L.A. County supervisors criticize their own report on January fire mistakes, calling it inadequate

"Los Angeles County supervisors criticized the long-awaited $1.9-million outside investigation on government failures during the January wildfires as full of gaping holes after outcry from residents who say the report failed to answer their key question: Why did evacuation alerts come so late for so many? "I've heard from many residents, some of whom are in the audience, who share that this report leads to more questions than answers, and, quite frankly, a lot of anger,"

"The from McChrystal Group found, among other failures, that there was no clear guide of which county department was responsible for deciding which areas to evacuate. The responsibility for evacuations is split among the Office of Emergency Management, the Sheriff's Department and the Fire Department, and none have taken responsibility for the evacuation blunders. The county also failed to consistently issue evacuation warnings to neighborhoods next to ones that were under an evacuation order, the report found."

An outside investigation identified multiple failures in Los Angeles County's wildfire response, including delayed and inconsistent evacuation alerts that left west Altadena without timely warnings. Nineteen people died in the Eaton fire, most found in west Altadena after alerts arrived hours late. Responsibility for evacuation decisions was unclear and split among the Office of Emergency Management, the Sheriff's Department, and the Fire Department, with no single agency accepting blame. Evacuation warnings were not consistently issued to neighborhoods adjacent to ordered areas. Supervisors approved measures to clarify responsibilities and increase OEM staffing to improve future evacuations.

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