Imperfect Paradise: Altadena childcare providers' struggle to rebuild raises questions about government disaster response
California City
LAist Studios
4.5 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At least 280 childcare spaces were affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires in January. LAist reporter Libby Rainey and early childhood senior reporter Elly Yu followed two women who ran childcare businesses out of their homes until the Eaton Fire destroyed them. In this episode of Imperfect Paradise, they look at how these two childcare providers are rebuilding their lives and businesses, the catch-22 they found themselves in around government assistance, and the state of the child care industry at large.
For more, you can read Libby’s latest reporting on Felisa Wright and Elly’s story on Francisca Gunawardena on LAist.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Support for Elie is comes from Willa, presenting the voice of Hind Rajab, from Academy Award-nominated writer-director, Kaltra Benhanya. |
| 0:08.4 | The film uses real emergency call recordings to portray the attempts to rescue a five-year-old girl trapped under fire in Gaza, in theaters December 17th. |
| 0:17.4 | Support comes from Sony Pictures Classics, presenting Blue Moon, directed by Academy Award nominee Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke. On March 31st, 1943, as Richard Rogers celebrates Oklahoma, Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence at Sardis. Blue Moon, for your awards consideration in all categories, including Best Actor Ethan Hawke. |
| 0:42.9 | This is In Perfect Paradise. I'm your host, Nerida Moreno, filling in for Antonia Serejido. |
| 0:50.8 | This episode is about the struggle to rebuild and return after the January fires that devastated Southern California. The nightmare, many are still navigating |
| 0:54.4 | and the triumph and resilience of a community. |
| 0:57.5 | And it's all told through the story of two women, Felisa and Francisco. |
| 1:02.2 | Up until January 2025, they ran child care businesses in Altadena |
| 1:06.7 | in the homes where they lived. |
| 1:09.0 | Then the Eaton Fire burned down their houses, taking their livelihoods |
| 1:12.7 | with it. The last year for them has been spent mired in bureaucracy, and they've each tried to find a |
| 1:19.9 | home and reestablish their businesses. And in the process, they've revealed that when there's a |
| 1:24.8 | disaster, the federal and state's social safety net have a child care-sized hole. |
| 1:30.0 | And that raises serious questions about how we care for the people who care for our children, especially when they're needed the most. |
| 1:38.8 | Joining us now to break it all down is L.A. a senior early childhood reporter, L.E.U. |
| 1:44.0 | And reporter Libby Rainey. Hello. |
| 1:46.5 | Hi. Hi. Okay, so let's start by going back to January 2025 when the Eden Fire burned up |
| 1:52.5 | huge parts of Altadina. Felisa Wright and Francisco Gournaardina were among those who lost their homes. |
| 2:00.0 | It was really shocking to me. |
| 2:01.4 | I couldn't even speak for like a few seconds. |
| 2:03.9 | The memory, especially we had it with the children and even with my kids. |
| 2:08.1 | Like since they were babies, I had all the pictures and a lot of memories, a lot of stuff that is destroyed. |
... |
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