6 months after Eaton Fire, nursing home residents, staff reunite in Emotional Gathering

Evacuated nursing home residents reunited

Six months after their Pasadena nursing home was destroyed in the Eaton Fire, residents and staff at The Terraces at Park Marino had an emotional reunion.

GLENDALE, Calif. - For the first time since the Eaton Fire destroyed their home and scattered them across the area, dozens of residents, staff members, and family from The Terraces at Park Marino gathered Saturday for an emotional reunion - one filled with hugs, tears, and gratitude.

More than 80 people met at the Sage event space in Glendale, six months after the Jan. 7 fire tore through their Pasadena assisted living and memory care facility.

What they're saying:

"I’m just so emotional inside. I’ve been crying, and I try not to because it’s so good to see everybody that I haven’t seen since the fire, and everyone’s all happy and upbeat," said Sharon Tanner, a 73-year-old resident of The Terraces. She credits the staff for saving her life, saying, "If it wasn’t for them, we would not be here today. They were so organized. I thank them from the bottom of my heart."

SUGGESTED: Man rescues six from Paris apartment fire, including infants

The reunion was also a moment of recognition. Employees who stayed behind to evacuate residents - many elderly and disoriented - were honored with checks from a GoFundMe campaign that raised nearly $77,000 over five months.

"Our staff is our family," said Adam Khalifa, president and CEO of Diversified Healthcare Services, which operates The Terraces. "They took care of our residents, and we take care of the people that take care of our residents."

The backstory:

Among the heroes celebrated on Saturday was Zion Brown, the lead medication technician in the memory care unit. Brown carried multiple residents out of the burning building — some on his back — returning again and again until all 90-plus residents were safely evacuated.

"We had residents on our back, in our hands — everything," Brown said. "Our main priority was just to get everybody out."

Nursing home residents rescued from Altadena fire

Nursing home residents were safely evacuated from the scene of the Eaton fire devastating parts of Altadena and Pasadena.

Footage Brown recorded on Instagram during the fire shows alarms blaring and smoke filling the pitch-black hallways as he raced between floors.

"I just feel like it was my calling," Brown said. "My calling was to get everybody out of that building. And like I said, I wasn’t going to leave until I did, and that’s what was done."

SUGGESTED: SoCal Edison launching compensation for Eaton Fire victims, but residents skeptical

Tanner recalled holding a memory care resident’s hand during the chaotic evacuation.

"I kind of comforted her, which helped me, because I was terrified. But I knew she was more afraid than I was," she said.

While The Terraces building was lost in the fire, the community that filled it remains intact.

"To be around — just the presence, the love, the family feeling — I miss that so much," said Maggie Jay, the facility’s business office manager. "I’m just glad we get to reunite."

Yesenia Cevantes, the memory care director, added, "I’m so glad to see them. I had a family member come up to me and we teared up, hugged. So it’s really sweet. Bittersweet, I guess."

What's next:

All current residents are now living in other facilities, and staff have been reassigned. But organizers say the goal is for everyone to return permanently when a new Terraces building is completed in the spring 2027.

"The building’s just a building," Khalifa told the crowd. "What made it special was the people that were inside it."