(NewsNation) — Nearly a year after the Pacific Palisades Fire devastated Los Angeles County, a float in the Rose Bowl parade paid tribute to the victims and survivors of the wildfires on Thursday.
The 55-foot float, donned with a phoenix coming out of a floral arrangement, was reflectively called “Rising Together.” Riding on top of the float were four survivors of the wildfire, including Andrew King. King, who lost his Altadena home, tells “Morning in America” his neighborhood is “starting to see some progress” as it rebuilds.
“We have made some progress since I was on the show last. We have laid some foundation for our garage,” King said. “I have a neighbor across the street who has some framing up, and so we’re seeing a lot of hope.”
He said the decision to stay rooted in the community and rebuild was an easy one.
“We were able to band together with our neighbors pretty early on in the fire,” King said. “When we knew who was coming back to rebuild, and we knew that, you know, we experienced this together, it was really hard to say, you know, we’re not coming back, because we knew who was going to be back in our street.”
King acknowledges recovery is not the easiest road to travel and, in turn, has been helping community members navigate insurance issues.
“A lot of the work that I try to do both in my personal and professional capacity is to make sure that no one is going through this recovery alone,” King said. “You do have to go through the paperwork, the insurance, the permitting process. A lot of folks have never designed a home before. Now they’re going to be making decisions for the first time, and they don’t understand all these terms.”