State law prompts questions over Los Angeles compliance
The LA Times has reported that Los Angeles has not made public an analysis of its road capacity for wildfire evacuations as required under California law.
Assembly Bill 747, passed in 2019, requires cities and counties to assess whether residents can be evacuated quickly and safely in emergencies such as wildfires, floods and tsunamis.
The legislation followed the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise, which killed 64 people and exposed the consequences of traffic bottlenecks during evacuations.
Former state legislator Marc Levine, who authored the law, said he was alarmed by the lack of transparency from Los Angeles officials on evacuation feasibility.
Los Angeles County has published an evacuation assessment, but fire safety advocates say it fails to meet the requirements of the law.
Legislative intent and current practice
Levine said AB 747 was designed to identify potential evacuation challenges before emergencies occur.
According to the LA Times, Los Angeles County’s published analysis simply lists all paved, public roads that are not dead ends as evacuation routes.
The Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation has advised that traffic modelling software should be used to estimate evacuation times.
Critics, including fire safety advocate Marylee Guinon, said such basic listings do not address the intent of the legislation.
Levine said the law was not intended to produce a list of roads but to assess whether evacuation could be completed in time during a fast-moving disaster.
Official responses and compliance disputes
The LA Times reported that city and county planning departments referred questions on compliance to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Cal Fire stated that its assessments of safety plans are nonbinding and compliance remains the responsibility of local government.
The Los Angeles Planning Department said details of evacuation routes are not published due to concerns that they could be targeted in terrorist attacks.
Levine questioned the claim, saying he could not see how withholding route capacity data would protect residents during a disaster.
The LA Times said no agency provided a clear explanation for the gap between state guidance and the published safety plans.
Examples from other California communities
The town of Paradise used computer modelling to estimate evacuation times and identify bottlenecks.
Its analysis, conducted after the Camp fire, found that an evacuation would take more than five hours under ideal conditions.
Paradise used the findings to secure funding to widen certain roads, connect dead ends and improve public evacuation signage.
Malibu, after the 2018 Woolsey fire, added reflective markers to roads and urged early evacuations during high-risk fire weather.
Evacuation modelling in both towns used software such as FLEET, which is available free to the public, and Ladris, a paid simulation tool.
Technology for evacuation analysis
Retired fire battalion chief Doug Flaherty said evacuation planning often focuses on operational coordination rather than road network capacity.
He partnered with software developer Ladris to model evacuations in the Tahoe Basin.
The program simulates household departures, traffic flow, roadblocks, delays and other variables in seconds.
Flaherty said the Tahoe Basin study cost under $100,000, comparable to installing one traffic light.
Researchers at Old Dominion University have developed FLEET, a simpler free program that can produce simulations in less than 30 minutes.
Relevance for fire and safety professionals
The LA Times report highlights the operational gap between legislative requirements and on-the-ground evacuation readiness.
It shows how road capacity analysis can influence both emergency planning and long-term development decisions in high-risk areas.
The examples of Paradise and Malibu illustrate how data-led planning can reduce evacuation times and improve communication during emergencies.
For fire and safety professionals, the case reinforces the importance of integrating road network modelling into pre-incident planning for urban and rural communities.
California evacuation plan requirements under review: Summary
The LA Times has reported that Los Angeles has not made public an evacuation analysis required under California Assembly Bill 747.
The 2019 law requires cities and counties to assess whether residents can evacuate quickly during emergencies.
The legislation was introduced after 64 people died in the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise.
Los Angeles County has produced an assessment, but critics say it does not meet the law’s intent.
The Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation recommends using traffic modelling software for evacuation analysis.
Los Angeles County’s analysis lists paved public roads that are not dead ends as evacuation routes.
The Los Angeles Planning Department said routes are not published due to terrorism concerns.
Marc Levine, who wrote AB 747, has criticised the city and county’s approach.
Other towns, including Paradise and Malibu, have used modelling to plan improvements to evacuation routes.
Free and paid evacuation simulation tools are available for public and government use.