Employee with key Eaton Fireplace position fell asleep on the job: whistleblower

The LA County employee overseeing the evacuation alerts through the lethal Eaton Fireplace had a popularity for sleeping on the job, a bombshell whistleblower criticism claims.

The criticism, filed by Nick Vaquero, an affiliate director within the county’s Workplace of Emergency Administration, alleges that longtime county official Steve Lieberman was caught asleep at work greater than a dozen occasions earlier than he was put in control of the in a single day alert shift through the extremely harmful wildfire in January 2025, LAist reported.

Lieberman, who retired two months after the fireplace, supervised the staff accountable for sending pressing warnings and evacuation notices to residents as flames tore via foothill communities northeast of Los Angeles.

The Eaton Fireplace finally killed 19 individuals and compelled hundreds to flee their properties, making it one of many area’s deadliest current wildfires.

Some residents in Altadena reportedly didn’t obtain evacuation alerts till after 3 a.m., hours after the fireplace had already begun threatening neighborhoods.

An impartial after-action report launched in September 2025, commissioned by LA County supervisors and produced by the consulting agency McChrystal Group, discovered {that a} lack of sources and outdated insurance policies for sending emergency alerts led to delayed evacuation warnings as flames started consuming neighborhoods.

Vaquero alleges that county management ignored repeated warnings about staffing ranges for the crucial in a single day operation, placing public security in danger, he advised LAist.

County officers, together with Kevin McGowan and Leslie Luke, strongly dispute the claims. They are saying they noticed Lieberman totally awake through the response and reject the allegation that he had a historical past of sleeping on the job.

Lieberman himself additionally defended his file.

He admitted to the LAist that in practically 4 a long time working in emergency companies, he could have dozed off throughout lengthy shifts — however insisted it was by no means an everyday downside and didn’t occur on the night time of the Eaton Fireplace.

“I’m not going to say that by no means occurred in 38 years,” Lieberman advised the publication.

“I’m 63 years previous. I’ve acquired some well being points. We labored a whole lot of additional time,” he mentioned, including that he didn’t doze at work “as a basic rule, hell no.”

The allegations have intensified questions on how LA County dealt with the crucial early hours of the Eaton Fireplace, notably whether or not evacuation warnings reached residents shortly sufficient.

A number of critiques of the response are actually underway as officers face mounting strain to elucidate what occurred that night time.

For residents who waited hours for alerts as flames unfold, the solutions can’t come quickly sufficient.

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