The California Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation Los Angeles The county discriminated against a black community in west Altadena when it responded to the Eaton fire last year.
The investigation will assess whether the fire response led to a “disparate impact” on West Altadena based on race, age or disability.
Residents on the unincorporated community’s more affluent and white east side received evacuation warnings within an hour of the fire’s start, while west Altadena residents received warnings about eight hours later. According to the Los Angeles Times. As the fire broke out in western Altadena around 3 a.m. local time, A single fire engine arrived in the area to fight it, while dozens were deployed east of Altadena.
Those vast disparities have long accused Los Angeles County of failing residents of western Altadena, thousands of whom were still displaced a year later.
“Undoubtedly, the emergency notification and evacuation of West Altadena was delayed,” Rob Bonta, The California The Attorney General said in a live press conference on Thursday. “We’re here to ask why.”
Delays in notification and scattered firefighting resources resulted in severe damage to western Altadena. All but one of the 19 people killed in the 14,000-acre Eaton fire were west Altadena residents. About six out of 10 black homes were damaged.
“The investigation we launched is driven by one overarching question: Did the Los Angeles County Fire Department violate state anti-discrimination and disability rights laws in notifying and evacuating the historically black West Altadena community during the Eaton fire?” Bonta said. “Did Unlawful Race-, Disability-, or Age-Based Discrimination in Emergency Response Result in Delayed Evacuation Notification That Disproportionately Impact West Altadena Residents?”
Los Angeles County is “fully cooperating with the Attorney General’s investigation,” officials said in a statement.
“We believe the Attorney General will find that emergency responders did the best they could under unprecedented and extreme circumstances as they fought to protect lives, homes and businesses.”
Altadena for Accountability, a group of residents affected by the fire, called the investigation “a trailblazing act for civil rights and environmental justice” in a press release.
“There was no other analysis or report of what this investigation does — the attorney general only has the authority and subpoena power to look into whether our civil rights have been violated,” fire survivor Sylvie Andrews said in a statement.
