When the Palisades and Eaton Fire roared through local communities, there were 29 deaths, making those fires among the deadliest in California’s history.
According to the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s preliminary report, 93 percent of those people, who died were 65 or older had disabilities.
When 85 people died in the Paradise Fire, more than 75 percent were 65 or older.
The similarity between the three fires, was a lack of evacuation notices.
In Eaton, the fire started at 6:30 p.m. but critical evacuation orders for Western Altadena didn’t come until 3:35 a.m., which was hours too late. By then, embers had already ignited homes leaving many residents trapped.
The fire started at 10:30 a.m. in Pacific Palisades, which meant residents could see the smoke and flames in the daylight hours, but even then, many did not receive the evacuation alerts.
Some evacuating from the Palisades Highlands ran into a clog of cars on Palisades Drive and Sunset Boulevard and were urged by the few officials on scene to evacuate their vehicles and run to the beach.
Later in the day, as the fire spread, Palisades residents tried calling 911 to help evacuate seniors living near them. Receiving no help, some finally just put neighbors in their cars and drove out. Palisades residents were luckier than those in Eaton because fire started during daylight hours.
Before the next emergency, evacuations need to be planned, so it is not a chaotic mess that claims lives. And, if a fire would break out in the early a.m. hours, how will officials alert residents?
NPR write in a January 9, story (“Many Communities Aren’t Ready for Wildlife Evacuations. Here’s What They Can Do.”) wrote, “Evacuation planning is largely done by local governments, but the level of preparation varies greatly. In a review of 11 wildfires in California, one study found click here that some local governments were not prepared, and “nearly all agencies do not have the public resources to adequately and swiftly evacuate all populations in danger.”
One of the recommendations of that report was that agencies should also consider alternative low-tech communication methods including door-to-door notifications, radios, static sirens and mobile sirens (via emergency vehicles or drones) to prepare for power outages.
L.A. City and County officials are relying on email and phone alerts to relay dangerous situations.
Here’s the problem. Many in the Palisades do not have good cell service because of the mountains. Those living in Topanga and Western L.A. County experience similar problems with cell reception.
In portions of L.A. County, electricity is often shut off during high-wind events, which means City/County personnel cannot rely on computer/television to relay a message.
No cell phone. No television. No internet. How do you warn people they need to get out in case of a fire?
Mary Graham, co-director of the Ash Center’s Transparency Policy Project in an April 30 story (“Information Inequality Can Be a Matter of Life or Death.”), wrote “But in practice, information may not get to all Americans when and where they can access, understand, and act on it to protect themselves and their families. Ironically, advances in communication technology have added new dimensions to an old problem. As people use a wider variety of communication channels, it becomes harder to reach everyone. And as communities transition to cell phone and email alerts, those without access are often left behind.”
Graham adds in Paradise that “Older residents might have relied on the 911 system for aid and instructions. But 911 also failed. One or two dispatchers were on duty as the fire spread, but they were swamped with hundreds of calls from residents as windswept embers rained down on the town. Soon all landline calls failed as the fire burned through the area’s above-ground cables. Since the town had no sirens, first responders resorted to low-tech warnings—knocking on doors and driving through neighborhoods with loudspeakers”click here.
Additionally many people turn off cell phones when they go to bed, which means if an alert comes in the middle of the night, they may not receive it. And if the electricity goes off there’s no warning.
In Westside Current Editor Jaime Paige’s April 17 story (“The Woolsey Fire was the Warning, but Failure to Act on Lessons Learned Made Palisades Pay the Price”) an L.A. County resident said, “There were no emergency auto calls to cell phones, no sirens and no bullhorns warning us to leave. If it hadn’t been for my husband listening to the radio, my son and I might have been in the house when the fire reached our neighborhood”click here.
LA County Sheriff Department posted this photo of the evacuation with smoke from the Woolsey Fire over Malibu. Credit: Grant Denham
A simple low-tech method might be sirens, which was also recommended in the March 2020 report (Review of California Wildfire Evacuations from 2017 to 2019). Paradise has now adopted sirens, and they are effective in the Midwest to warn people of tornadoes particularly in the middle of the night.
As the top priority in Paradise’s Long-Term Community Recovery Plan, the Emergency Warning Sirens implemented a mass notification system, and created an audible/alarm notification system.
Paradise’s Emergency Warning System (EWS) consists of twenty-one siren towers located within the town limits. The EWS is designed to alert residents of emergencies. There is test of the system once a month.
CTN reached out to L.A. County Lindsey Horvath and to Councilmember Traci Park to ask if there were plans to implement an emergency warning system in Pacific Palisades.
Horvath said, “The County is actively preparing an After Action Report on the emergency alert system. An additional more comprehensive report with recommendations is also forthcoming. Both will offer recommendations on the evacuation plans and communication.”
Park said with the After Action Report, “we have specified that an analysis be conducted on the January evacuation with recommendations that can be used to inform a new or updated evacuation plan.”
Will there be a beautiful garden memorial somewhere in town for the people that lost their lives?