LA County Fire Chief Defends Eaton Fire Response

After an LA Times investigation reported that just one fire truck was stationed in West Altadena during the early hours of Jan. 7 when the devastating Eaton Fire broke out, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Maroney responded Monday with a recorded message to victims and survivors, defending his department’s actions and pledging transparency.

The January fire, the deadliest in Los Angeles County history, killed 19 people and forced thousands to evacuate Altadena, northeast Pasadena and surrounding unincorporated areas.

The report, based on vehicle tracking data, found more than 100 engines deployed elsewhere as flames swept into the predominantly Black and Latino foothill community.

Forty engines were battling the Palisades Fire miles away, and another 64 were concentrated in East Altadena and neighboring areas.

West Altadena, where 18 of the 19 fatalities occurred, was left largely unprotected as thousands of homes and structures burned.

During his statement at Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s weekly community meeting, Maroney did not say how many fire trucks were in West Pasadena.

“To have a fire engine positioned on every block at every home in the affected area would’ve taken thousands of fire engines far beyond the combined fleets of a thousand fire departments,” Maroney said. “Our department only has a total of 163 frontline engines that are staffed daily ahead of the January wildfires.

“We staffed every available reserve engine and firefighting patrol and we held over the offgoing shift of firefighters. We augmented staffing and pre-deployed strike teams due to the extreme red flag weather forecast before any fires began on Tuesday morning.”

Public anger remains high six months later; a local survey cited in the Times report found nearly one in five residents believes the fire department deliberately allowed West Altadena to burn.

Some residents called the fire department multiple times for assistance and said no one ever showed up.

Maroney called the Eaton Fire “a tragic and unprecedented event” and acknowledged the immense scale of the disaster, which destroyed or damaged over 10,000 structures and scorched more than 14,000 acres.

“Our firefighters were overwhelmed and outgunned by these deadly firestorms,” Maroney said. “It wasn’t just the wildfire. It became a community conflagration tearing through Altadena at a speed and scale never before seen in Los Angeles County.”

The chief also addressed the Times report’s reliance on automatic vehicle locator (AVL) data, which showed the absence of County fire engines in West Altadena as flames advanced. He said the data provides an incomplete picture of operations because some vehicles lack AVL technology and others lost transmission when cell towers failed during the fire.

“That data does not and cannot show the full scope of emergency operations at the Eaton Fire,” Maroney said. “Additionally, some of those AVL units were not transmitting properly because cell towers in the Eaton fire area lost power.”

Maroney said at least 20 additional firefighting agencies joined County crews in the first 12 hours and sheriff’s deputies carried out rescues and evacuations that were not reflected in the AVL data.

He emphasized that every available reserve engine and patrol was staffed, and strike teams were pre-deployed ahead of forecasted red-flag winds.

“I remain committed to a complete and transparent accounting of my fire department’s response,” he said.