Several Los Angeles County supervisors grilled county leaders and the authors of a report outlining deficiencies in emergency alerts and evacuation procedures from the January Palisades and Eaton fires at a meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 30. They sought answers about problems with confusing, or late evacuation alerts during the fires.
The sometimes testy board session culminated in the board’s approval of the first steps toward restructuring the county’s Office of Emergency Management, centralizing authority during disasters, and pledges from county department heads to do better in future disasters.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose Fifth District includes the devastated community of Altadena, asked L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone why when the fire was spotted by first responders bearing down on the foothill community at 2:18 a.m. Jan. 8, no evacuation order was sent until after 3 a.m. — a 42-minute gap.
“It took time, ” said Marrone. “Probably too much time in retrospect. We have to do better to get those out more timely.”
The Eaton fire killed 19 people, while destroying 9,400 structures and damaging 1,000 others, impacting 23,000 residents. The Palisades fire resulted in 12 civilian deaths, destroying 6,837 structures. Some in Altadena where the Eaton fire destroyed a large portion of the town said they never got an alert or even saw a single firetruck.
The McChrystal Group’s after-action review of alerts and evacuations found a “series of weaknesses” that hindered the county’s emergency-alert system in sending timely notifications to residents and efforts to evacuate trapped residents during the January wildfires.
Some of the blame fell on the county’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which sends out alerts, warnings and evacuation orders. The report said the county’s OEM was seriously understaffed with just 37 employees, which amounts to 1 staffer for every 256,000 people in a county of 10 million people. In comparison, New York City’s emergency response department has 1 staffer for every 42,000 people.
“This is an order of magnitude below of what’s needed,” said Erin Sutton, a partner with the McChrystal Group who led the presentation before the Board of Supervisors.
Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes the Palisades, Sunset Mesa and other affected communities, began her remarks by reading aloud the names of those who died in the Palisades fire. An emotional Horvath questioned the presenters, along with Chief Marrone, county Sheriff Robert Luna and Kevin McGowan, county OEM director.
Horvath questioned why some Palisades and Altadena residents received rogue alerts for other fires that were not near them, leading to confusion due to people hearing too many messages — including false ones — or not enough. “It is hard for anyone to truly understand how to respond or at what time,” she said.
Horvath and Barger joined two motions into one that was passed unanimously 5-0 by the board. The motion intends to strengthen the county’s OEM and establish a more coordinated alert system that is not confusing and works more efficiently with the sheriff’s department and fire departments.
The motion would make the OEM its own L.A. County department. Currently, it operates as part of the Chief Executive Office. Being only a sub-department hinders its ability to make decisions, such as when and where to issue fire evacuation alerts, one of its many duties in an emergency, the motion explains.
“Given the rise in local emergencies that our county continues to face, we need an Emergency Management Department with its own autonomy, increased staffing, more clearly delineated authority framework, and a separate, stable operating budget,” the motion concluded.
The motion will produce a report from L.A. County CEO Fesia Davenport within 60 days to assess what the new department would look like and the fiscal impacts. It also asks the report to address the current agency’s “lack of autonomy and fragmented authority” that the motion says “undermines its ability to coordinate emergency management effectively.”
A report on staffing and funding would return to the board in about 120 days. This would also list what other programs and funding sources would flow to the new department.
Both supervisors criticized the McChrystal review for what it did not include.
Barger was angry that the authors could not get any information from dozens of other fire departments, from cities and other counties. Sutton said they refused to fill out the group’s questionnaire nor provide any information. Understanding the mutual aid component of the two fires is necessary for evaluating what went right, and what went wrong, Barger said.
“When I go into Altadena and look people in the eye who’ve lost everything, I owe it to them to get answers. So I am incredibly frustrated and disappointed,” she told Sutton. “It does lead to: What are you hiding?”
With a report initiated by the governor coming out soon, Barger may get more information on the other agencies actions during the Jan. 7-Jan. 8 fires.
Luna said in West Altadena, sheriff deputies took the initiative to drive in and announce over the public address system to evacuate. Some knocked on doors.
“Between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. I had dozens and dozens of deputies out there doing evacuations. They saved thousands of lives that morning. They were heroic,” he said.
Some Altadena residents who addressed the board strongly disagreed.
“That report was quite narrow. We await the more important report as to why West Altadena was left to burn. There were no heroes from the sheriff’s department of fire departments in West Altadena,” said Noah McCarthy.
West Altadena is a historic Black community, often where generations handed down property to their children and grandchildren. Many from here said they didn’t get alerts.
“There were 19 deaths — two were on my street,” began Rosanna Tucker. “Dozens of 911 calls went unnoticed. I did not receive an evacuation notice on my phone and I don’t know anyone who did. The people of West Altadena deserve an independent evaluation.”
Gina Clayton-Johnson, Altadena resident and executive director of nonprofit Essie Justice Group, lost her home and her parents’ home in the fire. Her family did not get any warning before deciding to evacuate. She described the scene of families driving down Fair Oaks Avenue around 11 p.m. and not seeing any Los Angeles County Sheriff vehicles or fire department vehicles.
Her group and other residents numbering about 75 people gathered Tuesday morning and criticized the report before the board meeting at a West Altadena neighborhood most acutely impacted by the Eaton fire.
“There is a history of failures here and this report bends over backwards to shield any decision maker or agency from accountability,” Clayton-Johnson said. “If anything, it reads like an agency pitch doc asking for more taxpayer dollars for their departments. Altadena fire survivors would be right to wonder, was the point of this report to keep politicians safe from liability or to keep LA County safe during emergencies?”
Residents and local nonprofit leaders called for an independent investigation by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
Bonta’s office declined to comment on the residents’ concerns, citing the need to protect the “integrity” of ongoing investigations.
“We’re unable to comment on, even to confirm or deny, potential or ongoing investigations,” a spokesperson said.
There are multiple investigations going on into the response to the fires, including at the state and federal level.
Horvath pointed out three omissions in the report:
• Not including the personal accounts of fire survivors;
• Repeated false alerts received by people in both fire zones were not thoroughly examined; and
• Not including in the fires summary information about water resources. Marrone said the Santa.
Ynez Reservoir near the Palisades was in the process of being drained and the tank that fed firefighters did run out of water at 3 a.m. They had to get a new water connection from LA’s Department of Water and Power (DWP). In county areas near Malibu, the firefighters were not affected and did not run out of water.
Fourth District Supervisor Janice Hahn pointed out that the report did not discuss the difficulties evacuating disabled residents in the fire zones. One man had trouble carrying out of a burning home his son, who has cerebral palsy, she said.
Sutton, from the McChrystal group, said the research agency is working on a second report that looks at issues of sheltering fire survivors, including the special challenges at evacuating those with disabilities. That report will be out by the end of May or early June, the agency reported.
Staff Writer David Wilson contributed to this article.