All 17 deaths confirmed so far in the Eaton Fire occurred in areas west of Altadena, where emergency evacuation orders were issued hours after the fire started.
The fire roared out of Eaton Canyon around 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 7 and was pushed westward by strong Santa Ana winds. Many areas in eastern Altadena and surrounding areas were under evacuation advisories and evacuation orders Tuesday night.
But the Altadena neighborhood west of North Lake Avenue did not receive an electronic evacuation order until 3:25 a.m. and had never received an evacuation advisory, according to records reviewed by the Times. By then, glowing embers were raining down on Altadena’s western neighborhoods, setting homes on fire.
The first radio call about the fire on the west side of the lake was made in the 500 block of East Calaveras Street at 10:51 p.m. Calls were then received at 11:42pm and 11:55pm reporting additional fires in the same block.
By 2 a.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department patrols were on the roads west of the lake, using loudspeakers to urge people to evacuate, witnesses said.
The fire ultimately devastated western Altadena, scorching large areas from New York Drive in the north to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. In total, more than 7,000 structures were destroyed. The search for victims continues, but records from the LA Coroner’s Office indicate that all of the deaths occurred on the west side of the lake.
Los Angeles County emergency officials declined to discuss details of the evacuation process, describing it as a unified command involving the sheriff’s department, county fire department and other agencies.
Fire officials usually recommend evacuation sites. The County Emergency Management Agency issues an evacuation order. Fire officials and county officials said sheriff’s deputies were conducting enforcement efforts.
When asked when the evacuation order was issued for the area west of North Lake Avenue, the Office of Emergency Management told the Times that PBS’ Alert, Warning and Response Network, which maintains an archive of all alerts, He pointed out the record.
Those records are consistent with on-call alert archives, radio traffic and social media posts reviewed by the Times, which show the first warning for residents of Altadena on the west side of North Lake was an evacuation order at 3:25 a.m. Wednesday. are.
Officials declined to say whether an electronic evacuation warning had previously been issued for the area. I found nothing in the Times review.
“Wireless emergency alerts are just one of several means of notifying residents to evacuate their homes during a fire emergency,” the Office of Emergency Management said in a statement. “Our response includes door-knocking, This includes street patrols with loudspeakers announcing the need for evacuation, as well as utilizing local media to communicate news to residents, providing redundancy in the event of local and widespread disasters. It is a multi-layered process and system that aims to
Witnesses reported seeing lawmakers trying to evacuate parts of western Altadena around 2 a.m., but it was unclear how early those operations began and how widespread they were. .
Officials have vowed to overhaul their actions during fires.
“While we cannot immediately comment on all the factors that led to the tragic loss of life, there will be a comprehensive third-party assessment of all response efforts once the immediate bushfire crisis has passed. “This review will focus on identifying areas of strength, identifying opportunities for improvement, and preparing us to respond to future emergencies,” the statement reads.
“We recognize the immense loss and challenges faced by communities during the fires and remain deeply committed to supporting those affected.”
Firefighters at the scene of the Eaton Fire in Altadena on January 8, 2025.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
According to PBS WARN, the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management issued the first alert at 6:48 p.m., about 30 minutes after the Eaton Fire broke out.
Thousands of residents in eastern Altadena and Pasadena are advised: “There is a rapidly progressing wildfire in your area. Please be aware of your surroundings and closely monitor the situation.” , directed to contact alertla.org for more information.
An evacuation order was soon issued. At 7:12 p.m., residents in a small area near Eaton Canyon Golf Course were told to “vacate now,” while at 7:26 p.m., much of Quineloa Mesa and eastern Altadena were told to “vacate now.” I received your message. Northeast Pasadena and much of the Sierra Madre, including areas that did not end up on fire, were all under fire before midnight.
At 10:17 p.m., an evacuation warning was issued for a wide area, likely from Santa Anita Avenue on the east to “Lake Street” on the west via X. Evacuation orders for similar areas were issued minutes later. The order appears to refer to Santa Anita Avenue in Sierra Madre and Arcadia, on the east side of the fire. But a few blocks west of Lake Avenue in Altadena is another Santa Anita Avenue.
Some residents in western Altadena waited for the situation to get worse.
Some people evacuated themselves after seeing an ominous orange glow on the horizon, while others remained in their homes.
“People were reluctant to leave because they trusted the system,” said Esther Song, 35.
“There was no warning, no orders, so we had no choice but to make the calls ourselves,” she said.
Song’s home at Loma Alta Drive and Cheney Trail had been without power since 10 p.m. Song connected an external battery to his router and modem and was able to communicate with his neighbors, who had been unable to receive warnings and orders due to unstable cell phone reception.Then the power went out.
Song said she started feeling anxious around midnight. “I started seeing this glow from beyond the mountains,” she said. “I saw flames on the mountains.”
