{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/m901z4408g/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Lessons learned: Monika Jones"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/200/original/lapl_logo.png?1628076950","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Monika Jones","Altadena resident"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2025-11-05"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["MPEG-4"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["TheirStory"]}}],"provider":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Los Angeles Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Los Angeles Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/200/original/lapl_logo.png?1628076950","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/299/678/small/Screenshot_2026-01-09_at_10-49-15_Story_Hub_-_TheirStory.png?1767984575","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - open-uri20260108-2656257-vm2y2j.mp4"]},"duration":482.53867,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/299/678/small/Screenshot_2026-01-09_at_10-49-15_Story_Hub_-_TheirStory.png?1767984575","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-lapl.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/299/678/original/open-uri20260108-2656257-vm2y2j.mp4?1767897327","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":482.53867,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/transcript/88180","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["TheirStory Transcript (Paragraphs with Speakers) [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/transcript/88180/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSPEAKER_S1:\u003c/strong\u003e My name is Monica Jones, I am. I live in Altadena, California and I am a graduate of USC School of Law. I'm an attorney, but I'm no longer practicing. I currently run a nonprofit organization that serves children that need some type of brain surgery to treat their seizures. I evacuated very early. We live right at the base of the mountains in Altadena. I grew up here all my life. I'm from a neighboring town just a few towns over, so we're very used to fires hitting the mountains, and the fires always run along the ridge. I like to say they fire burns up a mountain, generally doesn't burn down a mountain. That night was very different. The winds were unlike anything I had recalled experiencing in the area, very similar to 2012. I think it was when we had a terrible windstorm. Storm. Um, power went out at five, and then at 615, in one of the Facebook groups, someone said, do you see that there's a fire in Eaton Canyon? Did anybody see that flash? A few moments later, I went up to my son's bedroom, and from his bedroom I could see the fire in Eaton Canyon starting. Um. My older son is severely disabled. He had half his brain removed in order to stop epilepsy. So he's nonverbal. He's partially paralyzed on one side of his body, and unfortunately, he really relies on his iPad because he loves to scroll through YouTube videos. So I was very concerned about being in my house with no power. I'd mentioned the power went off at five pretty quickly thereafter. The the cell reception was gone. So it was one thing to be in a house without electricity, but it felt really unsafe for me to be in a house with no reception whatsoever on my cell phone. I couldn't even get an SOS signal. Um, we don't have a phone in our house. And at that moment, I was like, you know what this is? This is not good for me to be here. At no point was I worried about the fire getting anywhere near our house. I was primarily concerned about being in a home without Wi-Fi and cell reception. My husband was out of town, so we decided to leave. My son and I left that evening at around 715. By then, I could see the flames from my son's bedroom upstairs. I think one of the main lessons I learned from all of this is how totally unprepared we were to evacuate. Uh, totally unprepared we were for an emergency. None of the batteries in our flashlights worked. Um, we did not have any kind of those flashlights that you plug into the wall and they're automatically charged. We didn't have that. So I was walking around our house with one of these lights that you kind of tap for a cocktail party. You might have them on a table that that was what I was using for light. My house was pitch black. Um, it it that would be lesson number one was how personally unprepared we were for any kind of evacuation generally regarding the fire. Um, no, I've never felt like there was such a catastrophic failure of every system that was supposed to protect us. The fire hydrants didn't have water. There was no electricity. Um, the there weren't enough firefighters. There was a total lack of communication from the county. I never got an email. I never got an evacuation notice on my phone. I hear our neighborhood was evacuated because the sheriffs came through at three in the morning with bullhorns. It's 2025 and that's not how we should be evacuating anywhere. We have all these systems that are supposed to be in place and they're not. Did it know how the fire was moving? It was all from texts from friends or Facebook posts. Didn't feel like anything was coming from any governmental authority. And I am so grateful I left when I did, because if I was there with my disabled son at three in the morning, I don't know if I would have been able to get out in time. Fortunately, our home didn't burn, but it would have been really scary to leave for last with with someone as disabled as my son. So am I optimistic about the future? I don't know. I'm very disappointed in all of the state, federal, local governmental entities that were supposed to be helping us. It feels like everything failed. I'm sure there are. I'm not in that space professionally or personally. I certainly wonder why I never got a text on my phone. It seems like you get a text for everything now. I had to learn about the Watch Duty app from a friend. That was not something I got from anybody. I didn't hear from our local representatives, governmental representatives until a day or two later. I don't know, it seems like a very complicated web of things that are supposed to interact. All I know is that the system seems to have failed my family and the entire community. Absolutely. Very quickly, as I was evacuating at around 715, uh, one of my neighbors came around to ask me if I needed help evacuating my son. I didn't, I had gotten him into the car. Then I had gotten my, um, two dogs into the car. My brother lives nearby. I was able to get out and help him. Um, our friends were checking on our homes. I know some of our neighbors stayed and hosed down our front lawn. I know they stayed and used buckets to put out fires along the the in the area