California opens probe into delayed wildfire warnings in West Altadena Black neighborhoods
California’s attorney general has opened a civil rights investigation into whether delayed evacuation warnings during last year’s Los Angeles wildfires contributed to a higher death toll in historically Black neighborhoods in Altadena.
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Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office will examine whether race, age or disability discrimination played a role in the emergency response on the west side of Altadena, where most residents are African American and where the majority of local fatalities were recorded. Nineteen people died in the Altadena fires in January 2025, most of them on the west side, where evacuation orders arrived later than on the predominately white east side.
“My office will be investigating whether there was race, age, or disability discrimination in the emergency response in west Altadena, which claimed the lives of at least 19 people,” Bonta said. “We must let the facts uncovered by our investigation determine what went wrong here.”
The fires, which erupted almost simultaneously in and around Los Angeles, killed 31 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, making the blazes collectively among the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. In addition to Altadena, the flames devastated the coastal city of Malibu and the upscale Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisades.
Fourteen months on, anger in affected communities remains raw, with residents and local leaders alleging mismanagement and uneven protection. In West Altadena, families contend that slower alerts left older adults, people with disabilities and lower-mobility households with fewer minutes to evacuate as flames closed in. On the east side, residents received warnings sooner, contributing to a perception that the emergency system served some neighborhoods faster than others.
Beyond questions of timing, the fires exposed infrastructure failures that compounded the crisis. In the Pacific Palisades, fire hydrants ran dry in Los Angeles’s municipal water system as the blaze advanced. An empty reservoir in the area fueled accusations that local water managers were unprepared for a once-in-a-generation catastrophe, leaving firefighters scrambling for supply while winds drove fast-moving fronts into residential streets.
City leadership also came under scrutiny. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced heavy criticism for approving budget cuts to the local fire department in the months leading up to the disaster. Critics argue those reductions weakened frontline capacity just as a wet winter and overgrown fuel loads set the stage for explosive fire behavior.
The state investigation centers on whether emergency protocols and resources were applied equitably across communities and whether California’s civil rights protections were violated during the response. Bonta’s office did not detail specific timelines for the probe but signaled it will review warning systems, evacuation policies and any disparities in how alerts and assistance were delivered.
As communities rebuild and insurance costs soar, the stakes of the inquiry extend beyond accountability for past decisions. Findings could shape how California and its local agencies design and deploy evacuation alerts, prioritize water and fire protection infrastructure, and safeguard vulnerable residents as climate change intensifies wildfire risk. For families in Altadena and beyond, the investigation promises a clearer picture of what failed — and what must change before the next red-flag day arrives.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