He said he had previously had a “false sense of security” because the evacuation map he regularly checked showed the fire moving eastward. Seeing that there were warnings and orders on the east side, but none on the west side of the lake, she thought, “At least if the fire is progressing, there will be a warning.” [her] direction. “
Between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., sheriff’s deputies drove by with loudspeakers telling people to evacuate, Song said. Around the same time, at least three more radio calls came in about house fires on the west side of North Lake Avenue in Altadena.
“I was outside and I could barely hear what they were saying because of the wind,” Song said of the loudspeaker orders.
She wondered if the occupants inside the home had heard the warning at that time.
After that, Son decided to retire. “It really was a community effort to get the word out,” she said. She has not returned, but heard from a town council member that 90% of the houses in her area burned.
The newspaper also spoke to five West Altadena residents, none of whom received electronic alerts before the 3:25 a.m. evacuation order. Several people showed their cellphones, which contained notifications of evacuation orders, but no prior notifications.
Less than a half-mile from Song’s home, Arlene Louise Kelly, 83, texted her granddaughter Brianna Navarro at 1:22 a.m. “Looking outside in the living room,” she wrote. “I’ll take a photo.” The photo never arrived. Kelly died in the fire.
Claire Robinson, another resident west of Lake, said she woke up at 2:20 a.m. to the feeling of smoke filling her lungs.
She and her husband, Ryan Iley, went to bed around 10 p.m. after learning their home in the 3200 block of Santa Anita Avenue was not designated as an evacuation zone.
But when Robinson went outside, he saw embers falling on neighboring homes.
She rushed home and woke up her husband. “I said, ‘Oh my god, are we still outside the danger zone?’ Because I don’t think that’s true. I think we’d better get out of here.”
There were no evacuation orders on their phones. No one publicly called on their neighbors to leave. And as they drove away in the van, there were no firefighters in sight in the smoke-filled streets.
“We were 100 percent alone,” Robinson said. “There was no system to warn people.”
The couple and other survivors said they were lucky to escape with their lives as there was no warning.
“I never expected something like this to happen,” Robinson said, calling the response to the fire a “systemic failure.”
Robinson is the founder and managing director of Amigos de los Rios, a nonprofit organization. Not only did she lose her family’s home and all of her belongings in the fire, but she also lost her nonprofit office nearby. Everything turned to ashes.
A washer and dryer are stacked among the rubble of a home burned by the Eaton Fire in Altadena on January 10, 2025.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
After Robinson and her husband left their home, they drove around the neighborhood looking for emergency personnel. They wanted to tell them to update their maps, and to wake up neighbors who might be sleeping, including the elderly and disabled, and tell them to leave.
“We looked everywhere for someone to warn us, but there was no one,” she said.
Finally, about 12 blocks from my home, I spotted two people parked at an intersection in what appeared to be official vehicles, but they were not wearing sheriff’s uniforms and had no idea who they were working for. I didn’t know if there were any.
“This neighborhood is going to explode,” Robinson recalled telling them. “We have to change the map.” We need to say the words. …Could you do something for me? ”
She said the two appeared stunned and mumbled, but did not take immediate action.
When Robinson arrived at his sister’s Westwood home around 3:30 a.m., his cellphone rang with an evacuation order. The map has finally been updated.
The evacuation order sent to western Altadena at 3:25 a.m. included homes where fire had been reported hours earlier.
(PBS warning)
Robinson said she is mourning the loss of her neighbor, who did not survive. She spoke with other Altadena survivors who had similar experiences, including a nurse who lost her home in another area and two employees whose homes burned because they were not in the evacuation zone.
“We all remember, ‘Oh my god, we weren’t on the evacuation map,’ we didn’t hear any sirens, we didn’t hear any voices telling us to get out,” she said. “The people who were in charge of the maps and the people who were in control of the communications were not standing in their shoes.”
The 800 block of East Sacramento Street is the first block west of North Lake Avenue and is the location of the new Eaton Fire fatality. Residents in the area, including those on East Sacramento Street, were last ordered to evacuate in Altadena at 5:50 a.m.
A resident of the block standing outside his flattened home told the Times he had not received an evacuation warning or order before 5:50 a.m. Neighbors a block east across North Lake Avenue were ordered to evacuate more than 10 hours ago. Tuesday 7:26pm.
The North Lake Avenue line is particularly important in Altadena’s history because it served as the primary east-west red line boundary. Decades ago, black residents were restricted from living east of Lake Avenue, according to Altadena Heritage and the Altadena Historical Society.
As of 2023, the Koto census tract had a significantly higher percentage of white residents than areas west of the border, according to a Times analysis.
Times staff writers Ruben Vives and Grace Twohey contributed to this report.
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