself in a frantic scramble to evacuate his home. In the chaos, he managed to toss cherished family photo albums into the trunk of his car, but a sudden gust of wind caused the trunk to pop open, sending decades of memories soaring into the air like confetti. “It felt like I was at the Super Bowl and the photos were like confetti, but instead of coming down, they were flying up in the air,” he recalled, describing the moment as his past flashed before him.
Desperate to save the photographs of his family, including images of his parents and his wife’s parents, Marganian rushed to gather as many as he could, but the advancing flames forced him to abandon the effort. Fearing he had lost hundreds of irreplaceable photos forever, he watched helplessly as the fire consumed the area.
Fortunately for Marganian and others who lost their precious memories in the fire, Claire Schwartz, an Altadena resident with a passion for photo recovery, stepped in to help. Schwartz had previously dedicated herself to finding and returning lost photographs that she stumbled upon at flea markets. Her commitment to reuniting lost photos with their rightful owners took on new urgency after the Eaton fire, which scattered personal memories across the landscape.
Schwartz quickly established a website and an Instagram account titled “Eaton Fire Found Photos,” where she began posting images she found in the aftermath of the disaster. Many photos were blown miles away from their original homes due to hurricane-force winds, and Schwartz leveraged her investigative skills to track down the owners. Currently, she is working to return approximately 25 photos to their owners, including a photo album she believes belongs to a family she is still trying to contact.
In one notable instance, Schwartz was able to return a photo of Hourie Marganian’s mother, which had been discovered by Nila Sinnatamby’s husband while cleaning their backyard. Schwartz recognized the image immediately, having seen it among the many photos she had already returned to the Marganian family. “We’re blessed to have Claire do that,” Vicken Marganian expressed, grateful for the kindness that emerged from such a tragic event.
The process of recovering and returning lost photos has proven to be a challenging endeavor. Schwartz has encountered mixed results in her attempts to reconnect families with their treasured memories. In some cases, she has faced resistance, such as when a family declined to accept a photo of a relative they wished to forget. Nonetheless, her dedication remains unwavering, as she continues to sift through the remnants of the fire, searching for clues and connections.
With a background in archiving, Schwartz meticulously cleans and stores the recovered photos in temperature-controlled conditions until they can be returned. Her efforts not only restore personal histories but also highlight the resilience and compassion within the community in the face of disaster. As she pulls photos from the charred remains of homes and landscapes, Schwartz embodies the spirit of hope and recovery, reminding all of the value of memories that can withstand even the fiercest of flames.