Communication Failures, Staffing Among Factors in Historic Eaton Wildfire, Probe Shows
Pasadena Star-News, Calif.
(TNS)
The daily question Eaton fire survivors confront in the more than 240 days since the catastrophic inferno is “What’s next?”
The release Thursday, Sept. 25, of findings by an outside investigation commissioned by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors was just one more item to add to the list of post-fire challenges, coming up after insurance claims and delays, health worries, rebuilding plans and the ongoing trauma of wildfire recovery.
For many, it represented something to build on – offering hope in beefing up fire and public safety resources in a region they say is prone to disasters such as fires and earthquakes.
But it also raised questions over critical delays in alerts and responses. The answers did not satisfy everyone, including skeptical residents who have their own views on what should come next.
The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors ordered the outside review on Jan. 28, three days before total containment of the Eaton fire, which killed 19 and burned more than 10,000 structures. January’s Eaton and Palisades fires combined killed 31 and destroyed or damaged more than 16,000 structures.
The consulting firm McChrystal Group found “outdated policies, inconsistent practices and communications vulnerabilities,” hindered the county’s response. It recommended improving communication, coordination and collaboration across county departments and agencies, including updating policies and codes so first responders and emergency management personnel understand their roles in deciding when to issue evacuation warnings and orders.
The review also recommended restructuring and increasing staffing at the Office of Emergency Management; standardizing preparedness and evacuation training for county departments and partners; updating obsolete systems and technology related to emergency response communications; and developing a consistent, countywide public education campaign about zone-based evacuation protocols and alerts.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes the unincorporated community of Altadena, said the review underlined how underprepared the town was on Jan. 7.
“I’m not going to say the White House is going to write a blank check, but I can tell you that we are going to put everything forward and I will advocate on behalf of my constituents who don’t care whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. They just want to know that their taxpayer dollars are going to protect them.”
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Barger, the board chair, said she would be introducing a motion at the board’s next meeting calling for the immediate implementation of recommendations included in the report, with an emphasis on expanding and bolstering the capabilities and technology in the county Office of Emergency Management.
“This will help us right-size and deliver emergency services to more than 10 million residents that Los Angeles County serves,” Barger said. “It will also help us better define and establish the roles and responsibilities between first responders and our emergency management.
With the winter approaching, Barger noted the threat of mudslides in Altadena.
“And let us not forget, earthquakes continue to happen,” she added. “Emergency management professionals should be resourced to work directly with our first responders. Our emergency management systems must achieve clarity and be supported by robust training.”
Joy Chen, CEO of the 8,500-member Eaton Fire Survivors Network, said the most important next step for county leaders now should be to build a better evacuation system.
She said if it weren’t for a pickleball WhatsApp, she and her family would not have been able to get up-to-date information on the fire.
They evacuated around 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 7 and did not get an evacuation order until more than 10 hours later. Their home burned to the ground.
Chen said members of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, which also helps people affected by the Palisades fire, can ill afford to pay attention to the report findings because most of them are still dealing with delays and denials from their insurance companies.
Community activist Zaire Calvin, 48, is leading many aid campaigns and recovery efforts in his hometown. He said the response to the report should include rebuilding of infrastructure that reflects Altadena’s values: equity, resilience, participation, and trust.
“Equity means no neighborhood left behind,” Calvin said. “Every community, especially those historically overlooked, deserves the same access to reliable alerts, safe evacuation routes, and strong recovery resources.
Resilience, he said, means designing systems that don’t collapse under pressure.
“Redundant communication networks, backup power, and hardened infrastructure must be standard, not optional,” he said. “Participation means including community voices in planning, not after the fact. We live with these risks daily; our lived experience must shape solutions. And trust. Trust means transparency. Publish who has authority, what the protocols are, and how improvements will be measured. Without accountability, confidence in the system will remain broken.”
For community activist René Amy, 65, the recommendations listed in the report are nothing new. They should have been implemented years before the Eaton fire, he added.
“Why weren’t lessons actually learned from the deaths during the Glen Allen Fire of 1993?’ Amy said. “We still have an archaic and arcane system that doesn’t provide sufficient public safety.”
Fire suppression aids Arthur Ruezga and Christopher Herman died fighting a wildfire on Aug. 20, 1993. An investigation by the Los Angeles County Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service found those who died were not in continuous radio contact with crews on the ground and that a lookout who could have warned the aids that the fire was coming up to them did not have a radio.
Rep. Judy Chu, D- Pasadena, weighed in on the report Thursday, calling it “disturbing” in that it raised more questions than it answered.
“The report still does not explain why critical evacuation orders for west Altadena were delayed for hours, even after 911 calls confirmed fire in the area,” she said in a written statement. “Without alerts, many residents either went to bed or waited too long to make plans for someone to come help them if they were physically unable to leave on their own. Perhaps most troubling, the report only once mentions the nineteen lives lost in the Eaton fire.
“We need a full accounting of how each of these deaths was allowed to happen, and what specific actions officials could have been taken the night of the fire to prevent their deaths.”
Amy, who lost his home on Calaveras Street, said it’s time for a citizen’s review commission to study best practices. He added that a question the report did not address was “the ongoing failure to actually fight the fire after the winds died down.”
“Why did it take a week for water tenders and helicopters to be brought into Altadena?” he said. “My neighborhood did not burn on Tuesday, and no water was being applied anywhere on Wednesday. When I went back in on Friday, at least a dozen homes that were standing on Wednesday were gone.”
Eight months after the Eaton fire, Amy said the release of the McChrystal Report does little to assuage the frustration people in Altadena are feeling as they recover and rebuild.
While some residents say they hope the report leads to substantive fire preparedness in Altadena, both Chen and Amy said the final note to any story about the Eaton fire should be that 19 people died.
“People died, there’s ongoing trauma to Altadena, trees are being cut down, the landscape is changing and the community is going to change,” Amy said. “I think every Altadenan has every right not only to be frustrated at this point. They have every right to be furious.”
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