The Los Angeles firestorm of January 2025 was a double catastrophe, burning 1000’s of houses and taking dozens of lives throughout Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
However during the last yr, a lot of the nationwide dialog has drifted towards Pacific Palisades and away from Altadena — regardless of evident shortcomings in each fires that deserve scrutiny and accountability.
Concern and anger about points from the Palisades hearth have been amplified by celeb victims and well-connected critics of Los Angeles Metropolis Corridor, their plight swept up within the nation’s extremely polarized politics. Within the fall, Republican members of Congress launched an investigation into the L.A. fires, however the probe has up to now solely targeted on the Palisades hearth. Extra not too long ago, because the Trump administration pushed for expedited rebuilding, officers met solely with victims from the Palisades.
Many in west Altadena have been left with a irritating — however acquainted — feeling: like they’re being ignored.
“In the event you simply dropped in from one other planet and also you didn’t know and also you began taking a look at L.A. wildfires … you’ll suppose the one space that was hit was Pacific Palisades,” stated Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles City Coverage Roundtable. “West Altadena has gotten misplaced within the shuffle.”
The traditionally Black group, made up primarily of working-class households, didn’t obtain evacuation alerts till the fireplace had already descended on their neighborhoods. Extra prosperous areas acquired immediate warnings and orders. Instances investigations uncovered the alert failure in January of final yr, and later discovered that just about no hearth vehicles have been in that facet of the group because the inferno raged by means of. Practically the entire 19 individuals who died within the Eaton hearth — all discovered inside two sq. miles of each other — lived on this western part of city. It additionally skilled a few of the most widespread hearth harm.
But officers chargeable for the fireplace response have nonetheless failed to supply an in depth rationalization about what led to the failures, a lot much less take accountability.
This month, nonetheless, seems to mark a serious shift in public discourse and accountability calls for for Altadena for the reason that fires. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta introduced this month that his workplace had opened a civil rights investigation into how L.A. County ready for and responded to the Eaton hearth, notably wanting on the disparities skilled in traditionally Black west Altadena due to the delayed evacuation alerts.
It’s a win that west Altadena celebrated — although it got here solely after months of elevated activism and strategic strain from a bunch of residents who pushed to make sure their group and the tragedies it skilled wouldn’t be ignored.
“Traditionally marginalized communities have at all times needed to battle to have their points be seen and acknowledged,” stated Shimica Gaskins, an Eaton hearth survivor and member of Altadena for Accountability. The grassroots group had particularly referred to as for such an investigation from Bonta.
L.A. County officers have stated it can absolutely cooperate with the lawyer normal’s investigation, however emphasised that no evaluations up thus far “have discovered any discriminatory or structural bias within the county’s response.”
“We imagine the Legal professional Normal will discover that emergency responders did the perfect they might underneath unprecedented and excessive circumstances,” county officers stated in a joint assertion.
Within the Palisades, residents have made blunders associated to the fireplace a potent challenge in L.A. politics, serving to result in the dismissal of the Los Angeles hearth chief and now an unsure future for Mayor Karen Bass. Instances investigations discovered breakdowns in how the Los Angeles Fireplace Division deployed assets to the blaze and the way crews failed to watch the remnants of a earlier hearth that will reignite to burn by means of the neighborhood. Actuality TV star Spencer Pratt, who misplaced his house and has change into a loud critic of the town’s dealing with of the fireplace, is now operating in opposition to Bass.
The ambiance in Altadena has in some methods been much less politically charged, however native activists say that was by design.
The group has been equally pissed off with elected leaders and emergency officers — there have been some requires L.A. County Fireplace Chief Anthony Marrone to step down — however the Altadena activists needed to maintain their message cohesive and targeted, within the hope that it could be extra impactful.
“We actually needed a systemic strategy,” stated Gina Clayton-Johnson, a pacesetter of the Altadena for Accountability group and a sufferer of the Eaton hearth. “That requires possibly not a knee-jerk blame recreation however one thing totally different.”
