los angeles — California’s attorney general announced a civil rights investigation Thursday into how delayed evacuations affected the area Historically black community It was destroyed by a deadly wildfire last year near Los Angeles.
District Attorney Rob Bonta said the investigation was prompted by months of conversation with community members and fire survivors concerned about the disparate impact the fire had on the west side of Altadena, an unincorporated town in Los Angeles County. The Eaton Fire was one of two fires that broke out on January 7, 2025. It killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures.
The overarching question is whether “unlawful race, disability, or age discrimination in emergency response results in delays in eviction notice that disproportionately affected West Altadena,” Bonta said.
All but one of the deaths occurred in West Altadena, which received evacuation orders hours later than the city’s east side and long after homes had already burned. Los Angeles Times Reported for the first time.
By midnight, nearly six hours after the fire broke out, no evacuation warning had been issued for any of the neighborhoods west of North Lake Street in Altadena, the Associated Press found. Orders expanded significantly after 3 a.m Residents of West Altadena She told the AP that she did not receive notices to leave until hours after she had packed her bags and fled.
Bonta said most of the investigation’s attention will focus on the Los Angeles County Fire Department, looking into whether current systems have contributed to delays in evacuation notices and potential disparities in emergency response. Officials are expected to voluntarily commit to sharing information with investigators.
“Families have been changed forever by the Eaton Fire, and deserve nothing less than our full commitment,” he said.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Altadena for Accountability, a group of fire survivors that has campaigned for an investigation into the province’s response to fires over the past year, called Bonta’s announcement a “groundbreaking step” in a news release.
“Losing my home and seeing my parents lose theirs was devastating. Today I am encouraged to know that we have a real path to answers and accountability for what went wrong,” Jenna Clayton Johnson, a fire survivor, said in a statement. “This is a great day for all the survivors of today’s fires and the victims of future climate change disasters.”
A confusing jumble of alert systems and delays in people getting important information has been a problem after other major fires including the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, the 2023 Lahaina Fire in Hawaii, and the 2021 Marshall Fire that destroyed more than 1,000 homes outside Denver. Experts pointed out the inherent flaws in such systems that rely on cell phones and other technology to alert people, especially the elderly and people with disabilities.