In wildfire-devastated Altadena, a ‘little misfit group’ of diners are supporting struggling business – and each other

On a Friday evening at El Caporal, a southern California restaurant, the dining room buzzed with chatter. For owner Neddy Morelos, the soundtrack was a welcome contrast to the silence of other nights when employees joked that they could hear a fly flap its wings.

For the first time since January, when the Eaton fire bore down on her restaurant on Fair Oaks Avenue, a busy thoroughfare in Altadena, every vaquero-themed banquette was filled with hungry customers.