LAist: “One bright spot has been Altadena’s main library on the historic Christmas Tree Lane, which Scott returned to for the first time Friday. The building reopened this month, the largest public space in the fire perimeter where Altadenans can meet and resume their old patterns at a time of intense upheaval. To lure more patrons back, a grand reopening event will be held next Saturday featuring actor and Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton. A steady trickle of patrons came through the library Friday morning. Scott pushed a stroller with her infant daughter — born the week after the fire — as she helped her two older kids search for YA titles. “Thank God for the library,” Scott said. “We don’t have our normal places, routines, parks, so we’re grateful.” As part of unincorporated L.A. County, Altadena doesn’t have a city hall or a town square, so the main library acts as an important hub. The light-filled, mid-century modern building has always had something for everyone: storytime, chess nights, club meetings, puppet shows. It’s where thousands gather every year for the Christmas Tree Lane lighting celebration, then follow the high school marching band down the boulevard of glowing deodar cedars. After the fires, the role of the main library has evolved to meet residents’ most pressing needs, hosting architects and staffers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration…Not only did the library survive in a burn zone that saw more than 9,400 structures destroyed, including the senior center next door, it saw relatively little damage. “Luckily for us, when the smoke hit our HVAC vents, they closed,” Winslow said. “We didn’t circulate any of the fire air in the library. Our air filters were clean.”