LA County had no master plan for recovering from the January 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires, a 180-page review found. Some of the same gaps flagged after the 2018 Woolsey Fire went unaddressed.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the McChrystal Group, an Alexandria, Va.-based consulting firm, compiled the after-action report for the LA County Board of Supervisors. The review covered the first three months of recovery, from Jan. 7 through March 31, 2025, and identified 36 findings and 25 recommendations across six areas including communications, sheltering and debris removal.

The fires killed 31 people and destroyed more than 17,000 structures across Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu, according to NBC Los Angeles. The Eaton Fire alone killed 19 people, all but one found in west Altadena, and leveled 9,400 structures.

The report found that county workers managed the recovery under intense pressure, relying on experience and informal networks rather than a formal plan, according to the Times. Erin Sutton, a McChrystal Group partner who presented the findings at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Sept. 15, said the county's people delivered but the systems behind them did not.

"This is not a criticism of the workforce. It is a description of risk," Sutton told supervisors, according to LA Magazine. "Improvisation can not be scheduled, budgeted, or handed to the next team."

The report found the county lacks an updated recovery plan, a formal framework for deciding when residents can return, a countywide volunteer and donations model, and integrated data for reaching vulnerable populations. Shelters were not consistently equipped for residents with medical, mobility or personal-care needs. Staff trained to run sheltering operations were in short supply.

A survey of about 1,500 fire survivors found more than half were dissatisfied with the notice they received before being allowed to return home. Eaton Fire respondents were more than five times as likely as Palisades Fire respondents to report receiving no road-closure updates.

The county also struggled to set up online donations, finally launching a live link on Feb. 11, 2025, weeks after the fires. That capability had been recommended after the 2018 Woolsey Fire. It was never built.

This is the second McChrystal Group review ordered by the Board. The first, issued Oct. 8, 2025, focused on the initial 36 hours of the disaster and cost $1.9 million. Officials have not disclosed the cost of the second review.

Kevin McGowan, director of the LA County Office of Emergency Management, said roughly 70% of the 90 recommendations from the first report have been completed or are underway.

Fire survivors and advocates say the new recommendations still lack teeth. Longtime Altadena advocate Shawna Dawson Beer told the Times that all 25 recommendations were given vague "near-term," "mid-term" or "long-term" timelines, with no funding assigned.

Sylvie Andrews, a fire survivor who lost her home on the west side of Altadena in the Eaton Fire, told the Times the report confirmed what residents already knew. "L.A. County doesn't have a plan for disasters," Andrews said. "That's a ticking time bomb."

Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, said she wants every recommendation assigned to a specific department with a clear timeline and a way for the Board and public to measure progress. Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district covers much of the Palisades Fire area, said in a statement Sept. 14 that the county has lessons to learn and gaps to close.

The California attorney general opened a civil rights investigation in February 2026 into potential disparities in the fire response, examining delays in evacuation alerts and resource allocation between west and east Altadena.