When the Eaton hearth broke out within the foothills close to Altadena, the Los Angeles County Fireplace Division didn’t have entry to a satellite-based fire-tracking program recurrently utilized by different companies, depriving officers of intelligence that would have been useful in figuring out evacuations.
The Nationwide Guard’s FireGuard program, which analyzes photos from navy satellites to distribute real-time hearth development maps a number of instances an hour, is taken into account notably useful to fireside officers when plane can’t fly. However officers with the L.A. County Fireplace Division stated they weren’t conscious of the useful resource throughout the Eaton hearth and subsequently didn’t make the most of FireGuard’s information or maps.
This will likely have left Altadena at an obstacle. With all plane grounded inside an hour of the Eaton hearth’s begin, hearth officers misplaced important situational consciousness and have been pressured to rely nearly completely on floor observations. That grew to become more and more troublesome as evening fell, smoke intensified and highly effective winds pushed flames and embers farther and extra quickly into neighborhoods.
The county has confronted months of criticism after The Occasions revealed in January that officers didn’t order evacuations for west Altadena till 9 hours after the hearth began. All however one of many 19 individuals who died within the Eaton hearth have been present in west Altadena, amongst them a 54-year-old girl whose household has claimed she died due to the delayed evacuation alerts.
Not getting access to FireGuard throughout the Eaton hearth seems to have made the L.A. County Fireplace Division an outlier amongst massive hearth companies in California, as the vast majority of these contacted by The Occasions confirmed that they’ve used it for years. The findings increase additional questions on how the county hearth company ready for and responded to the lethal blaze, notably with how officers did not challenge well timed evacuation alerts for west Altadena and appeared utterly overwhelmed as embers and flames marched westward.
Some specialists say it’s doable FireGuard satellite tv for pc mapping might have higher knowledgeable incident commanders, notably on evacuation choices, although it’s removed from clear the way it might need modified the response — if in any respect.
Mapping from FireGuard, reviewed months after the hearth, confirmed it did monitor the hearth’s regular development west for a number of hours earlier than flames overran west Altadena — and effectively earlier than the evacuation alerts went out.
“Did they not know that it shifted to [west Altadena]? That then might have been data that will have been useful,” stated Michael Gollner, an affiliate professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley who leads its Fireplace Analysis Lab. “Or perhaps they knew, however they stated we couldn’t do something about it,” as a result of overtaxed sources.
FireGuard “might have been helpful … when it comes to life security and evacuating individuals out of the best way,” he added. “It is determined by what they knew, and after they knew it.”
Some county officers agree.
“It’s one thing that they need to have had, however now they’ve put that into play,” stated L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the unincorporated city of Altadena.
Within the aftermath of the hearth, the L.A. County Fireplace Division has moved to combine FireGuard into its working platforms. Fireplace Chief Anthony Marrone stated this system, together with plans for different technological enhancements, will “support in future wildfires however won’t ever substitute the first supply of situational consciousness corresponding to by air and reporting again from the sector.”
Barger wouldn’t go as far as to say the Fireplace Division missed a chance by not having FireGuard in place, however centered on how risky the situations have been that evening.
“Between the wind and the hearth … it was like rapidly it was on prime of them out of nowhere,” Barger stated. “The hearth chief has stated that, fairly frankly, they have been outpaced on this fireplace as a result of it was shifting so quickly.”
However some current analyses of the hearth have confirmed that there have been earlier indicators that the hearth was shifting west, although it’s unclear how effectively they have been realized by hearth officers. No less than one suggestion to increase evacuation orders to the west went unheeded round midnight on Jan. 7.
The primary evacuation alert for west Altadena was issued at 3:25 a.m. on Jan. 8, effectively after a number of fires had been reported within the space. Some sections of the city weren’t ordered to evacuate till simply earlier than 6 a.m. No a part of west Altadena was issued an evacuation warning. Residents have recalled harrowing escapes from smoke-filled properties and beneath raining embers.
West Altadena, residence to a extra racially numerous inhabitants than the city’s jap facet, stemming from historic redlining, would find yourself the toughest hit by the hearth.
