LA County’s Eaton Fire Response to Be Investigated by Bonta (1)

California AG Rob Bonta announced a civil rights investigation into Los Angeles County’s emergency response to the Eaton Fire, which damaged nearly 60% of Altadena’s Black households.

The investigation is the office’s first civil rights investigation into a California wildfire, Bonta said, adding he’s “frankly not sure how many there have been around the country.”

It will assess whether the county’s fire response had a disparate impact on residents based on race, disability, or age, Bonta said in a news conference Thursday. This legal theory of disparate impact is one the Trump administration has directed the US Justice Department to stop using when enforcing civil rights laws.

“The investigation we’ve launched is driven by one overarching question: did the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s delay in notifying and evacuating the historically Black West Altadena community during the Eaton fire violate state anti-discrimination and disability rights laws?” Bonta said.

The Thursday announcement breaks a year of silence from Bonta’s office, as Altadena residents pressed for an investigation. Bonta said his team has worked for months “to get to this point where we thought an announcement was appropriate today” and that he understands residents are frustrated the announcement took so long.

Altadena for Accountability, a group of fire-impacted Altadena residents that led calls for a probe, outlined the unequal effects of the fire in a January 23 letter following their first meeting with Bonta: Evacuation alerts were sent to the historically Black community of west of Lake Avenue at least eight hours after their neighbors in East Altadena. Just one county fire truck was sent to West Altadena during the first twelve hours of the fire. Eighteen of the 19 residents who died in the fire lived in West Altadena. At least one third of those who died had a disability affecting their movement.

“Altadena residents deserve to know why Lake Ave ‘would come to be a fateful dividing line,’ and whether any impermissible factors—such as race, socioeconomic status, and/or disability—played any role in the County’s disparate emergency response between West and East Altadena,” Altadena for Accountability’s letter said. “These legitimate questions deserve legitimate answers from an independent and thorough investigation that only your office can lead.”

Other reports and audits are insufficient, the group said, such as the county-commissioned McChrystal Group’s September report, which found county policies were unclear and a lack of resources and staffing exacerbated problems with the county’s emergency response.

Several agencies opted out of participating in the review, it failed to answer important questions about the fire, and it didn’t assign accountability, the group said.

The investigation announced Thursday is focused on the county’s fire department but will look into all other agencies that may help answer questions about why evacuation notices were delayed, Bonta said.

“It’s my hope and my expectation that all public institutions and officials we reach out to over the course of our investigation will voluntarily comply and share the information that we seek,” Bonta said.