The Pasadena Buddhist Temple escaped serious damage during the first days of the Eaton Fire, thanks to good fortune and the quick action of neighbors. As homes burned and fiery embers blew around them on Jan. 8, Elliot Sloane and his brother-in-law Michael Murray noticed that there was smoke rising from the temple grounds. Even with the Sloane home in danger, the pair hopped the fence, grabbed hoses and started wetting the hot spots that had started from the fire on Montana Street. When Lori and Alan Hatakeyama arrived to open the parking lot gates, they found the two on the roof of the hondo, wetting it down.
Without their selfless efforts. the temple would have certainly joined the list of thousands of structures in Altadena and Pasadena that burned. The staff later visited Sloane and his wife, Jessica, to thank them in person and present them with gifts from the temple and Sangha members.
