Altadena’s Night of 100 MPH Winds

The evening of Tuesday, January 7, Chris Boyer sat in his living room and watched his son Tristan compete in the second round of Australian Open qualifying. Ranked 136 ^th in the world, Tristan sought to reach the main draw of a major for the first time, accompanied in Melbourne by his mother, Shari.

The Boyer family lives in Altadena, a town of just over 40,000 people located 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Throughout his formative tennis years, Tristan’s base of operations had been the Altadena Town & Country Club, a cozy, seven-court facility built in 1911. Danny Jauregui, a pro at the club for 25 years, has vivid memories of Tristan as a 5-year-old, trotting around the courts with his racquet.

“All my kids grew up there,” said Chris, “playing tennis and swimming on the swim team, and we just loved it.”

While Tristan’s match continued, Chris heard the loud noise of helicopters. High winds that had been rolling through Los Angeles County all day now exceeded 100 MPH. Word came of what would be called the Eaton Fire. Soon, Chris evacuated and headed to a friend’s house in Pasadena.

A few miles west of the Boyer house, Selwyn Brereton, an Altadena resident and co-owner of Pasadena-based iTennis, an organization that runs public tennis facilities, watched TV and took in something that over the years he’d seen many times.

“[A typical fire] makes its way across the face of the mountains,” said Brereton, “and then, the fire department comes, they put it out, and everybody goes about their business. We’ve never really lost homes as a result of it.”