For Altadena’s Fire Survivors, a Monrovia Town Hall on the Case Against Edison

Altadena residents still sorting through what the Eaton Fire took from them can bring their questions about suing Southern California Edison to a Monrovia church on Thursday evening. 

The session, billed as an Eaton Fire town hall, is being hosted by LA Fire Justice, a Pasadena-based coalition of attorneys and advocates that formed after the January 2025 fire to represent survivors. According to the group’s announcement, the evening will cover who is eligible to join a lawsuit against Edison, Edison’s own wildfire compensation program, and a detailed analysis of how the fire began. The organization’s website also lists an explanation of its contingency-fee arrangement and an update on legal strategy among the topics. 

For the foothill communities in the room, the subject is close to home. The Eaton Fire started on the evening of Jan. 7, 2025, in Eaton Canyon and was pushed by Santa Ana winds into Altadena, where it destroyed the bulk of the more than 9,400 structures lost and contributed to at least 19 deaths before crews contained it on Jan. 31. The U.S. Justice Department has attributed the cause to Southern California Edison power lines.

Leading the town hall is Chris Holden, the CEO of LA Fire Justice. Holden served as the 53rd mayor of Pasadena from 1997 to 1999 and represented the 41st Assembly District — which stretched from Pasadena through Altadena and Monrovia — from 2012 to 2024. In the Legislature he wrote Assembly Bill 1054, the 2019 law that restructured utility regulation and created the state’s wildfire fund. LA Fire Justice notes that Holden is not an attorney. 

He will be joined by Doug Boxer, a California-licensed lawyer since 1991 who has represented wildfire survivors in cases stretching back through the Camp, Kincade and Dixie fires. 

The town hall arrives as the litigation over the Eaton Fire moves toward a reckoning. Edison now faces close to 1,000 lawsuits tied to the blaze, and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Laura Seigle, has scheduled a bellwether trial to begin Jan. 25, 2027. The cities of Pasadena and Sierra Madre are among the public entities that have filed their own claims against the utility. 

The source announcement lists a 6 p.m. start; LA Fire Justice’s event listing gives the full window as 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 23, 2026, at Second Baptist Church, 925 South Shamrock Avenue, Monrovia. LA Fire Justice asks attendees to RSVP; questions can be directed to Nicole Lynch at nlynch@lafirejustice.com. 

For the families who watched Altadena burn, the questions they are bringing to Monrovia are the ones they have carried since that January night: who was responsible, and what, if anything, they are owed.