It’s been two weeks since fires swept through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena. And while both are now mostly contained, physical burn scars and Angelenos’ emotional scars will both take years to heal. The understanding of how these two blazes caused so much devastation and trauma is still evolving.
Some Altadena residents didn’t receive text evacuation alerts for nearly 10 hours after the Eaton Fire sparked, according to reporting from The Los Angeles Times published Monday. The 17 people who died in the Eaton Fire all lived in the west side of the area that did not receive the timely text evacuation orders.
A third-party investigation into the Eaton Fire evacuation notification and process was called for on Tuesday, says Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who represents the Fifth District, which includes the areas affected by the Eaton Fire.
“I'm told by firefighters and by law enforcement that were boots on the ground — the size of the embers that were traveling were huge chunks of wood that were being carried miles. And I'm basing [this] on conversation with people that were there when I talked to friends that live on the west side, and they said that they saw the fire but didn't think it would reach them, and before they knew it, it was on top of them.”
She continues, “This is going to be looked at by an independent out of county, because we do our own deep dive on any incident, the Woolsey fire, but on this one, I want an outside expert to look and let us know what happened.”
Following this incident, as well, as the erroneous fire evacuation orders that much of LA County received, can the messaging system be trusted? Barger says she will not jump to conclusions and will wait for next actions to be brought to her.
Barger adds that residents should not rely simply on text messages, pointing to a friend of hers who lived in Altadena and was trying to charge his phone during the fire.
“To get a text is not enough. We need to do more. So I'm not saying that the texts were not sent. I don't know. But I do know, in talking to people that are not anecdotally telling me the story. They were there and they witnessed it first hand. Even if they had gone out, which, again, I do not know, that will be part of the investigation. Even if it had, it would not have made a difference for him, because he didn't have his phone.”
Barger says other notification methods should be explored for future incidents:
“I represent La Crescenta, and there is a portion of La Crescenta up in the canyon that is in fear of fires and does not have good cell coverage. So we've talked about and are looking, now [in the] immediate, do we put something at the top that is a loudspeaker that if evacuation is needed, we can sound an alarm. … These are the types of things we have to look at to address the fact that that technology alone is not going to be enough, a sufficient alert, especially for those that are bedridden.”
In the interim, Barger urges Angelenos to heed evacuation warnings and orders. Right now, she says that’s especially important as new natural disasters, such as mudslides, could follow once rain starts falling in LA County.
Meanwhile, as the city of LA expedites some of the building processes needed for fire recovery, Barger says the county is working on introducing a “one-stop shop” into the community that will house multiple departments under one roof, including fire, public health, regional planning, and public works.
The goal, Barger says, is to reduce the amount of time rebuilding efforts might take, such as the certification of architectural plans, from six months to five days.