All of the 17 deaths confirmed in the Eaton Fire occurred in an area where an evacuation order was delayed for hours after the blaze erupted, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
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According to records obtained by the publication, the neighborhoods west of Lake Ave. in Altadena didn’t receive electronic evacuation orders until 3:25 a.m. on Jan. 8, nearly eight hours after the blaze ignited in Eaton Canyon, and four and a half hours after the first radio report that fire had spread into the area west of Lake Ave.
Witnesses said sheriff’s deputies used loudspeakers to tell people to evacuate around 2 a.m., but it’s “unclear how early these operations began and how extensive they were,” according to the L.A. Times.
All 17 people reported dead in the Eaton Fire lived west of Lake Ave.
North Lake Ave. historically served as a redlining boundary, with Black residents restricted from living east of the road, according to the Altadena Historical Society. Areas east of Lake Ave. still had a significantly larger share of white residents than areas to the west in the 2023 census.
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