This is a quick blog post to start to get information out there about what I saw related to the Eaton Fire in Altadena / Pasadena which began on 1/7/25. This post may be replaced later with an updated post.
My background: I was born and raised in Pasadena and my elderly mother still lives in my childhood home in the area of Washington and Allen. I visit the area on average twice a week and know it very well. As a kid my friends and I hiked in Eaton Canyon and when I was preparing to attend the Rio Hondo Police Academy I trained on the fire road to Henniger Flats which starts at Eaton Canyon. I am a retired Police Detective and I hold a degree in photography from Arizona State University.
On January 7th I arrived in Pasadena around 2:30 pm. It was very windy, there was a lot of foliage debris about, and the traffic signals at Washington and Allen were already on flash. I cleaned up my mom’s yard of palm branches and leaves and drove them up to our rental property near New York and Allen and put them in the trash bin along with more more palm branches I found on that property. At 6:08 PM I recorded video of the winds at my mom’s house to document the neighbors palm branched rubbing against my mom’s telephone lines. Around 6:40 pm I went to the Stater Brothers at Washington and Allen. As I walked in I noticed a faint smell of smoke in the air but from where I was I couldn’t locate the fire. As I was checking out after shopping I heard several people talking about seeing a fire. When I exited the parking lot through the alley on to Bellford I saw the flames of the Eaton fire. I made my first photograph of the fire at 7:07 PM from the front yard of my mom’s house. The reason I am sharing all these times is to give perspective how quickly the fire spread. I initially heard the fire started around 6:30 PM but then I found one news agency list that it was reported at 6:18 PM.
At 7:28 PM I received an evacuation alert on my phone and I soon after I helped my sister evacuate her home on Roosevelt South of New York. Pasadena PD Officers were in the area also giving evacuation announcements on their PA systems. As we were finishing loading my sister’s car she noticed a neighbor’s parking strip of dead grass was burning. I went up the street to look for neighboring home and when I was across the street from the lawn fire I saw an ember blow across the street and in to a dry looking succulent plant in the parking strip next to me and the plant immediately caught fire. Withing seconds the plant burst in to flames. The Pasadena PD Officers near by rushed over and found a hose to put that fire out.
I NOTICED THROUGHOUT MY TRAVESL IN THE PASADENA / ALTADENA AREA DURING THIS FIRE EVENT THAT THERE SEEMED TO BE A CORRELATION BETWEEN HOMES WITH DROUGHT TOLERANT LANDSCAPEING, OR DEAD LAWNS FROM A LACK OF WATERING AND DAMAGE OR LOSS TO HOMES AND VEHICLES. ON 1/8/25 I PHOTOGRAPHED THE AREA OF SINALOA NORTH OF NEW YORK WHERE THIS WAS VERY APPARENT.
I spent the entire first night of the fire awake up in Pasadena monitoring things. A friend and I went to the walk-up window at In-N-Out (#5) at 11:40 PM and the man behind us said he lived in Upper Hastings Ranch and that he had already lost his home.
Throughout the first night we watched the TV news and I would occasionally go outside to look and listen for changes close by. Once every hour or so I would drive a look by all our properties, but I chose not to evacuate my mother because I was constantly monitoring the situation, and we had multiple egress points to get out if the fire turned (unlike the Palisades residents). We also never had an ember cast in her area and the closet home that was lost was a singels structure that was two blocks down. I can’t remember the exact time that house went but I remember being surprised that there was a large Fire Department water tanker, maybe two, that showed up on that fire so I am assuming the hydrants in that area may have been dry. The area East of Altadena Drive had lots of structures burn so it is possible there was a water issue, although my mom’s house had running water and electricity throughout the event (with one 15 minute power outage – the City of Pasadena provides her power and they had recently trimmed all branches near their power lines in a preventive effort that apparently paid off).
One thing that was ominous was the booms we could hear in the distance when we stood in the front yard. My sister speculated they were transformers blowing or barbecue propane tanks exploding. I didn’t see the usual blue tint flashes you see with transformers going and I know propane tanks generally don’t explode. During the night the news mentioned the building collapsing was making loud booms and the next day when I was on Sinaloa I was near several homes that collapsed and heard the same boom sound. Thinking back at the number of booms I heard is really sobering. They almost sounded like small bowling ball size boulders banging in to each other in a fast moving stream (like I have heard many times during flooding in Eaton Canyon). Another thing they were similar to was naval bombardment of a shoreline before an invasion like you see in the movies or a busy gun range. I am guessing it was averaging 12 -24 a minute, granted one house has lots of parts to collapse so I am sure each boom wasn’t one house but still looking back on it I know I listened to Altadena being destroyed. I also need to mention the wind gust I felt during this event are the strongest I have ever encountered. I am 6’5” and I almost got knocked down by one around 10 PM that I would guess was around 100 moh because I moved even though I was braced for it.
The morning of January 8th I saw thick black smoke in the area north of our rental property which I knew was structure smoke (brush smoke is light grey). I drove up Sinaloa from New York and found a number of homes that were already gone and many other still burning. Fires were spreading slowly and there was little to no wind. There were also no fire trucks in the area the first time I went up there. I saw several people saving their own homes by watering roofs and knocking down embers from the neighboring house on fire. I also saw lots of evidence that Drought Tolerant Landscaping had contributed to structure loss and fire spread. I ALSO WANT TO ACKOWLEDGE THAT IN THE VIDEOS I HAVE SEEN OF THIS FIRESTORM WHEN THE WINDS WERE AT PEAK AND EMBERS WERE STREAMING, DIFFERENT FOLIAGE MAY HAVE NOT MATTERED MUCH.
Eaton Canyon. Eagle Rock - Gould Edison lines visible, Photograph from around 10:00 am on January 8th
I photographed the area from Allen Avenue to Altadena Drive a lot on January 8th documenting damage. I photographed Eaton Canyon some and you can see the Eagle Rock – Gould Edison Transmission lines in my images. I was awake for 36 hours straight by the time I got back to my home.
On January 9th I returned and brought a pallet of water bottles for my mom’s neighborhood and others. I was able to make it over to Westminster Presbyterian Church on Lake South of New York. They had roof damage from the wind but no fire damage. I helped them some then went to the rental property and other friends. LASD had everything North of New York blocked off which made sense. January 10th through the morning of the12th LASD expanded the lockdown area, constantly changed rules without notivce. and their efforts showed a brutal lack of leadership from the upper level of leadership. I am headed back up in a few hours and I hear that things are organized now.
I am just starting to organize my photographs and do research plus I need to still photograph more because the situation is still dynamic. These images and other show the landscape choice issues I saw.
Below is quick edit from some of my photographs. This incident is so personal, and the scope is hard to comprehend. I will get more material up as soon as I can. My family and our properties are all safe but I know of over 30 people who lost their homes, and one friend lost a couple distant cousins.
