Late evacuation orders in Altadena raise haunting question: Could more lives have been spared?

Even as their son fled from his eastern Altadena condo in the early evening of Jan. 7 — not long after the Eaton fire ignited — Justin Chapman’s parents remained in their family home about a half-mile away. “I haven’t seen any answers from officials about what happened there,” said Chapman, a former Altadena Town Council member, who now works for Pasadena Councilmember Steve Madison. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, said at a news conference Wednesday that officials “fumbled the ball badly” by not giving neighborhoods in western Altadena timely evacuation warnings when it’s clear the entire region was threatened by the fast-moving blaze, which ignited during dangerous winds that hit up to 100 mph. “The fact is that parts of Altadena, predominantly white, they got the warning,” he said, but the more racially diverse part of Altadena was issued evacuation orders much later. “The failure to issue a timely warning to the residents in the predominantly African American neighborhood resulted in colossal property damage and more importantly colossal and unnecessary injury and loss of life.” Wearing protective gear, Eaton fire victim Liz Oh is overwhelmed with emotion as she pauses from searching for keepsakes and valuables among the rubble of her burned-out home of six years on West Marigold Street in Altadena.