Three days after the Eaton fire devoured his Altadena home, Leo Bulgarini traveled through his leveled neighborhood, past scorched houses and gutted businesses, to check on his restaurant.
As he approached the corner of Altadena Drive and Lake Avenue, about a half-mile from his incinerated house, he immediately noticed charred rubble where the quirky Bunny Museum and Open Road Bicycle Shop once stood. It was less than a football field away from his restaurant and gelateria, Bulgarini Vino Cucina.
He expected his business had met the same fate.
Not so.
Tucked away in a shopping center courtyard, his restaurant was still standing.
“Why is my business one of the only ones that didn’t burn?” he thought to himself. “Why is everything else burned down?”
He felt a mixture of relief but helplessness.
Inside, the gelateria and restaurant appeared intact.
Then Bulgarini smelled the smoke. He saw the ash on the ground. He noticed water from the roof …