Disabled and Elderly Residents Left Behind as Twin Fires Devastate Communities
On January 8, 2025, Jackie McDaniels arrived at her brother-in-law’s burning home in Altadena, California, only to watch helplessly as the flames claimed the lives of Anthony Mitchell, 68, and his son Justin, 38. The father and son, both disabled, had desperately called 911 multiple times before their deaths, but help never arrived. Their story echoes through the devastating twin wildfires that killed 29 people across Los Angeles County, revealing systemic failures in emergency response and evacuation procedures.
- The first fire ignited above Pacific Palisades at 10:30 a.m. on January 7
- A second blaze erupted in Eaton Canyon around 6:18 p.m. the same day
- Most victims were over 65 or disabled, with many receiving late evacuation orders
- Western Altadena residents didn’t receive alerts until 3:25 a.m. on January 8
- 17 deaths occurred in western Altadena alone, where warnings came too late
The Final Hours of Anthony and Justin Mitchell
In the pre-dawn darkness of January 8, Anthony Mitchell made increasingly desperate phone calls from his one-story cottage on West Terrace Street in Altadena. The 68-year-old former husband of Jackie McDaniels’ late sister faced an impossible choice: try to escape in his wheelchair, leaving behind his bedridden son Justin, or stay and wait for help that would never arrive.
Justin, 38, lived with cerebral palsy and required constant care. He couldn’t leave his bed without assistance, and on that fatal morning, no caregivers were present. His father, who had lost his leg to diabetes three years earlier, remained by his side as the flames approached their home.
Anthony had tried to be proactive the night before, calling paramedics for evacuation assistance to his sister’s house. According to his sister, Cassandra Mitchell, no one responded to this early request for help. By 6 a.m., Anthony called Cassandra again, still maintaining hope. “Sis, they’re going to come bring me to your house. Give me your address, and they’re coming,” he told her, his voice betraying no distress.
Minutes later, as flames reached their home, Anthony made one final call to McDaniels. “Stay on the phone with me,” he begged as he waited for a response to his multiple 911 calls. McDaniels rushed to the scene, arriving to find the garage already engulfed. She heard Anthony’s last words to his son through the phone: “Daddy’s coming.”
When McDaniels opened the front door, she encountered a thick, black smoke wall. A firefighter at the scene delivered the devastating news: anyone inside was likely already dead, and attempting a rescue would be suicidal. He urged McDaniels to flee before she, too, became trapped.
“Y’all left them to fend for themselves, didn’t have the courtesy to come and rescue them,” said Hajime White, Anthony’s daughter from Warren, Arkansas. “You failed my dad. You failed my brother. You failed them. They were handicapped.”
Erliene Kelley’s Final Night: A Fateful Decision
Erliene Kelley, an active 83-year-old retired pharmacy technician, spent her final evening sitting in her Altadena home with two flashlights, convinced she would weather the approaching fire just as she had done decades before. Despite her age, Kelley maintained an independent lifestyle, regularly volunteering and meeting friends. She was physically capable of evacuating, but past experiences had instilled a dangerous confidence.
On January 7, as the flames approached, Kelley’s granddaughter Briana Navarro, who lived with her, evacuated with her husband and children. “She was like, ‘No, it’s fine,'” Navarro recalled her grandmother’s refusal to join them. “She said that there was a major fire, maybe 30-something years ago and that her area did get evacuated, but none of the houses burned down then.”
Throughout the night, Kelley’s son Trevor maintained contact with his mother via text messages. When he visited her house that evening, he found her calmly sitting with two flashlights. He pleaded with her to evacuate to his home, but she dismissed the danger, responding, “Why would I go to your house when I just saw on the news that they had a voluntary evacuation?”
The last text from Kelley arrived at 3:30 a.m., acknowledging receipt of an evacuation alert. When Trevor and his wife raced to her house at 5:30 a.m., driving through thick smoke and past burning homes, they found only ashes where the house had stood. Later, through a police officer’s confirmation and subsequent coroner’s report, the family learned that Kelley had not survived the inferno that consumed her home.
