Follow up to Critical Safety Concerns at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an open letter from independent researcher Shelby Eidson
See previous Reddit post here.
Last fall, JPL's publicity team denied Shelby Eidson's independent report that firefighters were pulled away from Altadena to protect the lab. LA County's Eaton Fire evacuation report describes "a potential catastrophic consequence" and resources diverted.
Newsletter update 5/18/2026: Today, the County of Los Angeles Fire Department released its independent investigation findings of West Altadena evacuation decisions. You can read the report here. And you can read Altadena citizens complaining about it here.
On numbered page 32 (page 36 of the pdf), there is confirmation of independent Eaton Fire investigator Shelby Eidson’s reporting that fire-fighting resources were called away from Altadena to protect Jet Propulsion Laboratory from the blaze in the early hours of 1/8/2025:
“At approximately midnight, a JPL security supervisor arrived at the Rose Bowl ICP and advised Incident Command of a potentially catastrophic consequence if any of 4 JPL complex buildings catch fire. This was a significant focus for Incident Command over the next approximately 2 hours until it was determined there was no imminent threat to those buildings.”
We would like to know why JPL’s publicity team worked so diligently last fall to deny the validity of Eidson’s reporting on this aspect of the Eaton Fire response, only for it to be repeated in an official County Report seven months later.
We note that JPL explicitly denied that a phone call was made seeking assistance, while the County report describes an in person visit. In Eidson’s written public comments to the County Supervisors, she actually describes “a frantic call”—vague phrasing that could mean by telephone or in person.
Nineteen human beings died in the Eaton Fire. We don’t think it’s appropriate for public information officers to play semantic games and avoid the transparency the Altadena community deserves.
What’s inside those four JPL complex buildings?
Read on for our original 11/3/2025 newsletter about Eidson’s work and JPL’s response to our posting about it on social media.