The Brief

When the Eaton Fire reached the backyard of the MonteCedro retirement community in the early hours of Jan. 8, many residents woke up to the smell of smoke and the sound of people knocking on doors.

Residents waited for directions on what to do. Should they shelter in place? Should they head for the exits?

Some told LAist later that they figured staff at the Altadena facility would take the lead. But something went wrong. The retirement community is among the region’s most upscale — the average entrance fee is around $1 million, according to public finance documents.

“We assumed that there’s some kind of plan, but I never saw it, and didn’t think to investigate it when I moved in,” said Linda Bergthold, an 84-year-old who lives at the care facility.

She was among the residents moved to safety during the fire.

According to state authorities, two women were left behind during the dawn evacuations of nearly 200 residents.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies found both women at the property hours later. One was walking her dog outside the building's entrance as nearby houses burned. The other, Jean Bruce Poole, then 100 years old, was wandering the dark hallways of the third floor, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

“I think there could be some protocols put in place that they would know who's where and who's not accounted for,” Poole’s son, John Ward, told LAist.

The California Department of Social Services, which licenses residential care facilities, including assisted living facilities, cited MonteCedro in September for failing to follow its own emergency evacuation procedures and leaving residents behind during evacuations.

Neither MonteCedro, nor the nonprofit Episcopal Communities & Services that runs it, responded to multiple interview requests for this story.

In a Jan. 29 statement, Episcopal Communities & Services said that fire personnel and MonteCedro staff “made two complete tours through the building, triggering fire alarms and inspecting every residence.”

“However, two independent living residents were not encountered and did not make it to the buses," the statement read.

At least one other residential care facility, the Terraces at Park Marino in Pasadena, also was cited for not evacuating all residents.

MonteCedro withstood the Eaton Fire. The Terraces did not. The facility was destroyed shortly after firefighters rescued a woman from the third floor who was initially left behind during the evacuations.

Both facilities have appealed the citations, according to state records. MonteCedro’s appeal has not been made public. Administrators for both facilities avoided fines by submitting required plans to fix the problems.

MonteCedro administrators said at a meeting with residents in February that they were working alongside first responders and weren’t the only responsible party, according to a recording of the gathering reviewed by LAist. Administrators noted that the two women who were left behind ended up being moved to safety.

Sheriff’s deputies and Pasadena public transit bus drivers worked with MonteCedro staff to relocate residents to the evacuation shelter at the city’s convention center. One night earlier, the Pasadena Fire Department helped evacuate the Terraces.

Both evacuations reveal what can happen at long-term care facilities during a disaster when emergency planning and coordination are found to be inadequate. They also raise questions about where a facility's responsibility ends and first responders’ begins.

State investigators determined that MonteCedro’s executive director, David Weidert, was designated to remain on site during emergencies, but he went home before the fire closed in on the facility. He also failed to call in additional staff despite emergency protocols requiring it, according to the state’s investigative report.

Weidert has since left MonteCedro. Shortly after residents returned in March, an interim executive director was named, according to the facility’s final public fire update on March 11. LAist made several attempts to reach Weidert by phone and email but was unsuccessful.

State licensing authorities also found that four of the five people working the early hours of Jan. 8 had never been trained in emergency procedures.

Some residents say they have seen safety changes within the past few months.

A day after the Eaton Fire devastated the area, MonteCedro's Facebook page posted an exterior shot of a main building, noting the interiors still needed to be inspected.

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MonteCedro via Facebook

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Hour by hour at MonteCedro

The official evacuation order for the area that includes MonteCedro was issued at 5:42 a.m. on Jan. 8, according to archived alerts from the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management.

By then, the fire had been burning for more than 12 hours.

Bergthold, who has lived at the facility for seven years, said her daughter called her from Los Feliz the night of Jan. 7 to warn her about intensifying winds and encourage her to prepare for a possible evacuation.

Bergthold packed a go-bag and slept in her clothes inside her apartment.

She said that when she woke up the next morning, the smoke outside was so thick she couldn't see the trees outside her window.

