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A garden hose in front of a destroyed structure (Photo – Melissa Michelson)
The Future Organization has published “ARISE: THE ALTADENA RESIDENT IMPACT SURVEY & EVALUATION – PROVISIONAL REPORT (2025)”. The results may be validating or surprising; above all, they are informative.
By Melissa Michelson
Based in northwest Pasadena, The Future Organization is a boutique consulting firm with Aimery Thomas as its Managing Director. He has been doing social research and consulting for 25 years. The survey, he explained, was a “snapshot of how Altadenans felt at the time.”
Responses were collected between January 30 and April 21, 2025, and the provisional survey results take a comprehensive look at topics ranging from preparation before the fire, experiences, feelings and perceptions during evacuation, experiences in the days after the Eaton Fire, government responses, experiences with insurance and the future of Altadena.
After elected officials started to assess the damage in Altadena in the days after the Eaton Fire, Thomas grew skeptical that there would be a detailed and comprehensive survey specific to Altadena. Working pro-bono to do what would normally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the report, it was a “public interest effort with no support, sponsorship, resources, or affiliation with any external entity.”
“We had an obligation to lend our skills to the community,” Thomas said. “It’s been worthwhile getting feedback that others aren’t getting.”
A sample snapshot from the report
1228 respondents
A total of 1228 respondents participated from 26 fire evacuation zones, based on LA county fire zone mapping. 632 residents between the age of 26-54 answered the survey, 312 between the age of 55-64, and 273 aged 65+. Of all respondents to the survey 73% were female and 25% were male.
On average, the online survey took individuals 32 minutes to answer 60+ questions. They could opt to type in their answers or use the speech-to-text function, and the data that was collected was anonymous and confidential. To ensure a wide swath of respondents, the firm had approached social media groups, attended community meetings, put out hundreds of flyers in the perimeter of Altadena and also went on the Tavis Smiley’s network, KBLA. Respondents’ addresses were verified to make sure they were from Altadena.
Some highlights from the survey
The 150-page provisional report is presented in an easy-to-read format and breaks down responses by age, gender, ethnicity and location in Altadena.
Here are some highlights:
- Using the data from the survey, it can be projected that a high proportion of Altadena’s nearly 43,000 residents were at home and awake when the danger first emerged. Knowledge about the start of the Eaton Fire came late for many households with the average time residents became aware of the fire being 7:19 pm on January 7, 2025. Many residents in the fire evacuation zones didn’t hear about it until after midnight on January 8, 2025.
- 46% of the survey respondents said the primary reason for not leaving immediately upon receiving an evacuation order was because the order arrived too late.
- 81% said that prior to evacuating, their home didn’t have its natural gas supply cut off remotely.
- 45 of 1114 who answered the question said that the fire department told them it couldn’t help because its order had been to ‘stand down’.
- 27% indicated that their household tried to protect their property; 1% hired private firefighters; 40% in two areas (Farnsworth and Millar) led do‑it‑yourself property protection efforts.
- During the fire, roughly 7 in 10 residents relied on information from Facebook groups. Residents also referred to Watch Duty and Genysys Protect on their smartphones.
- 1 in 4 residents reported a loss of a vehicle, with destruction rates topping 40% in Farnsworth and Wapello, but a high majority (nearly 90%) still had access to their usual mode of transport.
- 68% Post-fire, Black, Hispanic/Latino/Latinx, and Pacific Islander respondents reported higher rates of price gouging and unsolicited credit offers than White/European/Caucasian and Asian/Asian American residents.
- Top factors for Altadena’s rebuild range from affordability concerns (40%), affordable housing with character (30%), skepticism about developers (28%) and retaining Altadena’s charm (23%).
- Even those without significant damage to property feel threatened or anxious by what is to come for Altadena. On a 1 to 10 scale, they marked on average 8.6, with trust in Los Angeles County getting 5 out of 10.
- Greater than any other racial/ethnic population group, Altadena’s Black residents report the strongest intentions to stay, at 85%.
- Nearly 50% of the respondents received unsolicited offers to restore or rebuild, despite the Governor’s emergency executive order making it illegal to make unsolicited offers until the end of April. About 35% of respondents received unsolicited offers from unknown parties to buy their properties. African-American and Hispanic respondents reported being approached with purchase offers much more than residents of other ethnicities (43.5% and 40% respectively).
A sample snapshot from the report
What’s next?
Thomas explained the final report is expected to be complete mid-summer and will incorporate additional analyses of quantitative information from other public governmental agencies to supplement the anecdotal survey information. It will also include the GIS map of the fire zones.
ARISE: THE ALTADENA RESIDENT IMPACT SURVEY & EVALUATION – PROVISIONAL REPORT (2025) is available at this link.
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