[photo credit: @altadenacarsandcoffee]
The chimneys couldn’t tell stories. The cars could.
Fourteen months later, Stone’s grief-driven walks have produced a weekly Saturday morning gathering called Altadena Cars and Coffee that draws more than 100 vehicles to the parking lot at The Bulgarini, 749 E. Altadena Drive. What began as an Instagram account documenting the charred shells of gas-powered cars — tagged “Not EV” by the Environmental Protection Agency — has become an informal community center for residents rebuilding their lives after the Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures, according to Cal Fire.
Stone, who lives just south of the Altadena border in Pasadena, said he started photographing burned cars in the immediate aftermath of the fire, in part because his teenage son Holden is a car enthusiast. He posted the images to an Instagram account he named @Not_EV_Altadena, after the EPA’s spray-painted tags on gas-powered vehicles.
“It really wrecked me and broke my heart, and so I thought, what could I do to help people?” Stone said in an interview with ABC7. “And, that’s how this started.”
He estimates that between 4,000 and 5,000 cars burned in the Eaton Fire, according to the Los Angeles Times. He has since taken more than 9,000 photographs and written close to 100 stories about the vehicles and their owners, posting twice weekly to Instagram, according to the Pasadena Star-News.
The photographs revealed something unexpected. With fences and foliage burned away, the fire had exposed a car culture that had been hidden in Altadena’s driveways and garages for decades — vintage Mustangs, lowriders, hot rods, project cars that neighbors never knew existed.
“I’ve talked to people who have said ‘I had no idea my neighbors had that car,'” Stone told the Los Angeles Times. “I guess it just took all the fences and homes burning down for us to find each other.”
The Saturday gatherings began at the parking lot of Unincorporated Coffee Roasters on Lincoln Avenue. They quickly outgrew that space and moved to the former Rite Aid lot on Altadena Drive before settling at The Bulgarini. The event grew from about 20 vehicles to 120, according to the Pasadena Star-News. Unincorporated Coffee still sends its java, the newspaper reported.
Each week, the meetup highlights a specific fire survivor or project in need of support. On January 10, 2026 — the week of the fire’s one-year anniversary — Stone organized a six-hour fundraiser to benefit Hipolito Cisneros, an Altadena resident who lost his home, possessions, home-based business and his 1972 Datsun 510 in the blaze.
“I don’t want my car to die,” Cisneros told Pasadena Now. “Just by his little story and the way he narrates it, it still keeps my car alive no matter what.”
Ken Sakamoto, 73, a born-and-raised Altadenan who owns Sunchaser Studios in Pasadena, lost the home that had been in his family for 75 years and a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL in the fire, according to the Star-News. The Cars and Coffee meeting spot is three blocks from his lot.
“We wanted a place to gather a few hours a week and not think about everything we lost and focus on making new friends and talk about cars,” Sakamoto told the Star-News. “It’s easy to talk to one another.”
Sakamoto said he plans to rebuild with space for at least five cars, the newspaper reported. In the meantime, he helps out at the weekly meetups and stays connected to Altadena rebuilding plans.
The gathering has no trophies, no registration fees and no formal programming. People park their cars, drink coffee and talk.
“With everyone scattered after the fire, this gave them a reason to come back, to have something normal to come back to,” Stone told the Star-News.
Altadena Cars and Coffee meets every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at The Bulgarini, 749 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena. The next gathering is March 21. Admission is free. For updates, follow @altadenacarsandcoffee on Instagram.
“You want to see people coming back, you want to see these rebuilds,” Stone told ABC7. “I want to be able to tell the world that this is happening.”
ALTADENA CARS AND COFFEE (NOT EV ALTADENA) Date & Time: Saturday, March 21, 2026, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM. Venue: The Bulgarini, 749 E. Altadena Drive, Altadena, CA 91001 (originally launched at Unincorporated Coffee Roasters, Lincoln Avenue, Altadena). Phone Number: 626-794-3988 (community-organized; follow @altadenacarsandcoffee on Instagram). Website: https://www.instagram.com/not_ev_altadena/