L.A. County officers have repeatedly failed to supply an in depth clarification into why the evacuation alerts for west Altadena got here so late, or who was accountable, however a Occasions evaluation of the method makes clear that county officers have been a number of steps behind the hearth because it unfold west.
In an unbiased evaluation of the county’s evacuation system, accomplished by McChrystal Group in September, investigators discovered that some officers didn’t understand how far west the hearth had unfold till effectively into the morning of Jan. 8, as late as round 3 a.m. — when hearth had began to unfold into west Altadena however evacuation orders nonetheless hadn’t gone out.
The report famous there was a “sudden shift” within the path of the hearth and a rise in winds round 3 a.m., prompting “an pressing have to assess and coordinate priorities.” The report additionally discovered that round this time county hearth officers believed that every one areas “instantly impacted by or in danger from the Eaton hearth had already obtained an evacuation warning order.”
That narrative doesn’t seem in sync with obtainable FireGuard mapping and a timeline of the hearth compiled final month by state-hired investigators.
As early at 9:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, the hearth was shifting west towards North Lake Avenue, the unofficial east-west divider for the city, in accordance with the state report. FireGuard photos from round that point additionally confirmed the hearth clearly shifting west within the San Gabriel foothills north of Altadena, although it was additionally concurrently increasing on an jap edge near Sierra Madre.
Between 10 and 11 p.m., nonetheless, there continued to be elevated hearth within the “north part of the western entrance,” the state report discovered. And simply earlier than midnight, L.A. County firefighters reported a fireplace west of Lake Avenue on East Calaveras Avenue, the report discovered.
By 1:30 a.m., “a number of construction fires have been reported on Lake Avenue,” round which period a firefighter tried to research the extent of the hearth west of Lake however was stopped by “intense hearth situations that worsen,” the state report discovered.
It could be two extra hours earlier than west Altadena could be ordered to evacuate.
“Unified command did their highest to establish evacuation zones to be alerted primarily based on the data obtainable to them at the moment,” Heidi Oliva, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Fireplace Division, stated in an announcement. “When unified command realized that the hearth was seen north of Lake and shifting west, it validated and acted to challenge the orders that have been despatched out.”
Though Oliva acknowledged that the FireGuard maps confirmed the hearth shifting northwest the evening of Jan. 7, she stated that “to be clear, the FireGuard imagery or information was not obtainable to us on the time of the incident.”
“Any data that will assist enhance situational consciousness could be helpful to unified command,” she stated. “We consider that FireGuard is a further software that can higher inform unified incident commanders of a fireplace’s motion thus offering higher situational consciousness to reinforce decision-making on all points of a fireplace, evacuations included, particularly when plane is grounded.”
However she was adamant that this system won’t be a panacea.
“FireGuard doesn’t choose up spot fires brought on by ember forged or downed energy traces, so it is vital this software is used along with different instruments to extend situational consciousness,” she stated. Oliva didn’t clarify why the division hadn’t applied this system within the years earlier than the hearth, when it had been made extensively obtainable to native companies via totally different working platforms.
“The Division was neither conscious of, nor had entry to, FireGuard till after the January 2025 fires,” Oliva stated. She stated in August the company labored with the federal authorities to include this system as a layer inside the division’s digital incident command platform, Pill Command. Earlier than that, she stated, the company didn’t have the power to include FireGuard.
Shawn Tyrie, a companion with McChrystal Group who reviewed the FireGuard maps, stated they supply some useful data, however he famous the maps didn’t choose up smaller spot fires and aren’t very detailed. He didn’t discover the information “adequate to say definitively that you would be able to make choices … primarily based on FireGuard information alone.”
Nonetheless, his consulting agency really helpful the county implement FireGuard to raised inform future firefighting.
The FireGuard program has been working since 2019 however has been extensively obtainable to companies throughout the nation over the previous couple of years. The California Governor’s Workplace of Emergency Companies stated FireGuard information have been obtainable to any company within the state via a number of widespread working platforms, together with one which the workplace made accessible to all native authorities companies in Could 2023, in accordance with Matt Notley, a spokesperson for the workplace.
