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Eaton fire survivors find new home, life with Redlands Western wear shop

April 26, 2026

By David Downey | Correspondent

When their beloved Altadena home burned to the ground in the Eaton fire in January 2025, Dawn Digrius Smith and husband Robert Smith stayed in a hotel and bounced from house to house.

“After the fire, we literally moved eight times in six months,” Digrius Smith said.

Finally, in September they landed in a nearly century-old historic home with a red-tile roof, white stucco walls and redwood trim they bought in San Bernardino’s Arrowhead neighborhood, nestled near the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, east of the 215 Freeway and north of the 210 Freeway.

Their reason for moving miles to the east echoed the motivation of many newcomers to the Inland Empire: the lower cost of housing.

Dawn Digrius Smith talks about a small box she lost in the fire that held her children’s first teeth while working in her vintage western wear shop, Sunrise Meadow Farm on 6th Street in Redlands on Friday, April 17, 2026. Dawn and her husband lost their rented home in the Eaton fire last year and most of their belongings. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

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Robert Smith said the couple shopped for a place with a Spanish Revival design.

“This home in Pasadena would have been well over $2 million,” he said.

They hoped to rebuild in Altadena. Being renters, they didn’t have control over the property. Digrius Smith said it was unclear for months what their former landlord intended to do.

“We needed a place to live,” she said. “We were homeless.”

It’s unclear how many Altadena families who lost homes have moved, or are in the process of moving, away from the area.

Gina Ender, a spokesperson for Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, wrote in an email that home sales are perhaps the best barometer for estimating the number who left. Ender cited county assessor’s office statistics that show 371 homes and properties have been sold in Altadena since the Eaton fire.

Ender said on Thursday, April 23, that 1,249 homes are under construction and an additional 2,273 building permits have been issued.

More than 6,000 homes were destroyed in the burn area of more than 14,000 acres.

The home of Dawn Digrius Smith and husband Robert Smith, after the January 2025 Eaton fire swept through Altadena. More than 6,000 homes were burned in the blaze. (Courtesy of Robert Smith)

‘Very dark tunnel’

Robert Smith said he is hearing most people intend to stay and rebuild, though he and his wife know people who, like them, left.

“Some people just left the state,” he said.

While Digrius Smith said she is recovering from the trauma inflicted by the wildfire and continues to seek help from a therapist, she has found peace and happiness in her Spanish Revival home.

“It’s super cool,” she said, in a recent interview.

Digrius Smith is also finding “great joy” selling vintage Western-style clothing, along with Native American pottery and turquoise jewelry, at her new downtown Redlands shop, Sunrise Meadow Farm.

Dawn Digrius Smith vintage Western wear shop has vintage boots, photos and home decorations in her Sunrise Meadow Farm shop on 6th Street in Redlands on Friday, April 17, 2026. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“Losing everything forces you to rethink your life and what is important,” Digrius Smith wrote in a news release announcing the store’s opening. “Sunrise Meadow Farm became the light at the end of a very dark tunnel after the fire.”

On a recent Friday afternoon, Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” was playing on the turntable at the store on Sixth Street. Digrius Smith was dressed in Western attire from head to toe as she showed off some of the more than 400 wares for sale.

“I’ve always loved cowboy boots,” she said, saying she lost 14 pairs in the fire.

“Cowboy hats are great,” she added, “because when you have a bad hair day you just throw on a hat.”

Customers appear to like the atmosphere, Digrius Smith said. Even if they don’t buy anything, she said, they often say, “ ’What a cute shop,’ or ‘I really love your store,’ or ‘This is such a happy place.’ ”

In a dream

Running a shop is something new for her, as is living and working in the Inland Empire.

“I knew nothing of Redlands at all,” Digrius Smith said.

She had visited once before the community known for its large trees, Victorian architecture and summer music festival. That was a few years ago when Robert Smith’s son graduated from the University of Redlands.

“Redlands is cool. It really is,” Digrius Smith said. “It kind of reminds me of Altadena, in some ways.”

Digrius Smith said by that she meant the community’s “vibe,” its historic homes and residents’ openness to friendship.

“There are a lot of creative, artsy, cool, fun, down-to-earth people who enjoy life,” she said.

Digrius Smith has a bachelor’s degree in archaeology and a master’s degree in history of science.

She has worked as a university professor — having taught at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. — and as an administrator for nearby California State University campuses.

She said she was doing consulting work out of her home for universities, writing grants and analyzing data, when the fire wiped out her computer equipment.

While trying to figure out what to do after the move, Digrius Smith drove around Redlands, checking out antique shops. “I’m a huge antique buff,” she said.

“That night I had a dream, and in that dream I was sitting in a store,” she said. “And I thought, ‘Well, maybe my future is a store.’ ”

She decided to sell what she loves — all things Western.

Dawn Digrius Smith in her vintage western wear shop, Sunrise Meadow Farm on 6th Street in Redlands on Friday, April 17, 2026. Dawn and her husband lost their rented home in the Eaton fire last year and most of their belongings. (Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Chaos

The move to the Inland Empire has been more difficult for Robert Smith, an Emmy-award-winning cinematographer who drives from San Bernardino to Hollywood several times a week.

He also serves as tech and production manager for their church, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pasadena.

But Smith said he likes being closer to his son, who works as a ranger at Joshua Tree National Park. He enjoys living near the San Bernardino Mountains.

“I love the mountains,” he said. “I love hiking.” He loves skiing, too, the disappointment of the just-concluded season notwithstanding.

It’s been difficult for both of them to cope with the loss and grief inflicted by the Eaton fire. It still is.

“Losing your house in a fire, whether you own it or are renting it, causes so much chaos in your life that you can’t even imagine until you live through it,” Digrius Smith said.

“You don’t realize how much you have in your house until you lose it all,” she said. “You have to rebuy everything.”

And one can’t rebuy family heirlooms and mementos.

What many people don’t understand is it takes a lot of time to heal from that, Digrius Smith said, and some are surprised she still brings up the Eaton fire in conversation.

“People go, ‘Oh, wasn’t that like a year ago? Why are you still talking about the fire?’ ”

Los Angeles County health officials have said the destructive Eaton and Palisades fires of January 2025 exacted an enormous toll on victims’ mental health. And they have encouraged victims to seek help.

“It’s the same kind of thing as when you lose a loved one,” Digrius Smith said.

“There’s a certain amount of PTSD that happens with an event like this. You wake up every day and you just never know how you are going to be.”

Digrius Smith said she personally will continue to seek help for the foreseeable future.

Maybe, she said, she will be able to move forward without that help by the second anniversary of the fire.

Sunrise Meadow Farm

The store sells clothing accessories, jewelry, lifestyle items from the 1880s to the 1990s that reflect the West

Location: 23 S. 6th St., Redlands

Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday

Phone: 626-365-1255

Instagram: @sunrisemeadow20

Eaton fire survivors find new home, life with Redlands Western wear shop Orange County Register

News Details

Eaton fire survivors find new home, life with Redlands Western wear shop

‘Very dark tunnel’

In a dream

Chaos

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