“An experience I will never forget”: USA Today Reporter Surveys La Wildfire
USA Today reporter Josh Peter investigated the damage caused by the helicopter wildfires in Los Angeles. It’s an experience he will never forget.
Obsolete policies, communication gaps and staff shortages have hampered emergency response to a deadly wildfire that destroyed parts of Southern California earlier this year, according to a report commissioned by Los Angeles County officials.
The findings from the “Post Independence Action Report” were released by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on September 25th. The 133-page report, independently conducted by consulting firm McChrystal Group, focused on evacuation efforts related to the wildfires in Palisade and Eaton.
The report outlined a “square of weaknesses” that hinder the county’s ability to warn residents of fast-moving flames. The report said the weaknesses have been altered due to “environmental conditions, community preparation, operational complexity caused by wind, blackouts and fire behavior.”
These weaknesses included outdated and inconsistent standard operating procedures that “have slowed down adjustment efforts,” the report said. Investigators also spoke with law enforcement agencies and emergency managers who reported “inconsistent training in wildfire evacuation.”
The report further found that the shortage of personnel and equipment was “expanded under the extreme conditions of the incident.” The staffing shortage included more than 900 vacant seats in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Division. It is the agency responsible for managing fires and maintaining important public safety services across the county, the report added.
The Palisade and Eton wildfires erupted on January 7th, spreading in record time winds that carried the flames to working-class neighbourhoods and gorgeous cliffside mansions, destroying thousands of homes. The flame torches 60 square miles of land, an area of the size of Miami, leading to at least 31 deaths, but research suggests the death toll could be much higher.
A report released in late July shows that the wildfire was the most expensive in US history, totaling $65 billion in losses. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Warn the public about wildfires
The report analyzed more than 150,000 alert and evacuation data recordings, one-minute GPS tracking of response units, community feedback, and interviews with emergency responders.
Los Angeles County issued 32 evacuation warnings and 19 evacuation orders for the Palisade fire, as well as 58 warnings and 100 orders, according to the report. In total, around 250,000 residents had received evacuation warnings or orders.
The report found that county policies and protocols regarding evacuation alerts were “outdated, ambiguous, contradictory, and did not clearly explain the role and responsibility of issuing the directive” in accordance with its key findings and recommendations.
The report noted that there is a gap in the transition between the county’s old alerts and notification systems and the newer systems. The county replaced its notification system in November 2024, with only four emergency management staff members trained on the new system before the wildfire hit.
The report also detailed the slow warning process that requires communication of evacuation zones through multiple emergency management departments and staff before sending them through the notification system. However, there were improvements to the process as it took the new system about 20-30 minutes to send the alert, while the old system previously took 30-60 minutes.
The transition gap did not appear to cause any serious problems during wildfires, but the report recommended additional training and system changes to simplify alert adjustments.
The report also advised the county to provide consistent public education on evacuation protocols and alert systems through a number of notification methods that require the public to opt in or sign up for alerts. Residents who are not registered with the alert system or other methods have never received evacuation messages.
Other factors that may have contributed to residents who do not receive the alert include limited cell coverage in the Santa Monica Mountains and San Gabriel Mountain (public safety outage), which shuts down the power of the commercial cell towers that sent the message.
Staff shortages, resource constraints
The report noted that the “catastrophic nature” of the fire is completely strained in the emergency department of staff, and that responding agencies are already facing shortages and resource constraints.
These constraints included the underresourced Emergency Management Office, which, according to the report, operates at a staff level “a fundamentally inadequate for Los Angeles County’s complex emergency management needs.” Other challenges include aging equipment such as numerous vacant seats in the sheriff’s department, a shortage of patrol vehicles and a 38-year-old dispatch system.
Furthermore, the report found that first responders and incident commanders were unable to share real-time information consistently due to unreliable cellular connections. We also cited inconsistent field reporting methods and the use of various in-connected platforms.
The report added that emergency response personnel and resources were further challenged by other flames that erupted around the same time as the Palisade and Eton fires.
“While frontline responders acted decisively, in many cases, heroically, in the face of exceptional conditions, events highlighted the need for clearer policies, strong training, integrated tools, and improved public communication,” the report states.
The conditions and location of the wildfire affected evacuation
The report also noted that differences in environmental conditions and community preparation caused the Palisade and Eaton wildfires to “not evenly manifest systematic issues.”
“The Palisade fires that were fired during daytime in a community familiar with wildfire risks benefited from inter-ministerial coordination, pre-position resources and testing evacuation strategies,” the report states.
“In contrast, Eton Fire broke out at night amidst extreme winds and blackouts,” the report continued. “Fires occur in areas of counties that are not used to the risk of nearby wildfires, without the benefit of air surveillance and fire control.”
In the Palisades fire, the report said the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office will launch its own evacuation effort, with deputies deploying door-to-door efforts and using public address systems to encourage the community to evacuate.
Units that include the sheriff’s department and other agencies have been deployed and deployed to respond to the Eton fire, according to the report. However, the lack of sheriff’s departmental vehicles has hindered responses in all affected areas near the Eton Fire.
“Vulnerable groups, particularly seniors who were not monitoring alerts due to digital disparities and potential mobility challenges, faced an increased risk of delayed evacuation,” the report said.
The report did not consider “allocating fraud or criticism.”
The report said the independent investigation is not intended to consider “assigning fraud or blame,” but is intended to provide practical recommendations to improve future emergency response efforts.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors said it plans to discuss and review the report at its public meeting on September 30th.
At a press conference on September 25th, Los Angeles County supervisor Lindsey Horvas said it is clear that the county needs to clarify evacuation and alerting protocols, improve the alerting process, provide more training and invest in resources.
“More than anything, we need to act. This report provides a roadmap, but this is not the end,” Horvath said at a press conference. “This is the beginning of constant evolution and how we can keep Angelinos safe through best practices and lessons learned and improvements.”