"But I was not told to pack any sort of suitcase by the facility," she said. "I was being proactive. I really wanted to be ready, and I'm glad I was."

Weidert, MonteCedro’s then executive director, left the facility Jan. 7 around 10 p.m., according to statements he made at a post-fire town hall meeting in February with residents and their family members.

By that time winds in the area were at 70 mph, and both the Palisades and Eaton fires had been burning for hours.

According to the state investigation, five employees stayed on the clock past 10 p.m.: a building and safety manager named Bruno Molina, a security guard, two caregivers, and one licensed vocational nurse who was a temporary worker.

Molina did not respond to LAist’s interview requests.

Only the managers and administrators at MonteCedro had gone through emergency training. All but one of them had gone home for the day.

At 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, the executive director called the facility and told Molina that MonteCedro should shelter in place while awaiting official evacuation orders from county authorities, according to the state’s report.

At the town hall, James Rothrock — CEO of Episcopal Communities & Services, the nonprofit that runs the facility — explained the buildings were built to withstand wind and fire, and that evacuating hundreds of residents too soon could have exposed them needlessly to trauma and other health risks.

“The safest place we want to be was inside the building,” he said. At 3 a.m., MonteCedro staff called the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for help, according to the state investigation.

Around 4 a.m., the Sheriff’s Department and L.A. County Fire Department got involved with the MonteCedro evacuation, according to an Eaton Fire response after-action report commissioned by the county.

At 4:15 a.m., MonteCedro authorities made the decision, along with the L.A. County Fire Department, to evacuate 195 residents who had not previously left on their own, according to a Jan. 29 statement from Episcopal Communities & Services.

Around 5:30 a.m., the evacuation began, according to the state report. By that time, eyewitnesses told LAist they saw fire near the back of the MonteCedro property — and neighboring buildings burning.

Most of the residents, some barefoot and in nightgowns, were rushed outside and onto buses by first responders and facility staff.

Two people were missing.

“That should not have happened,” Rothrock said, in the February town hall recording reviewed by LAist.

He stressed that staff members were working alongside sheriff’s deputies, paramedics and firefighters during the chaos.

Rothrock did not respond to interview requests.

Evacuation plans

During the Eaton and Palisades fires, more than 3,000 residents at more than 100 facilities across L.A. County had to be relocated, according to state authorities.

All residential care facilities are required by law to have written evacuation plans, updated annually and filed with the California Department of Social Services.

LAist reviewed copies of plans for more than 70 assisted living facilities evacuated in January, obtained through a public records request. More than 90% of those plans were outdated. And more than one-third of the facilities’ plans were last updated a decade ago or more, despite state law that requires they be filed each year, updated as needed and approved and checked during annual licensing visits.

Disability policy consultant June Isaacson Kailes reviewed LAist’s findings, as well as dozens of plans independently, and said she was “floored by the inadequacy.”

“Some of them were 10 years old,” she said. “Some of them were not fully filled out.”

MonteCedro’s emergency plan, which was signed and approved by the executive director in 2023, set a framework for what should happen during an evacuation, but state investigators said it lacked details about designated staff roles.

It did not list specific transportation plans or relocation sites as required by state law, according to LAist’s review of the document.

And MonteCedro did not follow some of what it had put in writing, state investigators said in the report. For example, the facility’s plan requires it to maintain an emergency contact list for off-duty staff who are supposed to be called in for help during an evacuation. MonteCedro had no such list, investigators said.

Rachel Tate, who oversees the L.A. ombudsman program for long-term care, said many facilities craft their plans for an emergency that’s just affecting their own location.

“I don't think that facilities in Los Angeles County were braced the way they should be for regional incidents where so many people were impacted at the same time,” she said.

Tate said she encourages families to ask residential care facilities or skilled nursing facilities about their emergency plans.

Isaacson Kailes said local officials should do the same.

“Local governments need to recognize that their plans are weak and inadequate, and therefore they need to be planning with these places," Isaacson Kailes said. “Otherwise, people will die.”