of our neighbors homes. Um, so yes, there the community did help one another for sure. I think right now there are different interests. Some people want to rebuild fast. Some people want the ability to sell their lots fast. Um, some people don't have the funds to rebuild or don't have enough insurance. I think right now at Altadena is experiencing is there isn't a coordinated single need that's trying to be met. Everybody's kind of fending for themselves and that's going to be a problem. I know that there was a severely disabled man who died in the fire with his severely disabled son, and that shouldn't happen in this day and age. And I think about them almost every day. I know, I don't want to say it could have been my son and me because we got out quickly. But the fact that that happened today is it's such a huge disappointment and everything that was supposed to be helping. So. Um,","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=3.72,472.95"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/transcript/88180/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSPEAKER_S2:\u003c/strong\u003e have you done any. That's","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=473.19,475.51"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/transcript/88180/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eSPEAKER_S1:\u003c/strong\u003e what I have to say about that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=475.51,477.03"}]},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Auto-generated Index (2025-11-05 21:08:12) [Index]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Introduction and Personal Background","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=0.0,23.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The speaker, Monica Jones, introduces herself as a resident of Altadena, California, and a graduate of USC School of Law. She shares that she is a former attorney who now runs a nonprofit organization supporting children who require brain surgery for seizures. Monica establishes her deep roots in the area, having grown up nearby, and her familiarity with the local environment and history of wildfires.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=0.0,23.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"The Night of the Fire: Power Outage and Immediate Concerns","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=23.0,137.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Monica recounts the events of the night the fire began, noting the unusual wind conditions and the early power outage. She describes how she learned about the fire through social media and observed the flames from her son's bedroom. Her primary concern was for her severely disabled son, who relies on electronic devices for comfort and communication, and the loss of both electricity and cell reception heightened her sense of vulnerability and urgency.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=23.0,137.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Decision to Evacuate and Leaving Home","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=137.0,162.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Despite not fearing that the fire would reach her home, Monica's main worry was the lack of power and communication, especially with her husband out of town. She describes the decision to evacuate with her son and dogs, emphasizing the challenges of leaving under such conditions and the relief she felt for having left early, given her son's disabilities and the potential dangers of a late evacuation.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=137.0,162.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Lessons in Emergency Preparedness","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=162.0,212.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Monica reflects on her family's lack of readiness for an emergency evacuation. She highlights the failure of basic supplies, such as non-working flashlight batteries and the absence of automatically charged lights, which forced her to rely on inadequate lighting. This experience underscored the importance of being better prepared for future emergencies.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=162.0,212.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Systemic Failures and Communication Issues","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=212.0,357.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Monica expresses her deep disappointment in the failure of multiple emergency systems during the fire. She notes the lack of water in fire hydrants, insufficient firefighting resources, and a total breakdown in official communication. She did not receive any alerts or evacuation notices from authorities and had to rely on informal channels for information. Monica questions the effectiveness of current emergency protocols and feels let down by governmental agencies at all levels.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=212.0,357.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Community Support During Crisis","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=357.0,405.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Monica describes the mutual aid and support among neighbors during the evacuation. She recounts how neighbors checked on each other, offered help with evacuating vulnerable family members, and took action to protect homes by hosing down lawns and putting out small fires. The sense of community was strong, with people looking out for one another in the absence of official assistance.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=357.0,405.0"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Aftermath, Community Challenges, and Reflections on Tragedy","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Title"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=405.0,482.53867"},{"id":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678/index/90437/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"supplementing","body":[{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Monica discusses the varied needs and priorities within the community following the fire, such as rebuilding, selling property, and dealing with insurance issues. She observes a lack of coordinated response and support, leading to individuals fending for themselves. Monica is deeply affected by the news of a severely disabled man and his son who died in the fire, reflecting on the preventable nature of such tragedies and her ongoing disappointment in the systems meant to protect vulnerable residents.","format":"text/plain","label":{"en":["Synopsis"]}}],"target":"https://lapl.aviaryplatform.com/collections/3578/collection_resources/164570/file/299678#t=405.0,482.53867"}]}]}]}