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A long-awaited Los Angeles County investigation has examined what went wrong in the response to the L.A. firestorm, where the Palisades and Eaton fires wiped out large swaths of the city and county and left 31 people dead.
On Jan. 7, a series of fires broke out amid extreme red flag conditions, overwhelming first responders and residents. Thousands of homes were destroyed.
In the aftermath, a Times investigation revealed that neighborhoods in west Altadena, which was under siege from the Eaton fire, did not get evacuation warnings for hours after the fire started and well after some blocks were burning. Almost all of the deaths from the fire occurred in this area.
The report released Thursday attempts to explain how things went awry. It did not blame specific individuals — something residents demanded — but did outline systemic failures involving multiple agencies. Multiple L.A. city agencies declined to sit down for interviews, the report states.
In the end, the report — by consulting firm McChrystal Group — confirms Times reporting from the last few months rather than uncovers any major revelations.
But some questions remain: Whose duty was it to issue more alerts and why exactly did they not?
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