724-Page Report: Palisades Fire Alerts Came 40–90 Minutes Late

A 724-page independent report on the January 2025 Palisades Fire found that some residents nearest where the blaze started did not receive an evacuation alert until 40 to 90 minutes after homes had already begun burning, according to the New York Post. The fire killed 12 people in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and destroyed thousands of structures. The report was released Friday, roughly 21 months after the fire, the Post reported.

Who ordered the review, and who wrote it?

The analysis was produced by UL Research Institutes' Fire Safety Research Institute at the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to the Post. The report's conclusion is notably cautious: the destruction "was the result of multiple interconnected factors rather than any single decision, event, or system failure," investigators wrote. Even so, the Los Angeles Fire Department draws the most scrutiny in the document.

How long did the alert delay actually last?

The timeline laid out in the report shows gaps measured in minutes that mattered. At 10:46 a.m.—16 minutes after the fire was first reported—a fire helicopter crew radioed that flames would reach homes "within minutes," per the Post's account of the report. An LAFD assistant chief did not call for an evacuation "all the way down to" Pacific Coast Highway until 11:29 a.m., by which point spot fires were already burning on both sides of a main escape route, the report found. The city's first official evacuation order did not go out until 12:09 p.m.—40 minutes after that internal radio call, and nearly an hour and a half after the helicopter's warning.

By the numbers

• 724 pages: length of the Fire Safety Research Institute's report.
• 12 deaths: toll from the Palisades Fire, per the Post.
• 16 minutes: time between the fire's initial report and the helicopter crew's warning that flames would hit homes imminently.
• 40 to 90 minutes: the range investigators found between homes beginning to burn and residents nearby receiving an evacuation alert.

Did Los Angeles send firefighters home before the fire grew?

The report also found that the city sent firefighters home despite forecasts of dangerous winds ahead of the fire's outbreak, the Post reported. The document does not single out one person or office for that staffing decision, consistent with its broader framing of overlapping failures rather than one point of blame.

What about the Eaton Fire?

The same reporting period covers the Eaton Fire in Altadena, where residents and rescuers evacuated horses as flames advanced, according to images accompanying the Post's coverage. The Post's account does not detail a separate alert timeline for Eaton within the excerpt reviewed here.

What happens next?

• Whether Los Angeles or the LAFD adopts a faster evacuation-alert protocol based on the report's timeline.
• Whether the report's finding that firefighters were sent home before dangerous winds arrived prompts staffing-policy changes.
• Whether families affected by the 40-to-90-minute delay cite the report in any future claims, given its deliberate avoidance of assigning blame to one agency or official.

Glossary

• Fire Safety Research Institute: the UL Research Institutes division that conducted the independent review.
• PCH: Pacific Coast Highway, the main route referenced in the 11:29 a.m. evacuation call.
• Spot fires: small fires ignited ahead of the main fire front, often by wind-driven embers.
• Evacuation order: the formal, public alert instructing residents to leave, distinct from internal radio calls among fire personnel.