Letters to the Editor: East Altadena wasn’t spared from fire truck absences during Eaton fire

To the editor: This paints an incomplete picture of what happened the night of the fire (“A Times investigation: As west Altadena burned, L.A. County fire trucks stayed elsewhere,” July 23). We live in east Altadena. From our kitchen window, we saw the beginnings of the fire a few ridges away from our house. I figured we’d soon hear the sound of fire engines coming to put out the blaze. Instead, nothing. Nothing in the neighborhood and no firefighting presence on our street, which was left to burn.

The next day, as we tried to get to our house, there were fires everywhere, so we had to turn back. On the entire drive from Pasadena to Altadena, we did not see one fire truck. Some of our intrepid neighbors did manage to get to their homes in spite of the fires. They took videos of fires burning on our street. They, too, did not see any fire trucks.

Finally, after around two days, we were able to get to our neighborhood, but not to our street because the fire and police departments finally showed up and were blocking access. Our area was suddenly deemed too dangerous to visit. We saw many angry encounters between neighbors — wanting to see if their homes were still standing — and police, barring access to the area.

Our home managed to survive, although many of the homes around ours were not so lucky. Through this horrific experience, I am grateful that we got an evacuation warning in time to get out safely.

Jackie Naiditch, Altadena