The Eaton Fire broke out a mere 72 hours after the Rose Parade floats and hundreds of thousands of guests left Pasadena after the 2025 Rose Parade.
It has been more than 140 days since the devastating Los Angeles Fires, and the City of Pasadena has yet to hold a public hearing at either City Council or the Public Safety Committee to report on the City’s response to the Eaton Fire.
As a resident who lives directly below Eaton Canyon and was forced to evacuate due to the fire, it is doubly important to me that government be transparent and be accountability for their actions. Instead, calls from the public for dialogue with constituents have gone unanswered. My personal asks to Pasadena Fire and Emergency Services relating to current pending safety issues where I live have been met with defensive indignation.
In response to my records requests relating to the City of Pasadena’s emergency preparedness and evacuation plans, the City has either stonewalled or outright denied citing that the “Public interest in non disclosure outweighs public interest in disclosure because one purpose of records you request is to maintain safety; release would jeopardize the city’s ability to maintain safety”.
The public has a right to know. We cannot go back in time and change what happened, but we have the right to understand the City’s actions and to demand change. The City’s lack of response is in direct conflict with their repeated public commitments to “public safety” which has been used to justify significant acquisition of military equipment and surveillance equipment – neither of which helped Pasadena defend against the most significant disaster in the City’s history.
In addition to hosting the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game, Pasadena will be hosting upcoming Soccer World Cup and Olympics Games. Public safety should be a matter of utmost importance – especially since the Rose Bowl (in addition to other parts of the City) is now entirely situated in a high-risk fire zone. The crisis may have passed but the danger still exists.
Pasadena residents and the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the City deserve a commitment from the government be transparent, improve safety, and improve our quality of life. And it should act expeditiously on those commitments. We cannot risk complacency.