As Altadena waited for evacuation orders, fire commanders faced ‘chaotic’ conditions

Firefighters stand in formation as they listen to a daily Eaton fire briefing at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 10. “It was really a phenomenon we’ve never seen,” said Carlos Herrera, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Fire Department. But within an hour, fire officials realized they would again need to relocate, moving operations from Farnsworth Park — which would eventually burn in the fire — to the Rose Bowl just before 9 p.m. Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone and Angeles National Forest Fire Chief Robert Garcia decided they needed additional space because their incident command had grown to include a federal incident management team. Some eastern Altadena neighborhoods received their first “BE AWARE” alert at 6:48 p.m., while others were issued evacuation orders at 7:26 p.m. From 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Jan. 8, evacuation warnings and orders from the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, or OEM, went out several times per hour, largely covering areas that would not end up burning. “The fire was initially pushing away from that west side ; later it switched directions.. We were trying to get ahead of this thing, but again, it’s something we’ve never seen.” From roughly 2 a.m. to 9 a.m., Herrera was tasked with assisting command staff in monitoring and changing evacuation alerts, when necessary.