David Brancaccio

At my burnt house in Altadena, we found only two valued objects in the ashes.

a bird-shaped brass doorknocker and a singed copper flask that before the fire held water from the glacier that feeds the Ganges River in India, a memento from a climate change TV story I'd done from the Himalayas.

We're hoping the water that vaporized somehow blesses everyone trying to get their lives back together in the wake of this ongoing mess.

All of our stories on the fires one year later are streamable from Marketplace.org.

In Los Angeles, I'm David Brancaccio with the Marketplace Morning Report.

From APM American Public Media.

Hey, it's David Brancaccio, host of the Marketplace Morning Report.

It has been one year since the costliest set of wildfires in California history, U.S.

history, and by at least one calculation, the history of the world.

16,000 structures were destroyed, most of them homes.

I can quote your figures about insured versus uninsured losses measured in billions.

But as people in the fire zones face year two, we go from macro to micro.

I'm checking in with the neighbors on one street in Altadena, where 15 homes were destroyed on a single block.

These are my own neighbors.

I lost a home on that street too.

Join us for on-the-ground reporting as we hear from people still dealing with insurance, getting permits, finding contractors.

One guy had to go through 30 contractors to find one with the right skills he could afford.

Plus, for most, rebuilding is taking years.

How do people find the money to live elsewhere?

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