John Ward and his mother, Jean Bruce Poole, celebrating her 100th birthday.

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Courtesy John Ward

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‘Don’t lose me’

By 7 a.m., most of the MonteCedro residents had arrived at the Pasadena Convention Center, which was operating as an evacuation shelter during the fires.

Jean Bruce Poole had not.

She woke up that morning at the care facility and went about her normal routine, her son told LAist. He said she told him she ate breakfast and took a shower before leaving her room. Then she realized the hallways were dark.

The elevators were down. Emergency lights were out. Sheriff’s deputies found her in a hallway hours later, after first spotting another resident walking a dog near the entrance shortly after 9:30 a.m.

Back at the convention center, MonteCedro staffers were doing a head count around that time, according to the account dated Jan. 29 and posted on their website.

Deputies searched the building looking for anyone left behind, kicking down about 40 doors. They found Poole on the third floor, looking for an exit just before 10:30 a.m., according to timestamps on a deputy’s body-worn camera footage. (The footage obtained by LAist above contains text added by the Sheriff's Department.)

“Don’t lose me,” Poole says in the video.

After Rothrock, CEO of the nonprofit that runs MonteCedro, learned two residents were missing, he went to MonteCedro “immediately,” where he was told that two people had been found and transferred, according to the January statement.

Poole was taken to the convention center and then temporarily relocated to Mt. San Antonio Gardens, a care center in Pomona. Eventually she returned to MonteCedro, where she continues to live, her son said.

Ward said his mother didn’t know how close the Eaton Fire had come until she rounded the corner in a patrol car and saw a nearby church in flames.

Pasadena Transit buses arrived at the MonteCedro retirement community in Altadena before dawn on Jan. 8

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Courtesy of a MonteCedro resident

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Looking back, he told LAist, he has some regrets. He said his mother adores MonteCedro — the gourmet meals and access to field trips and concerts. But when it came to safety in an emergency, staff weren’t adequately prepared, he said.

He remembered that his wife told him the previous evening to drive to the care facility to pick up his mother. At the time, the fire was still 3 miles away, and he thought it would never reach her.

“That was a mistake I made,” Ward said. “And it could have been a very serious ending.”

MonteCedro residents and family members told LAist they’re grateful to facility staff who did stick around to help get most people out. That included Molina, the building manager, who they say evacuated residents as his own family home burned down.

“It's extraordinary courage and dedication to us for them to do that,” said Bergthold, the 84-year old MonteCedro resident.

MonteCedro staff told residents they hired a company called Fire & Life Safety Inc. to review its emergency plans and response effort, according to the recording reviewed by LAist. Staff at the meeting said they have no plans to release those findings publicly.

Residents and family members compiled their own list of changes they are demanding from the facility, according to interviews with LAist. The list includes upgrading alarms, new evacuation protocols, more training for staff and better notification systems for residents and families.

So far, residents said MonteCedro has made some of the changes.

Weidert, the previous executive director, retired in February.

Residents at MonteCedro care facility were moved to safety in the early morning hours of Jan. 8, 2025 as the Eaton Fire approached. The facility survived the Eaton Fire.

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Aaron Schrank

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LAist

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The facility hired a new executive director, Adam Peña, in August. Bergthold served on a resident committee that hired the new director.

She said that since he took over, there have been new earthquake drills at the facility, residents were provided emergency go-bags with flashlights and battery packs, and a new resident emergency planning committee was created.

Each floor of MonteCedro’s various buildings now have designated emergency leaders, responsible for coordinating evacuations, Bergthold said.

"I'm very pleased with the actions they've taken," she said.

But she and others say there is still work to be done. They’re hoping for a warning system with flashing lights to help people who are visually impaired.

And they want a stronger transportation plan for evacuating residents from the MonteCedro’s memory care villas so residents don’t have to rely on first responders.

Mostly, they want clearer communication from the people in charge, they said.

This reporting was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. None of our funders have any influence on our editorial decisions.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Since 1977, Richard Santillan has been to every Opening Day game at Dodger Stadium. 

