The review commissioned by the L.A. County Fire Department echoes other after-action reports, pointing to unprecedented conditions and strained resources as main challenges.
This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, A new analysis of alerts sent during the Eaton Fire found “no failure” by emergency officials to issue timely evacuation orders to areas west of Lake Avenue in Altadena .
The timing of alerts to neighborhoods west of Lake, where all but one of 19 deaths in that fire occurred, has beenIf you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.
“While the report provides an honest account of our operations, we recognize that no investigation can truly capture the horror and tragedy residents endured,” said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone in a prepared statement.
“My focus is to ensure that the lessons learned from the Eaton and Palisades fires are turned into lasting changes that will better protect our residents and neighborhoods into the future. ” Altadena resident Zaire Calvin — whose sister died in the fire and whose own home burned down — said the report feels like another “slap in the face. ” He said he wanted to see details on any mistakes that may have been made.
But reading the report, he felt blame was once again largely placed on unprecedented fire conditions.
“A community that's already down, a community that's fighting for their lives, a community that's fighting all of the people trying to take property from them — at some point you just want accountability,” Calvin said. An L.A. County employee makes the allegation in a whistleblower complaint and in interviews about the response to the deadly fire.
County officials dispute the allegations.911 recordings obtained by LAist shed light on why and how emergency planning continues to leave people with disabilities behind. All disasters are chaotic, but an LAist review of reports produced after two wildfire incidents found similar shortcomings and similar recommendations about how to fix them. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said in a prepared statement that the “investigation should not be interpreted as dismissing the experiences of residents.
Public trust requires both accountability and a willingness to learn from every aspect of a disaster response. ”, used interviews, operational records, dispatch records and internal communications to analyze decisionmaking between 9 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2025, and 6 a.m. the following day. Huntington Beach’s MAGA majority showed signs of fracturing over recent allegations of self-dealing. Some say the problem is pervasive.
Want to experience the cockpit of a Boeing 747? LA museum expansion prepares to make it happen The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is built around a towering centerpiece: space shuttle Endeavour in its 20-story vertical launch position. With aircraft grounded by high winds, “Incident Command was forced to fight a fire while blind to its movements.
” “Evacuation planners who created the evacuation zone areas well before the fire tried to use, where possible, major north/south and east/west streets. … Thus, Lake Avenue was a natural, very long street that could be utilized as an anchor for creating evacuation zones.
” Other fire timeline reviews cite reports of fire moving westward between 11 p.m. and just before midnight, but Citygate staffers write that strained resources were focused on the eastern front of the fire at that time, which was the direction the fire was initially spreading, and that “fire progression maps … do not show the the Eaton Fire directly impacting western neighborhoods at that time. ” The fire initially spread westward more slowly, and did not escalate significantly until early in the morning on Jan. 8.
By 2 a.m., radio reports indicated embers were being cast deeper into Altadena. Discussions to expand evacuation orders west started at 2:18 a.m., with evacuation orders being sent to residents west of Lake by 3:25 a.m. You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community.
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Climate Eaton Fire Evacuation Alerts Evacuation Orders La County Lake Avenue West Altadena Zaire Calvin
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