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There were other problems with the county’s alert system. Evacuation warnings were accidentally sent to nearly 10 million homes, lawmakers said. Some residents got the wrong warnings. Others got the same warnings multiple times, or unnecessary alerts. U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and 13 other representatives from the area sent letters demanding answers from the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the software company responsible for the alerts.
Clear, well-timed emergency alerts mean the difference between life and death, they wrote. But “unclear messages sent to the wrong locations, multiple times and after the emergency has passed, can lead to alerting fatigue and erosion of public trust,” they wrote.
‘I’ve got a hose’
In Pacific Palisades, where the fire was first reported on a ridgeline at 10:30 a.m., some residents saw it coming and fled immediately. Others waited, and by the time the first evacuation orders went out a little after noon, the few roads leading out of the burning neighborhood were jammed with traffic.
Like many in Los Angeles County, Randy Miod had seen countless wildfires, including some that got close to his Malibu home but did no damage. The last had been in December, when a fire knocked his power out. When the Palisades fire started, his mother pleaded with him early on to leave.
Miod, 55, a popular local surfer, refused.
“I’ve got a hose,” he told her.
He told her he loved her, and that was the last time they spoke, said his mother, Carol Smith.
“He’d been through so many of these fires before and had come through pretty unscathed by all of them,” she said. “And I think that he thought that this was going to be another one that he could skate through.”
Miod’s home, which he’d bought 20 years ago, was precious to him, said Smith, who lived about two hours away, in Banning, California. Known as the “crab shack,” the century-old house on the Pacific Coast Highway doubled as an informal community center for local surfers who crashed there.
On Jan. 8, a cousin called authorities and asked for someone to check on Miod, Smith said. They found remains outside that she presumes are his. The identification is pending a DNA analysis, Smith said.
“He was just such a delight to so many people, young and old. And, gosh, if you’re gonna leave a legacy, I can’t think of a better one, right?” Smith said.
Like Miod, Victor Shaw stayed behind and tried to save his house, according to his family. He had grown up in the Altadena home and inherited it from his parents, who had originally purchased it about a half-century ago, his cousin Darlene Miller said.
Shaw, 66, was funny and caring and loving, and his refusal to leave reflected his pride in his home, Miller said. “It was the family legacy,” she said.
His body was later found at the house with a hose in his hand, Miller said.
His death has left a massive void, and a lot of questions.
Why had there not been earlier evacuation orders? Why hadn’t firefighters been on scene to help douse the flames — or at least persuade him to leave?
“If things were different,” Miller said, “I think he’d still be here.”
