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View Winners → Fire Jan 08, 2025
| Photo courtesy of LACoFD/X
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A swift brush fire in the Eaton Canyon area of the San Gabriel Mountains exploded in size overnight, surpassing 10,000 acres Wednesday while claiming two lives and destroying more than 100 structures and prompting school closures throughout the area.
The Eaton Fire was reported at about 6:20 p.m. in the area of Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive in the hills above Altadena, according to Cal Fire.
Initially called the Close Fire but later changed to the Eaton Fire, the blaze was first estimated at approximately 10 acres, but it quickly increased suddenly across 200 acres, then to 400 acres by 8 p.m. Tuesday, driven by Santa Ana winds that elicited critical fire danger warnings regionwide. As of 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, Cal Fire reported the fire was 2,227 acres and as of 10:30 a.m., officials reported the fire had grown to 10,600 acres and was 0% contained.
On Thursday morning, the fire remained at 10,600 acres with 0% containment, according to Cal Fire.
In a media briefing Wednesday morning, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said two civilians died in the fire, but the details surrounding the deaths were unknown. Marrone said there were also “a number of significant injuries” due to the fire.
Area residents from La Cañada Flintridge, Glendale, Pasadena, Arcadia and elsewhere in the San Gabriel Valley were under evacuation warnings and orders. For updates on evacuation orders, shelters and other fire-related information, visit fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/eaton-fire.
It was unclear how many people were affected by the Eaton Fire evacuation orders, although the governor’s office estimated about 19,000 area residents were under mandatory orders, with 8,200 structures threatened, as of Tuesday night.
Destroyed buildings totaled 300, according to Cal Fire on Wednesday.
One structure destroyed in the fire was the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center, according to media reports.
There were reports of crews responding to people trapped in the fire zone, but details were not available.
As he did earlier with the 15,000-acre Palisades Fire, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced late Tuesday that the state had secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to fund the battle against the Eaton Fire.
The fire prompted cancelled classes Wednesday for school districts in Pasadena, Glendale, Alhambra, South Pasadena, San Marino, La Cañada, Burbank, Arcadia and Monrovia. Caltech in Pasadena also closed “for all nonessential operations” and canceled classes.
In addition to the Eaton and Palisades fires, three smaller blazes were burning in LA County — the Hurst Fire in Sylmar, the Lidia Fire near Acton and the Sunset Fire in the Hollywood Hills.
All schools in the Glendale Unified School District, Burbank Unified School District, La Cañada Unified School District and the Pasadena Unified School District will be closed for the remainder of the week due to the fires. Schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Schools were closed again Thursday in the Alhambra, South Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia and Monrovia school districts, and schools in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District were also closed.
UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said the university will limit campus operations, cancel undergraduate classes and do remote graduate courses on Thursday and Friday. While there is no immediate fire danger to the campus, school officials anticipated the air quality in Westwood to worsen.
Updated information on all firefighting efforts is available at fire.ca.gov/incidents.
Updated Jan. 9, 2025, 11:50 a.m.