“The tradition goes from my father, to me, to my children and grandchildren. Some of my best memories are with my father and children here at Dodger Stadium,” Santillan told The LA Local, smiling under the shade of palm trees near the entrance to the ballpark Wednesday morning. He was there to protest the team less than 24 hours before Opening Day.

Santillan, like countless other loyal Dodgers fans, is grappling with his fan identity over the team’s decision to accept an invitation to the White House and owner Mark Walter’s ties to ICE detention facilities.

More than 30 people joined Santillan on Wednesday morning for a press conference held near 1000 Vin Scully Drive to convey a message directly to the team. 

“We are demanding the Dodgers stop participating in funding of inhumane treatment of families and do not go to the White House to celebrate with the criminal in chief,” Evelyn Escatiola told the crowd. “Together, we have the power to make a change.”

Escatiola, a former dean of East Los Angeles College and longtime community organizer, urged fans to flex their economic power by “letting the Dodgers know that we do not support repression.”

Jorge “Coqui” Rodriguez, a lifelong Dodgers fan, spoke to the crowd and called on Dodgers ownership to divest from immigration detention centers owned and operated by GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Jorge Coqui H Rodriguez speaks at a press conference outside Dodger Stadium on March 25, 2026, to demand the Dodgers not to visit the White House following their 2025 World Series win.

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J.W. Hendricks

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The LA Local

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In a phone interview a day before the protest, Rodriguez told The LA Local he did not want the Dodgers using his “cheve” or beer money to fund detention centers. 

“They can’t take our parking money, our cacahuate money, our cheve money, our Dodger Dog money and invest those funds into corporations that are imprisoning people. It’s wrong,” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez considers the Dodgers one of the most racially diverse teams and said the players need to support fans at a time when heightened immigration enforcement has become more common across L.A.

The team’s 2025’s visit to the White House drew ire from the largely Latino fan base, citing the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on immigrants. 

In June, the team came under further scrutiny when rumors swirled online that federal immigration agents were using the stadium’s parking, which immigration authorities later denied in statements posted on social media accounts.

The team again came under fire after not releasing a statement on the impacts of ICE raids on its mostly Latino fan base at the height of immigration enforcement last summer. The team later agreed to invest $1 million to support families affected by immigration enforcement.

When he learned the Dodgers were pledging only $1 million to families in need, Rodriguez called the amount a  “slap in the face.” 

“These guys just bought the Lakers for billions of dollars and they give a million dollars to fight for legal services? That’s a joke,” Rodriguez said. “They need to have a moral backbone and not be investing in those companies.”

According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, former Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershawsaid last week that he is looking forward to the trip.

“I went when President [Joe] Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President [Donald] Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”

The Dodgers have yet to announce when their planned visit will take place. 

Santillan sometimes laments his decision to give up his season tickets in protest of the team. His connection to the stadium and the memories he has made there with family and friends will last a lifetime, he said. On Thursday, he will uphold his tradition and be there for the first pitch of the season, but with a heavy heart.

“It’s a family tradition, but the Dodgers have a lot of work to do,” he said.

A local favorite mom-and-pop bookshop in Eagle Rock is facing displacement due to a steep rent hike. The owners say theirs is just one of several small businesses along Eagle Rock Boulevard struggling to keep up with lease increases.

Over the past 19 years, many in the neighborhood have come to love READ Books for its eclectic collection of used titles and shop dog Florence.

Co-owner Jeremy Kaplan said it’s been a delight to grow with the community over the years.

“Like seeing kids come back in, who were in grade school and now they’re in college,” Kaplan said.

But the building where Kaplan and wife Debbie rent was recently sold, and the rent increased by more than 130% to $2,805 a month, Kaplan said. He told LAist it was an increase his small business simply could not absorb.

Kaplan said he originally was given 30 days notice of the rent increase. After some research, assistance from Councilmember Ysabel Jurado’s office and some pro-bono legal help, Kaplan said he pushed back and got the 90-day notice he’s afforded by state law.

California Senate Bill 1103 requires landlords to give businesses with five or less employees 90 days’ notice for rent increases exceeding 10%, among other protections.

