Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Chad Augustin
Fire Chief
City Council Meeting
June 9, 2025
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
2 Background & Preparation
• In 2022, started work on the City’s first
evacuation plan
• Hired Emergency Manager in 2023
• Presented to the Public Safety
Committee and City Council in
January 2023
• Evacuation Drill at Brookside on
November 7, 2024
• Updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
• Developed and implemented
“Prepared Pasadena” program
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Response
3 Week Prior to January 7
• Notification of wind event in Southern California with Red Flag conditions • Daily updates from the National Weather Service (NWS) • Worked with BSFMD to ensure all fire apparatus were ready to be deployed if needed
• Request through the State of California Office of Emergency Services (OES) to have a pre-positioned Strike Team approved and deployed in the Pasadena area
• Declared Red Flag conditions for Pasadena
• Multiple City departments upstaffed additional personnel Fire
Pasadena Police
Public Works
Water & Power
• Activated Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
All City Departments participated
Operated for multiple weeks
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
4 Day of January 7
• Held two Executive Leadership Team briefings on the Wind Event Identified 24/7 EOC staffing
• Palisades Fire started around 10:30 am
• At 18:15 while on an ELT call, the Eaton Fire started • Full Staffing at EOC
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
5 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
6 Photo Credit: Associated Press
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
7 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Time Recipients Type Location
18:22:00
(6:22 pm) In-Person PPD & PFD door-to-door evacuations near Fairpoint Street
19:44:01
(7:44 pm) 559 PLEAS/NIXLE North of New York Drive, east of Altadena Drive, and west of Sierra Madre Villa Avenue
20:01:00
(8:01 pm) 400-500 In-Person PPD & PFD door-to-door evacuations and evacuation of 2 Altadena Skilled Nursing Facilities
20:24:11
(8:24 pm) 1,571 PLEAS/NIXLE East of Allen Avenue, north of Washington Boulevard, and west of Sierra Madre Villa Avenue
22:45:06
(10:45 pm) 9,407 PLEAS/NIXLE
North of Orange Grove/Rosemead Boulevard,
east of Lake Avenue, and west of Michillinda
Avenue
2:30 -
4:30 am In-Person PPD door-to-door evacuations from Mid-City to Florecita/JPL
8 Additional notifications sent to Pasadena residents through LA County Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) around 2:30 am.
Recipients include businesses, households, and PLEAS-registered cell phones linked to addresses in the evacuation area.
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Multi-Notification System
• Business & Household Landlines
• Pasadena Local Emergency Alert
System (PLEAS) & NIXLE
• Mainstream Media
PIO phone interviews giving
perimeters of evacuation areas at
that time
• Social Media
• PPD & PFD on the Ground
PA system
Door-to-door knocking
9 Time Media Outlet
20:00:00
(8:00 pm) KCVS/KCAL
20:10:00
(8:10 pm) ABC
20:30:00
(8:30 pm) NBC
21:10:00
(9:10 pm) FOX
21:40:00
(9:40 pm) KNX AM (radio)
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
10 Evacuation Orders
City Population Structures
Altadena 32,200 15,334
LAC
Unincorporated 651 167
Pasadena 2,729 1,058
TOTAL 35,580 16,559
Evacuation Warnings
City Population Structures
Pasadena 27,500 11,029
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
11 Skilled Nursing Facilities Evacuations
• Evacuated residents from multiple Pasadena and Altadena Senior Care Facilities
Coordinated effort with PPD, multiple other City departments, assisting partner agencies, and Transdev/First Transit
• Plans to work with LA County and Skilled Nursing Facilities to develop emergency plans
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
12 Post January 7
• Held Executive Leadership Team briefings twice daily
Identified 24/7 EOC staffing
• Full Staffing at EOC
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Disaster Recovery
Center (DRC)
• Pasadena had a DRC open for
nearly 1 month to assist our
impacted community
13 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Pasadena Convention Center
• Open January 7 through February 13
• Housed 1,140 people at its peak period
14 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Rose Bowl
• Served as Incident
Command
• Approximate personnel
Firefighters: 3,500
Police: 509 daily at the Rose
Bowl
» 10,179 Officers and Deputies
assigned to the Eaton incident
• Crews from all over the
