The red flags started at the turn of the new year – an uncommon windstorm was coming to Southern California, bringing dry conditions and wind gusts rare to a region that had been parched for months. On a Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, that ferocious windstorm did kick up — and so did the fire near the S kull Rock trail that would be named after the community it would devastate, the Pacific Palisades. It would turn out that a small fire believed to have been snuffed out by firefighters just hours into the new year had smoldered underground for days and reignited. In the year since, much has been learned about the first 24 hours of two of the most destructive wildfires in California history, the Palisades and the Eaton fires. Government reports and records, public statements by officials, and various recommendations have been debated and dissected. For the Palisades fire, it would take nine months before federal authorities announced the arrest of a 29-year-old man on suspicion of intentionally starting the Lachman fire, the apparent precursor to the Palisades blaze that set off chaos among residents in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, beginning at 10:29 a.m. when the first 911 call came in. Just before 6:30 p.m. that day in Altadena, a second fire ignited. The cause hasn’t been officially determined for that one, but it was soon learned that an inactive Southern California Edison line may have recharged after coming into contact with another line. Video footage from an ARCO gas station appears to capture the moment sparks fell to the ground underneath the lines — sparking, perhaps, the massively destructive Eaton fire. Throughout Jan. 7 and into Jan. 8, tens of thousands of residents left behind their homes, many engulfed by thick smoke and inhaling dirt and watching showers of embers fly by and land on houses and anything else in the way. In all, in the Palisades and the Eaton, 31 people died, nearly 17,000 structures were destroyed and almost 40,000 acres burned. Firefighters scrambled to try and hold back the far-reaching fires that spread at alarming speeds, pushed by Herculean winds. Not adequately pre-positioning firefighting crews, water shortages, and faulty emergency alerts, and other shortfalls, made their jobs more difficult. “I think we were all caught off guard,” said Jennifer Magallon, who lost her home in the Eaton fire. “All of us were. It was the perfect storm for everybody, for a fire to happen and take everything.” Denise Doyen, a Pacific Palisades resident, heard about problems with the dry hydrants and the empty reservoir, but the wind — so strong it ground air support — well, “without the air support it wouldn’t have made much difference. Seeing how the wind was whipping everything up and dumping embers, I think it was the wind more than anything.” In anticipation of the strong winds, the Los Angeles Fire Department had moved extra fire engines to stations in the San Fernando Valley in areas deemed susceptible to wildfires. None were near the Palisades. The closest pre-deployment was to the city’s Station 84 in Woodland Hills, a report released by the department in October would show. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said “she was unaware” of warnings of fire weather before taking a trip to Ghana and was there when the Palisades fire erupted. After returning to Los Angeles, she blamed then-Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley for the misstep, adding another layer to an already stewing feud between the two leaders. Crowley countered — taking aim at the city for cutting the department’s budget and limiting its resources. Bass fired back, blaming Crowley for not preparing properly and then demoted her after she refused to cooperate with investigators. The first calls for the Palisades fire alerted firefighters to the area of Piedra Morada and Monte Hermoso drives. Five men, apparently meditating and started, ran along the Skull Rock trail — away from the flames. Driven by intense winds, the flames quickly jumped Palisades Drive and now were burning on both sides of it. Eight minutes after the first call, LAFD called the Los Angeles County Fire Department for help. The LAFD, even with the windy conditions, had decided against keeping upwards of 1,000 firefighters on duty from the previous shift. A fast-moving fire fueled by heavy winds and brush moved through the Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025, as seen from Rocket Ship Park in Torrance. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer) A firefighter tries to extinguish flames in the Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) Smoke from the Palisades fire rises over Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica on Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia) Firefighters battle the Palisades fire on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by ONSCENE.TV) Anne Tierney leaves her Sunset Boulevard apartment during the Palisades fire on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Water is dropped by helicopter onto the advancing Palisades fire on Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent) Firefighters battle wind and flames as beachfront homes go up in flames along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Firefighters try to extinguish the flames as a McDonald’s burns at Altadena Drive and Washington Boulevard during the Eaton fire in Pasadena on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG) A destroyed building can be seen along Lake Avenue in Altadena on Jan. 15, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG) Mayor Karen Bass, left, demoted Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. (Photo by AP, Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer) Abandoned cars sit on Sunset Boulevard during the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 9, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) A line of vehicles crowd the road as residents flee from the Palisades fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) People were evacuated from a large nursing home in Altadena on Jan. 7, 2025, as the Eaton fire continues to grow. (Photo by OnScene.TV) Sheriff’s deputies evacuated a 100-year-old woman from a senior-living facility in Altadena on Jan. 8, 2025. The woman had been trying to find a way out. (Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department) Elderly patients are evacuated via emergency vehicles as embers and flames approach during the Eaton fire in Pasadena on Jan. 7, 2025. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images) Police officers evacuate a senior from her home during the Eaton fire in Altadena on Jan. 8, 2025. (Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images) A man walks in Altadena’s business district through downed power lines on Jan. 8, 2025. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 17A fast-moving fire fueled by heavy winds and brush moved through the Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025, as seen from Rocket Ship Park in Torrance. (Photo by Chuck Bennett, Contributing Photographer) Expand Doyen had been aware that strong, dry winds were coming in. She awoke to find patio furniture on the deck of her Asilomar Boulevard home in Pacific Palisades pushed to the side, and a folded-up pingpong table toppled over. Pine needles lay everywhere. At the first sign of fire, she and her husband hustled up up to their son’s loft at the back of the home for a better view. “It had already jumped a quarter mile,” she said. “I told my son to get up, we’re going to prep. This is bad.” LAFD has been attacking a structure fire in Hollywood, with helicopters making drops there. One helicopter pilot diverted to check out smoke from the Pacific Palisades — and soon all of the helicopters were reassigned. Blake Armstrong heard the helicopters and the water-dropping planes overhead from his home in the Tahitian Palace Mobile Home Estates along Pacific Coast Highway. “We thought it seemed like it was under control, and I just kept tabs on it,” Armstrong said. Around 12:30 or 1 p.m., Armstrong said, “Word started going around that they had it under control.” But by early afternoon, both Doyen and Armstrong knew they had to evacuate. Doyen said it took about 50 minutes to get out as traffic had swelled. By 1:30 p.m. the gridlock was at a standstill at Palisades Drive and Sunset Boulevard, leading Los Angeles police to tell people to get out of their cars and leave on foot. Forty-five minutes later, LAFD officials decided they would have a Los Angeles County Fire Department bulldozer come in and move the cars to create a path to allow more fire engines to respond. While resources were still being sent to help with the Palisades fire, reports of another fire, in Eaton Canyon, started to come in just after 6:15 p.m. Pasadena firefighters were the first to arrive there, but quickly realized they were outmatched by the winds and focused on evacuating residents and setting up in neighborhoods to try to protect homes. Pasadena police officers and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies scrambled to get senior citizens out of a care facility as flames rolled toward Sierra Madre and East Pasadena. “Embers are flying on top of bodies,” Pasadena police Detective Marshon McIntosh would recall in February. “Everyone was on fire. I told staff to start loading people up in their cars.” Then the winds shifted, reaching gusts of 80 to 100 mph, according to an analysis by the McChrystal Group, which looked into the lack of timely evacuation alerts to those residents. “The fire grew rapidly under these conditions,” the report said, “consuming homes, cars and anything else in its path, making firefighting efforts near impossible.” Homes may have started burning in west Altadena as early as 9:20 p.m. By this time, firefighters had lost the help of water drops from helicopters and planes because the winds were making it difficult to even safely fly the aircraft. LAFD Chief Pilot Dan Child made the difficult decision to ground all aircraft until the winds subsided. “There’s a time when you’re not getting effective,” LAFD firefighter pilot Brandon Prince said in late January. “When you can be flat pitch, on the ground at idle, getting fuel and the wind is so strong that it’s starting to lift up the helicopter, you’re no longer flying that helicopter. You’re no longer in control.” Firefighters on the ground in Pacific Palisades were faced with another obstacle. Due to unprecedented demand on its water system, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was running out of water in the area for firefighters to use. Hydrants ran dry and the nearby Santa Ynez Reservoir sat dry because officials had been making repairs. Three tanks near the Palisades, each with 1 million gallons of water, were empty by the early morning hours on Jan. 8. A different problem arose in Altadena, where residents west of Lake Avenue didn’t get evacuation alerts until nearly 3 a.m. The county’s alert system had failed. Magallon and her family had already left after throwing anything they could think of in luggage and tossing that into three vehicles. “We got an alert around 3 a.m. and we were like, ‘Now you’re alerting us?” Magallon said. “That’s how people lost their lives because they were asleep, and maybe they didn’t have the best cellphones.” Others, like Courtney Bonifacini, don’t remember ever seeing an alert, though she and her fiancé did evacuate and stayed at the Commerce Casino Hotel. “We never got a text or evacuation notice,” she said. Around 6 a.m. on Jan. 8, Doyen received a text from a neighbor. Her house hadn’t burned down. Soon after, Magallon and her family arrived back to Altadena to find their home was gone. An hour or so later, Bonifacini got a call from a friend — her home on Ewing Street was also gone. Armstrong borrowed a mountain bike after staying the night at a relative’s house in Los Angeles and rode back to the mobile-home park. After seeing the shell-shocked faces of some of his neighbors, he too, saw that his home was destroyed. Around 4:30 p.m., Doyen returned to her neighborhood to see her home — it was on fire and would burn to the ground, too. Related Articles New California traffic laws for 2026 — some will affect you New Year’s Day downpour sets some records in Southern California, with more wet weather ahead Multi-vehicle crash leaves 8 injured in Beaumont Mt. Baldy trails closed through Jan. 7 after three hikers found dead Fontana police shoot, kill man during confrontation in Taco Bell parking lot ...read more read less