Records show Los Angeles officials’ early struggles as windswept blazes escalated
More than half of the deaths were reported in areas where residents said they either did not receive evacuation orders or did so hours after the rapidly spreading blaze started.
From the air, you can see the extreme scale of devastation left behind by wildfires in Southern California.
(CNN) — Newly obtained records – including text messages and internal reports – detail how Los Angeles officials scrambled to respond in the hours leading up to the devastating wildfires that swept through the city earlier this year.
The exchange of messages reveals how authorities initially assessed and activated the lowest level of emergency management to address the Palisades Fire, before the windswept blazes overwhelmed the response, displacing tens of thousands of residents in the Pacific Palisades area and testing the city’s emergency response systems.
The Palisades and Eaton wildfires – the most destructive in recent years – left 29 people dead and scorched nearly 60,000 acres, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. More than half of the deaths were reported in areas where residents said they either did not receive evacuation orders or did so hours after the rapidly spreading blaze started.
A crew of firefighters walk from a fire line during the Park Fire in Tehama County's Mill Creek area of California August 7, 2024. (Photo Credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
In the aftermath, fire officials have faced criticism over their early response and questions have been raised over whether the devastation could have been minimized.
On February 21, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass removed Kristin Crowley from her post as LA Fire Chief over her handling of the response, citing her decision to send home firefighters that could have been on duty the morning the fires broke out, and called for a full investigation of “everything” leading up to January 7 when the fires began.
Crowley, a 25-year LA Fire Department veteran who played a central role in coordinating the city’s response, chose to remain in the civil service with a lower rank and has since appealed the decision to remove her.
New details about the discussions among local officials and their evolving views before, during and after the fires have emerged after hundreds of files related to the Palisades Fire response were released by the Emergency Management Department and LAFD to KABC-TV and ABC News through public records requests.
Early warning
On January 6, in the hours ahead of the fire, the National Weather Service warned that a “life-threatening and destructive windstorm” could cause a blaze as damaging, if not worse, than the 2011 Pasadena fires, when powerful Santa Ana winds uprooted hundreds of trees and left parts of the San Gabriel Valley without power for days.
A crew from Los Angels Water and Power stands near a downed tree in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, Thursday, December 1, 2011. (Photo Credit: Chris Carlson/AP via CNN Newsource)
“Impacts like this may not happen everywhere, but are possible anywhere,” the service noted, in an archived briefing from January 6. “NOW is the time to act,” the briefing read.
Emails obtained by ABC News show that Los Angeles city officials, including those in the city’s Emergency Management Department, used weather service briefings as a guide the same day of the alarming forecast.
Later that day, Carol Parks, the director of the EMD, notified Crowley that the city’s Emergency Operations Center would be “activated at Level 3 (lowest level with EMD staff)” in anticipation of the worsening conditions, a text exchange shows.
“Should conditions necessitate us elevating the EOC (emergency operations center) status, the three of us will need to remain in close contact,” Parks wrote, appearing to reference Crowley and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell.
Crowley responded, in part, “I’ll be available to discuss any necessary actions with the both of you if the need arises.”
‘Anything else you can send us, we will take’
The next morning, the situation began to escalate as winds intensified, heightening the risk of wildfires.
Text messages show that Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, serving as acting mayor while Mayor Bass was on an overseas trip in Ghana, contacted the LAFD to discuss the worsening weather.
Bass, who has faced criticism for being in Ghana despite warnings of critical fire weather, said she had been in “constant contact” with officials. Bass had been attending a presidential inauguration as part of a US delegation. She later told CNN affiliate KTTV the trip was a mistake, claiming Crowley failed to warn her in advance or carry out what she called “normal preparations” – a claim fire officials deny.
“I briefed him on our deployment in our preparation efforts. Also our needs for additional resources,” LAFD Deputy Chief Jason Hing told Crowley in a text message, in reference Harris-Dawson.
Crowley also asked Hing to direct staff to “reach out to the appropriate Council Offices to ensure that they are proper(ly) informed about our preparedness for the weather event.”
The first fires ignited just under 90 minutes after Harris-Dawson’s message. By 10:35 a.m., Crowley reported two brush fires breaking out in the city – one in the Pacific Palisades area and another in Hollywood.
In this long-exposure photo, fire smolders on a hillside during the Lilac Fire in unincorporated San Diego County, California, on January 21. (Photo Credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
“Sending over staff now,” Crowley texted Parks minutes later, recommending an upgrade to Level 2, acknowledging the which would demand for more resources.
Parks then responded, “EOC staff have some concerns now that we have two fires.”
Parks wrote to Crowley, “The EOC is in need of leadership. Pls advise who from your department can respond to the EOC asap,” with Crowley responding that a chief was en route.
As the fires spread rapidly, Crowley reached out to neighboring counties for assistance by 12:02 p.m. “Anything else you can send us, we will take it,” she wrote to fire officials. “Star(t)ing to (lose) home(s) and people trapped.”
A full-scale emergency
By the evening of January 7, the fire showed no signs of slowing, and plans were underway to escalate the response to the highest level of emergency management.
At 7:19 p.m., Parks informed Crowley that emergency directors were recommending moving to Level 1, the highest level of emergency management, to be implemented the following morning.
The Eaton Fire, meanwhile, had just begun in nearby Altadena at around 6:18 p.m. local time.
As the wildfires tore through Southern California, firefighters faced a critical challenge: dry hydrants and plummeting water pressure hampering their efforts.
At 7:22 p.m., Los Angeles Department of Water and Power CEO Janisse Quiñones warned Crowley, “We will run out of water in about 2 hours” unless access could be safely restored.
Quiñones explained that unprecedented demand – four times the normal usage for 15 straight hours – drained storage tanks, leaving 20% of hydrants in the Pacific Palisades dry.
“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” Quiñones previously told CNN. A nearby reservoir under repair and power outages in Altadena further disrupted the water supply, prompting California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for an independent investigation into the failures.
Newsom last month requested in a letter to Congress nearly $40 billion in wildfire recovery aid after the two fires burned more than 30,000 of acres of land and damaged more than 16,000 structures, according to estimates from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
CNN’s Dalia Faheid contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Report a Typo