country and international
agencies
• Included sleeping barracks,
showers, food, and more
15 Fire Department
SUMMARY OF EATON FIRE
RESPONSE & RECOVERY
Pasadena Public Health Department
16 Manuel Carmona
Director of Public Health
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Evacuation Shelter
• From Jan 7 to Jan 11, 2025,
• Provided medical support for over 1,100 evacuation shelter residents, including 400 long-term care facility residents needing high acuity medical support
• Coordinated over 100 volunteer doctors, nurses, and other clinicians to provide medical support
• Sustained medical operations until Red Cross assumed control • Supported the transfer of over 400 long-term care
facility residents within first 48 hours of shelter opening to appropriate care facility
• No lives lost among long-term care facility residents due to evacuations
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Eaton Fire Recap
Evacuation Shelter
• Infection Prevention and Control responded to a norovirus outbreak
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Eaton Fire Recap
Evacuation Shelter
• Partnered with private medical provider, other government agencies, and academic institutions to support medical
needs and prevent spread of illness
19 • AltaMed
• Kaiser Permanente
• Los Angeles County Department
of Public Health, Acute
Communicable Disease Control
• City of Long Beach Medical
Reserve Corp
• Pasadena Elderly and Dependent
Adult Liaisons (PEDAL)
• Huntington Health
• Wise and Healthy Aging
Ombudsman Program
• Pasadena City College Nursing
Program
• Acts of Mercy
• Adventist Health
• Cedars Sinai
• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles
• LA County USC Medical Center
• Optum
• UCI Medical Center
• UCLA Health
• Stanford
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Emergency Supports
• Coordinated isolation of 12 evacuees at
motels including transportation, food
deliveries, medication delivery and social
support
• Expedited health permit issuance to approve
food service operations at Evacuation Shelter
and displaced students
• Expedited animal display permit for
evacuation shelter to support well-being
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Eaton Fire Recap
Point of Distribution at 450 N. Lake from Jan 15 - 19
• In partnership with the Pasadena Water and Power Department, PPHD distributed
• Over 147,000 N95s
• Thousands of cases of bottled water
21 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Recovery Support and Guidance
• Hosted virtual reopening information sessions
• Skilled nursing facilities
• Assisted living facilities
• Restaurants
• Early childhood education centers
• Coordinated and monitored repopulation of Long-
Term Care Facilities after evacuation orders were
lifted
• 8 skilled nursing facilities, including inspections
• 23 assisted living facilities
• Provided PPE for LTCF residents
22 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Recovery Support
• Completed interior testing for lead and asbestos at 9 city facilities
23 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Recovery Support
• Deployed high quality air sensor at
the Pasadena Public Health
Department
• Participating in the CalTech PHOENIX
Air Quality Monitoring Hub which
includes over 25 air quality sensors
across Pasadena and Altadena
• Deployed nine PurpleAir sensors
across Pasadena neighborhoods
north of the 210 Freeway
24 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Recovery Support
• After learning of LACDPH soil sample study results, issued guidance for sensitive sites within Pasadena neighborhoods 25 • Focused on schools, parks, early
childhood education centers,
and youth sports leagues
• Testing for lead and other heavy
metal completed at six city
parks
• All results were within screening
or background levels, no risk to
human health
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Public Health Guidance
• Declared public health emergency
• Released 2 health officer orders
• Issued 12 press releases
• Generated 16 social media posts to inform the
community and protect public health
• Distributed several post-fire health education
materials
• Continuing to monitor data collection efforts to assess the need for additional public health guidance
26 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Departmental Support
• 83 Public Health staff responded
• 3,857 total hours logged
27 Fire Department
EATON FIRE
Pasadena Public Works Department
28 Greg de Vinck
Director of Public Works
Fire Department
Before the winds started, Public Works prepped our trucks with fuel, tools and supplies, and put staff on notice for a possible after-hours response.
