Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger on Wednesday announced the Shop Local LA County Gift Card Program has generated $300,000 for small businesses that suffered losses as a result of the Eaton Fire, while advocates for fire-affected residents renewed calls for major reforms to the state’s insurance industry.
The Shop Local Program by the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity includes a new $225,000 investment by the Altadena Chamber of Commerce to provide $500 gift cards to 450 fire-impacted residents who lost homes, sustained property damage or were displaced, according to Barger’s office.
The gift-card spending is designed to immediately move money back into local businesses that continue facing economic hardship more than a year after the devastating blaze.
“From day one, I’ve remained committed to standing with Eaton Fire survivors to help rebuild a better future,” Barger said in a statement. “This new investment supports a program that offers continued, steady support for residents and small businesses alike. I remain focused on driving the economic revitalization of Altadena and ensuring this community comes back stronger.”
The gift cards are a component of the county’s “Shop Local. Dine Local. Recover Local.” campaign, launched in July through a motion authored by Barger. The initiative intends to help stabilize brick-and-mortar businesses in Altadena and surrounding fire-affected communities that have experienced reduced foot traffic, revenue loss and continuous economic challenges.
Residents and supporters can purchase gift cards in $20, $50 and $100 increments, each paired with bonus cards — $10, $25, and $50 respectively — funded by a donation by LA Cares. Participating small businesses, which enroll through the Recover Local Business Registry, benefit from increased visibility, direct spending and access to additional county resources, according to Barger’s office.
More than 110 fire-impacted businesses are in the Recover Local Business Directory, with 68 participating in the gift card program in Altadena, Pasadena, Sierra Madre and other areas.
Every dollar spent through the program stays within local communities supporting restaurants, retailer stores and service providers that are key to long-term recovery and the region’s economic resilience.
Residents can support fire-impacted businesses by purchasing and redeeming gift cards at ShopLocal.LA.
Meanwhile, local advocates for residents attempting to recover and rebuild have renewed their calls for reform of the insurance industry, which they say is slowing the pace of recovery.
The Eaton Fire scorched more than 14,000 acres as the wind-fueled wildfire swept through Eaton Canyon and surrounding communities in January 2025. The fire killed 19 people and destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 structures, while another major blaze on the other side of the county simultaneously devastated Pacific Palisades, Malibu and other coastal areas.
Former California Assemblyman Chris Holden, D-Pasadena, who authored 2019 wildfire accountability law, wrote an opinion article calling on the state Public Utilities Commission to be fundamentally reformed.
“AB 1054 was designed to tie profit to safety,” Holden wrote. “Instead the CPUC handed Edison guaranteed hefty profits with no accountability for safety attached.”
In his Pasadena Now article, Holden argued that the CPUC had every tool it needed to prevent the Eaton Fire and chose not to use them. According to Holden, the Commission rubber-stamped Southern California Edison’s safety certification less than a month before the Eaton Fire, despite the utility’s own records showing 94 open work orders near the ignition point. Holden claimed that Assembly Bill 1054, which requires tying utility profits to safety performance, “was effectively dismantled by a commission that approved rate increase after rate increase while looking the other way on enforcement,” according to a statement from LA Fire Justice.
Holden currently is the CEO of LA Fire Justice, a nonprofit coalition of wildfire lawyers, fire origin and causation experts, insurance specialists and community organizers that seeks justice for victims of wildfires.
His article also “calls out Edison’s $4.5 billion profit in 2025, a 200% year-over-year increase, and its CEO’s $16.6 million compensation package in the same year the company’s 102-year-old equipment burned Altadena to the ground,” the statement said.
Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, noted a recent report indicating the LA-area recovery is moving slower than in Santa Rosa after the 2017 Tubbs Fire or Paradise after the Camp Fire in 2018.
“Residents want to come back. Nine in 10 wildfire survivors intend to rebuild, according to a January survey by Department of Angels, a nonprofit formed to support Los Angeles fire victims,” Politico reported. “Yet those surveyed said soaring construction costs — estimates vary widely from $450 to $1,500 per square foot — and delayed or insufficient insurance payouts were preventing them from doing so.”
“In other words, the same obstacle we have been talking about since the first months after the fire,” Chen wrote in a mass email Tuesday and observed a “gap” between the actual cost to rebuild and delayed or inadequate insurance payouts.
“The new reporting is telling us … the LA recovery is currently moving even slower than those Northern California fires,” according to Chen. “Those fires were only 38% of families ever rebuilt, even after eight years. If the pace we’re seeing today continues, LA could end up with even fewer families making it home. …
“This is not a problem that can be solved by helping a few families here or there,” Chen wrote. “The only way to move thousands of families home is to unlock the tens of billions of dollars in insurance funds that are supposed to power recovery but are stalled inside the insurance system.”
Electric utility Southern California Edison is facing numerous lawsuits that contend its equipment ignited the Eaton Fire during the Santa Ana windstorm the night of Jan. 7, 2025.