The Final Stand: Randy Miod and Victor Shaw’s Last Defense
Randy Miod’s century-old house on the Pacific Coast Highway was more than just a home—it was a sanctuary for the local surfing community. Known affectionately as the “crab shack,” the 55-year-old surfer’s residence of two decades had become an informal community center where fellow wave riders could always find shelter.
When the Pacific Palisades fire approached on January 7, Miod’s mother, Carol Smith, pleaded with her son to evacuate. His response reflected a confidence born from surviving countless previous fires: “I’ve got a hose,” he told her matter-of-factly. These would be among his last words to his mother, along with “I love you.”
“He’d been through so many of these fires before and had come through pretty unscathed by all of them,” Smith recalled from her home in Banning, California, about two hours away. “And I think that he thought that this was going to be another one that he could skate through.” Days later, authorities discovered remains outside Miod’s beloved home, pending DNA confirmation.
In Altadena, Victor Shaw, 66, made a similar choice to defend his family legacy. The house he died protecting had been in his family for half a century, purchased by his parents and passed down to him. His cousin Darlene Miller described Shaw as a funny, caring, and loving person whose determination to save his home reflected deep family pride.
First responders found Shaw’s body with a garden hose still clutched in his hand, a tragic testament to his final moments trying to save his family’s heritage. “If things were different,” Miller reflected, grappling with questions about delayed evacuation orders and the absence of firefighters, “I think he’d still be here.”
System Failures Prompt Official Investigation
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone acknowledged the systemic shortcomings: “L.A. County and all 29 fire departments in our county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster.” The tragedy has sparked multiple local, county, state, and federal investigations.
Emergency alert systems failed on multiple fronts:
- Western Altadena residents received evacuation orders hours after the fire began
- Nearly 10 million homes received accidental alerts
- Some residents got incorrect warnings or multiple redundant messages
- Others received unnecessary alerts that contributed to warning fatigue
Demands for Systemic Reform
The January wildfires have catalyzed multiple reform initiatives across government agencies. Los Angeles County supervisors launched an independent review of emergency notification systems, while Fire Chief Anthony Marrone proposed creating a comprehensive database to track residents with mobility and health challenges.
“We need to identify these vulnerable residents before disaster strikes,” Marrone told county leaders on January 30. His proposal would enable first responders to evacuate mobility-impaired individuals during the early stages of an emergency rather than waiting until flames threaten their homes.
The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, a disability advocacy organization, demands more fundamental changes. “Evacuation advisories may have gone out, but when a disaster hits, many people don’t have the systemic support to get out of their house, get into a car, drive 50 miles away, and stay at a hotel for a couple of days,” said German Parodi, the organization’s co-executive director.
Fourteen members of Congress, led by U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., sent formal inquiries to the Federal Communications Commission, FEMA, and the alert system software company. Their letters demanded explanations for the system failures and outlined specific requirements for improvement:
- Implementation of targeted geographic alerts to prevent countywide false alarms
- Development of clear protocols for message timing and frequency
- Creation of backup communication systems for cellular dead zones
- Establishment of specialized response teams for disabled resident evacuation
- Mandatory coordination between emergency services for at-risk populations
Gerald Singleton, a wildfire case specialist representing several victims’ families, frames the challenge as a fundamental question of governance: “Are we going to spend the resources we need to build effective systems to put out warnings and assist people, or are we going to say, ‘This is not a service government provides. You are on your own?'”
A 2019 state auditor report had already warned that California failed to protect older adults and disabled individuals during disasters adequately. Benjamin Kahn, coordinator for the Disability Community Resource Center, acknowledges some progress in Los Angeles-area agencies’ inclusion of disabled people in emergency planning. However, the January fires exposed persistent gaps between planning and execution, particularly in rapidly evolving disasters where every minute counts.
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