AI6YR Ben3d ago

LA Times: Officials considered warning Altadena before Eaton fire, but no alert was sent

"...Emergency officials decided against sending a preparedness alert about increasingly dangerous winds across the Interstate 210 corridor before the Eaton fire ignited.

It’s not clear what difference such a preparedness alert would have made, but an emergency management official who pushed for the alert thinks it could have helped, especially in west Altadena, where residents didn’t receive any alerts until after the fire had been threatening the area for hours...."

(paywall)
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-24/fire-weather-alerts-eaton-fire-wildfires-how-to-improve-early-warnings

#EatonFire #Wildfires #Disasters

Preparedness alerts were considered before Eaton fire, but none were sent

Just before the Eaton fire broke out, an L.A. County official urged his team to issue a cellphone alert about increasingly dangerous winds to no avail.

Los Angeles Times
Show threadAI6YR Ben

"...Working side by side with National Weather Service officials, an emergency management staffer around 4:30 p.m. had called for a cellphone blast across the Interstate 210 corridor — a stretch of foothill communities that includes Sylmar, Altadena and Sierra Madre — to warn people that they needed to prepare for dangerous winds. Even if a fire didn’t spark, trucks could topple. Limbs would certainly come down. Power lines could endanger residents. And if a spark did catch, it could quickly mirror the inferno that was engulfing Pacific Palisades, or worse.

It’s not clear what difference a prefire preparedness alert sent to residents before the Eaton fire would have made. But it could have added another element of urgency as perilous fire weather was beginning to overwhelm the region. ..."

#EatonFire #wildfires #disaster

Mar 24 at 2:44pmWeb
Show threadAI6YR Ben3d ago

This was from this NWS assessment btw (I sent this out here) that day.. PDS Red Flag warning.

https://m.ai6yr.org/@ai6yr/113858719535359910

AI6YR Ben (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image PDS Red Flag Warning from NWS Los Angeles https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=CAZ374&warncounty=CAC111&firewxzone=CAZ374&local_place1=2%20Miles%20SE%20Thousand%20Oaks%20CA&product1=Red+Flag+Warning #VenturaCounty #LACounty #CAwx

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Show threadme_valentijn3d ago

@ai6yr
The defense of all of the actions and decisions made leads to one conclusion: they wouldn't do anything differently because they can't identify a point where they did anything wrong.

Of course, the implication of that message is that there's nothing to be fixed, so a bunch of people dying is the normal outcome and can be expected to happen next time as well.

Show threadSara3d ago

@me_valentijn @ai6yr no, there are multiple clear points of negligence here

they're trying to cover their asses in the press ahead of litigation, to create reasonable doubt in the jury pool