{
  "id": "2025-01-07-ucla-palisades-fire",
  "slug": "ucla-palisades-fire-2025-01-07",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of California, Los Angeles",
    "shortName": "UCLA",
    "state": "CA",
    "type": "public-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "BruinAlert",
    "enrollment": 46400
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2025-01-07",
    "endDate": "2025-01-17",
    "type": "wildfire",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "headline": "Wildfire evacuation warning zone reached the campus edge; classes moved to remote",
    "headlinePublic": "Wildfire evacuation warning zone reached the campus edge; classes moved to remote",
    "summary": "On the evening of January 10, 2025, a BruinAlert told UCLA students to be 'ready to evacuate' as the [Palisades Fire's evacuation warning zone reached the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Veteran Avenue](https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/10/new-evacuation-warning-for-palisades-fire-borders-ucla-campus), an intersection that directly borders the UCLA campus. UCLA [canceled in-person undergraduate classes](https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/08/ucla-cancels-in-person-classes-amid-los-angeles-fires) for January 9-10 and shifted classes to remote instruction through January 17. Thousands evacuated dorms voluntarily even though UCLA itself was not under a mandatory order.",
    "outcome": "UCLA campus was never placed under a mandatory evacuation, but a warning zone bordered campus. 607 students and 2,095 faculty/staff lived in evacuation warning or mandatory zones. All in-person instruction was suspended through January 17. The Palisades Fire ultimately burned over 23,000 acres."
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "Evening of January 8, 2025 PST",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "annotations": []
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2025-01-10T20:17:00-08:00",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "This is NOT an evacuation alert. An evacuation warning has been issued to a zone adjacent to UCLA due to the Palisades fire. We are asking Bruins on campus to remain vigilant and be ready to evacuate, should the alert be extended to our campus.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://bso.ucla.edu/news/bruinalert-evacuation-warning-issued-zone-adjacent-ucla-not-evacuation-stay-vigilant-ready",
      "sourceDescription": "Bruins Safe Online (UCLA Office of Emergency Management)",
      "annotations": [
        "Pushed at 8:17 PM PST on January 10, 2025, as the Palisades Fire evacuation warning zone advanced toward the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Veteran Avenue at UCLA's western edge",
        "Opens with the negation 'This is NOT an evacuation alert' to prevent panic-driven mass evacuation while still mobilizing the community to be ready",
        "Triggering BruinAlert without a campus-side evacuation order was controversial: the Daily Bruin and Fox Business reported student frustration with the perceived delay between the fire's progression and campus communications"
      ],
      "characterCount": 244
    },
    {
      "sequence": 3,
      "type": "update",
      "timestampApprox": "Mid-January 2025 PST",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "context": "[UCLA](https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/2025-los-angeles-fire-updates) is a public R1 research institution of about 46,400 students in Westwood, Los Angeles. When the [Palisades Fire ignited on January 7, 2025](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Palisades_Fire), it rapidly grew into one of the most destructive fires in Los Angeles history. UCLA remained open on January 8 but that evening announced curtailed campus operations and canceled in-person undergraduate classes for January 9 and 10. By the evening of January 10, the city of Los Angeles had [extended evacuation warnings to the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Veteran Avenue](https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/10/new-evacuation-warning-for-palisades-fire-borders-ucla-campus), directly bordering UCLA's western edge. At 8:17 PM PST that night, BruinAlert told students to be 'ready to evacuate.' UCLA itself was never placed under a mandatory evacuation order, but [thousands of students chose to evacuate dorms anyway](https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/09/ucla-students-react-to-la-wildfires-evacuations-loss-of-homes). The university [canceled in-person undergraduate classes](https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/08/ucla-cancels-in-person-classes-amid-los-angeles-fires) for January 9-10, then extended remote-only instruction through Friday January 17, the longest curtailment since the COVID-19 era. By January 14, [607 students and 2,095 faculty/staff lived in areas under evacuation warning or mandatory orders](https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/reflections-on-fires-update-on-instruction-campus-operations), illustrating how a single regional disaster could displace thousands without a single building burning on campus. UCLA's response drew [significant criticism](https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/ucla-students-up-arms-over-campus-leaders-delayed-response-class-cancellation-amid-wildfires) for perceived slowness, foreshadowing a broader debate about university communication during slow-onset disasters.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "BruinAlert's 'be ready to evacuate' message at 8:17 PM PST January 10 marked the moment the Palisades Fire evacuation warning zone reached UCLA's doorstep",
    "UCLA itself was never under a mandatory evacuation, but thousands of students self-evacuated from dorms, a real-world illustration of the gap between official orders and human behavior in slow-onset disasters",
    "The 10-day remote-instruction window (January 8-17) was the longest curtailment since the COVID-19 era",
    "607 students and 2,095 faculty/staff lived in evacuation warning or mandatory zones, showing the scope of community displacement even when the campus itself was untouched"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "L.A. fires: UCLA campus updates and resources (UCLA Newsroom)",
      "url": "https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/2025-los-angeles-fire-updates",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Reflections on the devastation in our region and an update on instruction and campus operations (UCLA Newsroom)",
      "url": "https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/reflections-on-fires-update-on-instruction-campus-operations",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "New evacuation warning for Palisades fire borders UCLA campus (Daily Bruin)",
      "url": "https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/10/new-evacuation-warning-for-palisades-fire-borders-ucla-campus",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "UCLA cancels in-person classes amid Los Angeles fires (Daily Bruin)",
      "url": "https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/08/ucla-cancels-in-person-classes-amid-los-angeles-fires",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "UCLA Campus Emergency Operations; Impact of the wildfires on the Bruin community (Bruins Safe Online)",
      "url": "https://bso.ucla.edu/news/ucla-campus-emergency-operations-impact-wildfires-bruin-community-fema-disaster-recovery",
      "type": "official-archive"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "wildfire",
    "palisades-fire",
    "evacuation-warning",
    "los-angeles",
    "california",
    "ucla",
    "westwood",
    "remote-instruction",
    "public-r1",
    "be-ready-to-evacuate"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-03",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}