On the last morning he would spend in his family’s Altadena home, Joey Chavez awoke with a plan.

“My friend sent me this warning from the meteorologist Edgar McGregor who predicted the combination of winds and high temperature was potentially very dangerous, and the final part of that text said, ‘If you have animals, prepare now,’” he said.

So Chavez, 49, his wife Mia White, 46, and their three children spent the day of Jan. 7, 2025, gathering the 60 or so animals that made up Experience Fable, their mobile petting zoo. It was an impressive menagerie: six goats, two sheep, two cats, a dog, 12 ducks, 2 roosters, about two dozen chickens, 12 rabbits, four guinea pigs, a parrot, and Mr. Bubbles the beta fish.

By the time the Eaton fire was three hours into its destructive 24-day rampag

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