Eaton Fire Suspected Point of Origin

Photographs of the Edison Towers and the Eaton Canyon Regrowth.

CA DSC 2302 2-27-25 - Tower in question is the smallest one on the left

The first week after the fire started I thought the origin point was closer to the Eaton Canyon Bridge at the head of the canyon based on the burn patterns.  On February I met a handyman near the intersection of Midwick, Roosevelt, and Altadena Drive; The Midwick trail connection gate is on the East side of Altadena Drive there.  He said he was doing yard work for the homeowner when the fire started.  He first thought it was a barbeque and thought someone was crazy for cooking outside in those conditions, with powerful swirling winds.  He said as the smoke intensified he came out to the street and saw the fire in Eaton Canyon growing by the second.  He pointed to three Edison towers Southeast of the intersection and said the fire started near the base of the towers.  He obviously did not see how the fire ignited.  He told me the small canyon next to the towers was known as Coyote Canyon and that unhoused people had lived in that area before.  He said he heard rumors that someone in an encampment had started the fire, but he had no knowledge whether that was true or not. 

On January 14th I photographed an Edison helicopter apparently surveying Eaton Canyon and when I inspected the image I saw there appeared to be a downed wire on the ground.  I couldn’t get access to the Midwick Trail Gate that day, it was in a restricted area and when it reopened to public travel the area was fenced off.  Eaton Canyon is now closed for the rest of the year and the reason given is the area is unsafe.   I have seen that area burn several times before and I have never seen it shut down after the fire was out.  I even referenced the LA County Code posted on the sign after I first saw it and saw the code only forbids overnight camping.  When I saw the helicopter it was further up the side of the Henniger Flats trail which is actually in the Angeles National Forest.  I suspected that the wire might have been a factor but when attorneys suing Edison released videos of the origin point I knew that downed wire was not in that area.  I had confirmed the Helicopter belonged to Edison by referencing its tail number.  One of the primary security videos that helped determine the origin point was from the Arco gas station at Altadena and New York.  I frequently buy gas at that Arco and on one of my stops in February I confirmed for myself that the three towers I had pointed out to me lined up with he video.

This post has a number of photographs of the origin point and the towers.  One thing I noticed in them that the smallest tower, which was supposed to be a deactivated line which investigators think was reenergized during the wind storm and cause the fire, only had lines on the North end of the tower and none on the South side of it.  You could see the conductor hanging on the South side.  This is completely speculation, but I wonder if the winds blew the energized power lines were blown close enough to the deenergized line to allow an arc and transfer of energy.  If that energy was traveling Southbound and got to the end of those power lines the energy could have been directed toward the ground where it ignited brush.  Again, I need to stress this is all speculation and experts are working on determining the exact cause of the fire.  I remember working with Pasadena PD in the 1980’s and photographing a kid who had been knocked off a similar tower on the west side of town.  With him he climbed it for the view and when he got to within about twenty feet of the lines they arced, and he got zapped.  The paramedics said he lived because the amps were low although the voltage was high.  The transfer of energy was enough to also injury his friend who was standing on the ground but had his hand on the tower.  I am sure the experts will figure it out but the theories I am hearing make sense.  Also, in my photographs I did see evidence of brush below the towers that had not been cut back recently, and I didn’t see anything consistent with an encampment.  This post is just to update and correct my January post on the origin point. 

CA DSC 6405 5-11-25 - After suspect tower at point of origin had been removed for forensic study.

CA DSC1318 2-14-25 - Eaton Canyon the three towers north of the point of origin, you can see the small tower (The Deenergized line) has wires on both sides of the tower, while the origin point tower only has lines going to the tower in this photograph not the other way.

The Intersection of Crary and Valencia during the Eaton Fire

A comparison of images made a week apart in unincorporated Pasadena:

Eastbound Crary at Valencia - CA DSC 01168 1-07-25

Eastbound Crary at Valencia - CA DSC 9571 1-14-25

I have been photographing in Altadena and Pasadena so much since the Eaton Fire on January 7th that I have become behind in the blog posts I want to share related to that portfolio. I have been pretty good at reviewing images as I go and getting content into the portfolio on my website, but not as good with the blog and I have not worried about Instagram.

I attended Arizona State University a few years after Mark Klett completed his Rephotographic Survey Project, so I was very familiar with it and I loved the concept.  I never studied under Mark there, but I got to know him, and I like him and absolutely respect his work.  Since those days I have found most any project where a photographer chases another photographer’s tripod holes to be interesting, and I like to return to locations of my own photographs to document change.

Crary and Valencia is in unincorporated Pasadena about a block from my sister’s home which has been in the family for about 90 years.  The one image is obviously from the night of the fire, and I made the exposure at a time I was really worried about where the fire was spreading to.  Luckily at this point the winds were driving the fire in this area mostly South along Altadena Drive (as you look at the image that would be left to right).

When I made this exposure I could obviously see the mountains were burning and I thought the large orange glow at the end of the block was from Kinneloa Mesa burning, but the second image confirmed I was wrong since you can see the homes on Kinneloa Mesa survived.  The glow was from a large townhome complex that had built along, more likely on, the Eaton Canyon Reservoir.  To be honest I never realized they were there since they were tucked back in our of sight.

The car on the street burned but was removed before I got back to see it.  These images are a week apart; I couldn’t get into that area at first because of LA County lockdown restrictions.  I looked at the ground where the car was and I am assuming that leaves and other debris from the winds had piled up under the car and that an ember lit them on fire which burned the car.  The palm tree trucks burned some but they survived, and the house appeared to be undamaged.  I assume the fire engine which showed up for the car fire kept it from spreading to the homes.

The devastation I have photographed is so surreal, especially because I know the area so well.  Comparing these two images I am still amazed how some areas came through the fire so well and other areas became rubble and ash.