FireGuard’s fixed mapping of “fire-affected areas” has proved a dependable and useful backup, particularly when air sources aren’t obtainable, in accordance with a number of officers who’ve used this system. Federal officers cited the know-how as key in serving to facilitate the evacuation of about 35,000 individuals throughout the 2021 Marshall hearth in Boulder, Colo., throughout which plane have been grounded for the primary eight hours of the blaze.
The Occasions reached out to greater than 10 of the biggest firefighting companies in California, the vast majority of which confirmed that that they had entry to FireGuard as of January and had applied the information into their techniques and processes. A couple of officers with the California Division of Forestry and Fireplace Safety who spoke about FireGuard have been shocked or confused that L.A. County hadn’t been utilizing this system.
Phillip SeLegue, employees chief of CalFire’s intelligence program, famous that whereas FireGuard nonetheless has some shortcomings — it doesn’t present a full hearth perimeter and requires web connectivity to entry — it has nonetheless change into a recreation changer for “early detection and ongoing evaluation.”
“It’s very worthwhile to us…. It’s dramatically improved our hearth unfold prediction,” SeLegue stated. “What FireGuard provides us is 24/7, persistent protection.”
Along with CalFire (which incorporates its many cooperative jurisdictions corresponding to unincorporated San Diego and Riverside counties), the hearth departments for Ventura, San Bernardino, Orange, Kern and Santa Clara counties and the Angeles Nationwide Forest confirmed to The Occasions that they’ve used FireGuard information for years, and most stated it’s used for early detection, situational consciousness or each.
The hearth departments for Santa Barbara and Alameda counties stated they didn’t use FireGuard; nor did the San Francisco Fireplace Division.
The Los Angeles Fireplace Division, accountable for fires within the metropolis and the lead company responding to the Palisades hearth, didn’t reply to a number of questions on its FireGuard use or entry.
Operated by California and Colorado Nationwide Guard troops, FireGuard makes use of Division of Protection satellites to detect and monitor wildfires, distributing unclassified data amongst firefighting networks, in accordance with the Nationwide Guard. Particular intelligence specialists work to map sizzling areas of energetic hearth on roughly 15-minute intervals, offering imaging at a couple of 400-meter decision, SeLegue stated.
Although CalFire and the Angeles Nationwide Forest each have been utilizing this system throughout the Eaton hearth and have been in unified command with L.A. County, Oliva stated, the county hearth company was “not conscious that it was an obtainable software that would precisely monitor a fireplace’s development and no different companies that responded to the Eaton hearth … shared any Fireguard information with us.”
Officers with companies which have been utilizing FireGuard described it as a useful utility in a rising panorama of fireplace know-how, largely used for higher-level decision-making.
“FireGuard may be one piece of this,” stated Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fireplace Division. He referred to as it “one small software within the toolbox.”
Whereas some helicopters have been grounded throughout the 2024 Mountain hearth, Dowd stated, fixed-wing plane have been nonetheless capable of fly, so FireGuard wasn’t relied on for situational consciousness.
“On sure fires, once I’m not getting anything, I’ve positively used it,” stated Erin Opliger, a particular tasks chief with the San Bernardino County Fireplace Division, who works on geographic data techniques and information analytics for the company. “It does present [a fire’s] common unfold.”
Suzann Leininger, who works on intelligence with CalFire-San Diego County, stated the maps from the FireGuard program don’t present actual perimeters however nonetheless present helpful development data.
“It’s actually useful whenever you don’t have any form of flight obtainable and when it’s too windy to fly,” Leininger stated.
However understanding this system and ensuring it’s really helpful — not simply put in — is probably crucial half, UC Berkeley’s Gollner stated.
“Loads of the planning must be completed earlier than the hearth ever began,” Gollner stated. “There must be a course of, as a result of there’s quite a lot of radio visitors, quite a lot of issues [going on] and also you’re already in an intense scenario…. It’s nice to have new information, however you additionally should be expert at the way to use it, and to make that plan upfront.”
Tyrie agreed that would be the problem.
“There’s 1,000,000 information sources that you possibly can layer into a typical working image,” he stated. “How do you make choices primarily based on that within the second?”
This story was revealed with assist from the Institute for Journalism & Pure Assets.
