Fleeing her Altadena home at 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 8, Jessica Coker-Lentz grabbed her family’s go-bags, thinking they would return to unpack soon enough. They’d evacuated because of fire before, and she reminded her children to pack “everything we can’t replace.”

“I honestly didn’t think the house would burn,” Coker-Lentz said.

Lost amid the ashes of their home were the ashes of her parents, John, who died in 2011 and Nancy, who passed away in 2019. Coker-Lentz said they had planned to spread their ashes at one of the Great Lakes, then thought planting a tree and interring their ashes there would be a good idea too. Everything felt impermanent.

“But the feeling of having them gone and scraped into a toxic trash heap was so much worse,” she said.

It’s a feeling Alex DeGeorgey can sympathize with. The Santa Rosa-based archeologist discovered a new field in his specialty in 2017, after a co-worker asked if he could recover cremains they’d left behind in a home that later burned in the Tubbs Fire . DeGeorgey teamed up with Lynne Engelbert of Institute for Canine Forensics and her team of specially-trained dogs to help and Alta Heritage Foundation (AHF) was born.

Six teams from the all-volunteer nonprofit are spending Jan. 18-21 excavating in the ash footprints of the Eaton and Palisades fires. Their mission is both compelling and poignant: returning cremated remains of loved ones to their families.

Dog handler Nadene Torres, of Mountain View, and her dog Bodie, a 5-year-old Belgian Malinois search for cremains in the rubble of the Eaton fire in Altadena on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 before archeologists with the Alta Heritage Foundation recover the remains. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

AHF is pioneering a humanitarian effort that uses archeology in a new way, what DeGeorgey calls “disaster archeology.”

“The scale of this disaster is unprecedented, and we need to build an army of archeologists to deal with this problem and do this work,” he said.

The nonprofit has helped recover cremains from 300 homes in six years, working 18 wildfires in California and Oregon. The Eaton Fire destroyed 9,413 structures and killed 17, according to Cal Fire. The Palisades Fire destroyed 6,835 structures and killed 12.

“I don’t even know how to think about that yet,” DeGeorgey said, adding that Tuesday’s first outing will be the first rotation of many.

After a briefing covering safety and contamination protocols (wearing and sealing Tyvek suits, how to excavate as well as how to “not let stuff stick to you emotionally”), DeGeorge and Engelbert led the way to the first of 12 homes on their schedule.

Each team included a dog, a dog handler, a lead archeologist and a volunteer archeologist. The aim is to train an army of teams to handle requests from both wildfires.

After interviewing the family member for clues where the cremains were kept and in what vessel, archeologists visually examine the area before letting the dog team survey it. The trained dogs will sit or lie down to alert them of cremains, after which the archeologists can further investigate.

Medallions are recovered along with the cremains in the rubble of the Eaton fire in Altadena on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 by archeologists with the Alta Heritage Foundation. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Last week’s rainstorm shouldn’t be a problem.

“We don’t worry too much about rain, it just makes ash goopy and ugly, but unless it’s a gully washer, we can recover it,” Engelbert said.

It is a job that can only grow as climate change gets worse, and wildfires grow in frequency, scale and severity, said archeologist Michael Newlan.

Larry Atkinson accompanies his wife Karen, who is a dog handler for their Labrador Retriever Quincy, 3, on AHF trips. He’s officially a field coordinator, able to produce everything from chainsaws to hot cocoa from his work truck. Other retirees travel, they do this, he said.

“We have a skill set we can bring to bear when people are in need,” Atkinson said.

Being able to give back something to families who have lost everything is everything, Karen Atkinson said: “It fills you with goodness.”

Balancing professional expertise and compassionate support is part of the work, said Engelbert, who works with her dog Jazz, a 4-year-old black and white border collie. Engelbert and her now-retired dog Piper were part of the team that flew to the Fijian island of Nikamaroro in 2017 to search for the remains of aviator Amelia Earhart.

Engelbert said families were traumatized twice in the fires: first when they escaped the flames, and again when they realized what they’ve left behind.

Coker-Lentz said she is incredibly grateful for AHF. DeGeorgey Facetimed her and her husband minutes after arriving at their home to report they have recovered both her mother’s and father’s  ashes from the rubble.

“There are not even words, I’m so grateful for their generosity and willingness to do this,” Coker-Lentz said. “I was so sure it was an impossibility and to have them back with me tonight, I feel such a level of relief. I probably won’t let them go, ever. This is a gift I didn’t even think somebody could need.”

Related Articles