Systems Real Estate, the property management company, did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.

What can small businesses do? 

Nadia Segura, directing attorney of the Small Business Program at pro bono legal aid non-profit Bet Tzedek said California law does not currently allow for rent control for commercial tenancies.

Outside of the protections under SB 1103, Segura said small businesses like READ Books don’t have much other recourse. And even then, commercial landlords are not required to inform their tenants of their protections under the law.

“There’s still a lot of people that don’t know about SB 1103. And then it’s very sad that they tell them they have these rent increases and within a month they have to leave,” Segura said.

She said her group is seeing steep rent hikes like this for commercial tenants across the city.

“We are seeing this even more with the World Cup coming up, the Olympics coming up. And I will say it was very sad to see that also after the wildfires,” Segura said.

Part of Bet Tzedek’s ongoing work is to advocate for small businesses, working with landlords who are increasing rents to see if they are willing to give business owners longer leases that lock in rents.

What’s next 

After READ Books posted about their situation on social media, commenters chimed in to express their outrage and love for the little shop.

While he looks for a new spot, Kaplan says he’s forming a coalition of local businesses and activist groups to see what can be done to help other small businesses facing similar displacement. He wants to address the displacement issue for businesses like his, which have made Eagle Rock the distinctive neighborhood that it is today.

Owl Talk, a longtime Eagle Rock staple selling clothing and accessories in a unit in the same building as READ Books, is facing a “more than double” rent increase, according to a post on their Instagram account.

Kaplan said he’s been in touch with the office of state Assemblywoman Jessica Caloza and wants to explore the possibility of introducing legislation to set up protections for small businesses like his, including rent-control measures or a vacancy tax for landlords. Kaplan said he also reached out to the office of state Sen. Maria Durazo.

By his count, Kaplan said there are about a dozen businesses within surrounding blocks that are at risk of closing their doors or have shuttered due to rent increases or other struggles.

When READ Books was founded during the Great Recession, Kaplan said he knew it was a longshot to open a bookstore at the same time so many were struggling to stay in business.

“It was kind of interesting to be doing something that neighborhoods needed. That was important to me growing up, that was important to my children, that was important to my wife growing up,” Kaplan said.

“And then somebody comes in and says, ‘We’re gonna over double your rent.”

Topline:

Frozen budget: Most of the city’s Bureau of Street Lighting budget comes from an assessment that people who own property illuminated by lights pay on their county property tax bill. The amount people pay depends on the kind of property they own and how much they benefit from lighting. A typical single-family home currently pays $53 annually, and in total, the assessments bring in about $45 million annually for the city to repair and maintain streetlights. Changing the amount the Bureau of Street Lighting gets from the assessment requires a vote among property owners who benefit from the lights.

Ballots: L.A. City Council’s vote gives city staff the green light to prepare and send out those ballots. Miguel Sangalang, who oversees the bureau, said at a committee meeting earlier this month that he expects to send out ballots by April 17. Notices about the ballots will be sent out prior to the ballots themselves.

Near unanimous vote: L.A. City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was the only “No” vote Tuesday, saying she wanted to see a more current strategic plan for the bureau. Sangalang said the bureau developed a plan in 2022 that lays out how money will be spent. Councilmember Imelda Padilla was absent for the vote.

Vote count: Votes will be weighted according to the assessment amount. Basically, the more you’re asked to pay yearly to maintain streetlights, the more your vote will count. Ballots received before June 2 will be tabulated by the L.A. City Clerk.

How much more money: According to a report, the amount needed in assessments from property owners to meet the repair and maintenance needs of the city’s streetlighting in the next fiscal year is nearly $112 million.

Use of the money: Sangalang said at a March 11 committee meeting that the extra funds would be used to double the number of staff to handle repairs and procure solar streetlights, which don’t face the threat of copper wire theft. That would all potentially reduce the time it takes to repair simple fixes down to a week. Currently, city residents wait for months to see broken streetlights repaired. The assessment would come with a three-year auditing mechanism.