[EAS] L.A. Wildfire Evacuations Were Slowed by Poor Visibility and System Weaknesses

[Adrienne Abbott]

This is sad reading. California was one of the first states to implement the Incident Command System. They also established procedures for planning, preventing, mitigating and effectively fighting wildland fires in the urban interface. At some point, they lost that knowledge and stopped developing those skills.

Adrienne

> On Sep 25, 2025, at 5:28 pm, Sean Donelan sean at donelan.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> An independent report on the January disaster found that emergency alerts were hampered by flawed policies, aging equipment and high winds.
> 
> [...]
> Shortly after 1 a.m., the report said, county sheriff's and fire officials, who jointly determine evacuations, stopped instructing the county's Office of Emergency Management to issue evacuation warnings and orders in the Eaton fire, believing that all of the residents at risk had already been warned or instructed to get out. In fact, at some point that night, the fire had shifted, muscling back toward West Altadena on the Santa Ana winds.