The Eaton Fire that began near Altadena on Tuesday has spread to La Canada Flintridge and surrounding cities. As of Wednesday noon, at least two people died and more than 10,000 acres have burned. A number of people were injured, including one firefighter. Mandatory evacuations or evacuation warnings are in Glendale, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, and Duarte, and La Crescenta-Montrose.
KCRW hears from two people who evacuated the East Side:
Altadena - Doug Hofmann
The Eaton Fire started just a few blocks from the home of Hofmann, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
At 6:10 p.m. on Tuesday, a local app alerted him that fire was visible. He recalls going out to his front yard and seeing flames engulf a power line pole about halfway up Eaton Canyon. Gusts were up to 60 mph at that point, he estimates.
Around 6:20 p.m., he began knocking on neighbors’ doors, and within 30 minutes, they were in their cars to leave.
By 6:45 p.m., the whole mountain was on fire, he describes.
By 7 p.m., his four kids, wife, and dog evacuated, as did most of the residents on his block. He stayed behind until power died, evacuating as well at 7:30 p.m.
“We were going outside every 20 minutes or so just to check the horizon, because the wind was blowing so hard that we knew that if a fire broke out, it would spread in minutes. We had already seen what happened in Palisades, so we knew that this was going to be a firestorm. … It was a pretty orderly evacuation. But unfortunately, as the night progressed, a lot of neighborhoods in Pasadena and in Altadena that initially weren't being threatened like ours, they had to leave in the middle of the night, and it was much more chaotic.”
Hofmann went to his parents’ apartment complex in Pasadena, south of the 210 freeway.
He says he bought his Altadena home in 2011, the year a severe happened. He recalls, “That was one of the scariest events ever. I remember holding my son and covering his body on a bed in a rental house we had in Pasadena, while trees were going down all around us. … And by far, this event last night was the first thing that has come close to that event. But thankfully, that event in 2011, there was no fire that was triggered by that event. Unfortunately, this time there was a fire.”
This morning, his family returned to their neighborhood, which was closest to the Eaton Fire but actually spared, he reports.
“The fire went around on both sides of our neighborhood. They were relieved to see that our house is still there. But unfortunately, there are hundreds, if not thousand homes that are burned. I've seen, personally, more than 100 homes on fire this morning.”
As a Jet Propulsion Labratory staffer, how is he assessing all of this with his scientific hat?
“I'm originally from Northern California, so the Tubbs Fire in 2017 in Santa Rosa was one of the first fires before the Paradise Fire, where we saw what a wind0driven fire event could do. And that just is rapid, uncontrollable spread. And we knew that was always a possibility here with the Santa Anas. … Unfortunately, this year we've just had zero rain, whereas the last two to three years, we've had a lot of rain, which has limited the possibility for one of these fire events. So this year, all the conditions were right. … From that standpoint, this is just another climate-driven event because of lack of precipitation.”
Hofmann points out that in California now, not too many places exist where you cango to escape a wind-driven fire event. “I don't know that this would mean we wouldn't want to live here. This is just, unfortunately, an increasing hazard as we move into a much drier climate with more volatile weather.”
Pasadena - Rocio “Wyldeflower” Contreras
Contreras, a KCRW DJ, evacuated at 3:45 a.m. this morning for South Pasadena, then got another notice at 6:45 a.m. to leave that area too. Now she’s at her cousin’s house in Duarte, where two dogs and 19 people are staying. She notes that six family members own houses in the Pasadena-Altadena area, near JPL, and one of those houses is gone.
Their family is prepping to leave again though, and she says the most important thing is ensuring all members are together.
Contreras says she is in shock and “protection mode.” She even fell down the stairs to protect some of her records. She also grabbed photos of her dad, who passed away, and of her mom when she was young; U.S. passport; and dog.
She expects more family members arriving at the Duarte house: 26 total.