Altadena’s standing as an unincorporated city could make it tougher to focus blame throughout a extra dispersed county authorities, however the group stated it additionally needed to verify any political ramifications have been warranted.
“It’s not an absence of anger,” stated Sylvie Andrews, a member of Altadena for Accountability and an Eaton hearth survivor. “It’s a laser-focused channeling of the anger.”
The group is ruled by the five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, with Kathryn Barger’s district together with Altadena. The Los Angeles County Fireplace Division oversaw the response of the Eaton hearth, and it has come underneath intense scrutiny over the botched alerts and restricted firefighting assets on the west facet of city.
The county commissioned a assessment of its evacuation system in the course of the hearth, but it surely was roundly criticized for not exposing what or who was chargeable for the failures. Officers later criticized the report, admitting it didn’t reply key questions.
Within the wake of the fireplace and repeated county blunders, many Altadena residents have pushed for extra dialogue in regards to the group’s unincorporated standing, some calling for cityhood and extra autonomy over its providers and assets. However this stays a divisive challenge. Many have traditionally appreciated the liberty of its unincorporated governance and, prior to now, have fought the concept of being swallowed up by a surrounding metropolis like Pasadena.
For now although, the problem of incorporation has remained on the again burner given all that the group is already going through: a herculean process of rebuilding and restoration and in its battle for justice within the failures from the fireplace.
The coalition of group leaders and anxious residents calling for accountability settled on a particular aim: an unbiased investigation by the state lawyer normal. They hoped that ask wouldn’t solely permit for an in-depth probe with the energy of subpoena energy — key to lastly offering solutions and accountability within the hearth’s failures — however it could additionally keep away from ulterior motives from partisan politics on the nationwide stage and will present a street map for different communities of coloration after catastrophe, Clayton-Johnson stated.
They realized the percentages have been stacked in opposition to them, just like many Black and brown communities demanding justice within the aftermath of catastrophe, from the Decrease ninth Ward in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.
However Clayton-Johnson additionally stated her group has a historical past and a spirit that’s “uniquely highly effective,” with members together with descendants of civil rights leaders, households who started unprecedented cycles of Black generational wealth and neighbors main necessary nonprofits.
West Altadena is made up of individuals “who wish to dedicate their lives and their professions to justice, to equality, to well-being, to well being, to setting,” Clayton-Johnson stated.
Their efforts ultimately led to a gathering with Bonta final month, the place their group offered a authorized transient, prolonged proof and private testimonies, which appeared to maneuver the lawyer normal.
Bonta particularly referenced the advocacy and dedication of the “group members of west Altadena” in his announcement of the probe, saying the group “had a serious impression on me.”
Though he stated his workplace had been engaged on this challenge for months, his announcement of the investigation got here greater than a yr after requires such an unbiased inquiry.
“We needed to do lots to get the eye on this challenge,” Gaskins stated. “We didn’t wish to have to try this, however we did as a result of we all know that’s what’s necessary for our group and for going ahead.”
Shawna Dawson Beer, an Altadena for Accountability member and hearth survivor, agreed that the lawyer normal’s acknowledgment took too lengthy. However she additionally identified that the investigation is only one piece of accountability residents wish to see. They’re nonetheless combating for simply insurance coverage compensation, for admissions of wrongdoing from Southern California Edison — whose gear might have began the Eaton hearth — and for an intensive, environmentally sound cleanup, to call a couple of.
“From Day 1 … the Palisades hearth type of sucked the oxygen out of the room, and this grew to become the secondary hearth,” Dawson Beer stated.
However some activists level out that this isn’t a contest: There must be room for victims of each fires to see their issues addressed and obtain accountability.
“It’s not a zero sum recreation,” Andrews stated. “I feel that if we get solutions or consideration delivered to points in both group, it can finally profit the opposite group and profit all of L.A. County.”