At the peak of the winds and start of the fire, staff cleared downed trees, streetlights, signs, and traffic signals to clear access for emergency response vehicles and evacuating residents.
29 HIGH WINDS PREPARATION
Fire Department
At the peak of the crisis, Public Works staff used utility vehicles to evacuate senior wheelchair users and their medical supplies from a senior care facility that was already on fire. They also used hand tools to help extinguish fires that were spreading in our parks. 30 INITIAL FIRE RESPONSE
Fire Department
Public Works issued contracts for
56 pieces of heavy equipment
with operators to gather green
waste.
31 50 contracted laborers, well over
50 staff, and several hundred
volunteers worked 7 long days per
week to assist gathering the green-
waste into the heavy equipment.
GREEN-WASTE CLEAN UP
Fire Department
In just four weeks after the winds,
staff cleared fallen trees from
driveways, sidewalks, and picked
up green-waste everywhere in the
city.
32 Public Works filled 3,000 Super-
10 Dump trucks with windstorm
green-waste and mulched
them all at the Brookside Golf
Course.
GREEN-WASTE CLEAN UP
Fire Department
In preparation for rain events and expected mud flows from burn- scarred hillsides, Public Works and LA County installed concrete k-rails at strategic locations to mitigate potential problems.
In recent rains, Pasadena did experience some mild to moderate mud flows on 4 streets in the North Hastings Ranch neighborhood. 33 ONGOING MUD FLOWS
Fire Department
RESPONSE ACROSS CITY
DEPARTMENTS
City of Pasadena
34 Danielle St. Clair
Assistant City Attorney
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
• All City employees are disaster services workers
• "[A]ll public employees are hereby declared to be disaster service workers subject to such disaster service activities as may be assigned to them by their supervisors or by law." Gov't Code section 3100
35 • Employees from various departments were
re-assigned to provide immediate disaster
relief assistance
• Staffing emergency shelter 24/7
• Distributing PPE and bottled water
• Other duties as assigned
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
36 Highlights of Immediate Efforts of other City Departments include but are not limited to:
• City Manager: kept public informed in real time through a variety of channels • City Clerk: organized emergency Council meetings
• HR: coordinated staffing needs at emergency shelter; identified and liaised with impacted employees
• IT: rapidly restored connections and supported emergency operations at various locations • Transportation: coordinated Pasadena Transit busses for evacuations • Finance: quickly procured items needed for disaster response • Library: provided enrichment for children at emergency shelter • Planning: completed assessments of wind and fire damaged properties • Parks: led initial logistical operations of the emergency shelter until Red Cross took over • PWP: provided water and system support for fire fighting efforts and protected water facilities
• Rent Stabilization: assisted tenants with questions about habitability and other protections • Housing: prioritize the issuance of rent vouchers for families who lost their homes • City Attorney/Prosecutor: prepared Declaration of Local Emergency and other legal agreements
Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Other Initial Takeaways and Areas for Growth
• EOC Operations
• Train additional staff to be able to participate to allow for employees to rotate more frequently and to provide coverage for staff impacted by disaster
• Continue hands-on scenario practice
• Technology
• Continue digitizing documents and records so they are available remotely
• Expand wi-fi coverage at the Rose Bowl to include perimeter areas • Continue to improve resiliency of City's internet connections • Develop plan to coordinate receipt and storage of influx of donations
37 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Other Initial Takeaways and Areas for Growth
• Procurement of Supplies
• Evaluate City's stock of on-hand emergency supplies and any needed on-call agreements
• Train additional staff in emergency procurement to allow efforts to be spread across more people
• Emergency Shelter Operations
• Identify additional possible sites for shelter(s)
• Update operating procedures and identify potential service partners • Coordination with Other Entities
• Identify available spaces in the region to serve as emergency facilities • Develop a list of resources to be used in emergency situations and respective responsibilities
38 Fire Department
Eaton Fire Recap
Acknowledgements
• Community
• City Leadership Team
39 • Partner Agencies
• City Council