A son rushed to his elderly father during the Eaton fire. He arrived one day too late

On Jan. 7, the day that the Eaton fire sparked in the San Gabriel mountains, Xiaoyong “Shaw” Zhao got a call from his father in Altadena around 12:30 p.m., asking him what kind of food he should prepare for his upcoming visit.

It would be the last time Shaw ever spoke with his dad.

Shaw, who lives in Portland, Ore., rushed to Altadena but got there one day too late, arriving after the fire had claimed the life of his 84-year-old father and left his home a charred heap.

The retired Chinese immigrant —a widower —became one of 29 people killed in the devastating fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades. His son, Shaw, joined other fire victims in filing a lawsuit last month against Southern California Edison, accusing the utility of negligence, violation of health and safety codes and not maintaining its vegetation and equipment.

“My father was a man of fortitude, intelligence and perseverance,” Shaw said.

Long before the fires broke out, Shaw had planned a trip to visit his father, Zhi Feng Zhao, in Altadena. Shaw had purchased a plane ticket for Jan. 8. During the call on the previous afternoon, Shaw told his father that he didn’t need anything special to eat and that he would be getting in late.

Later that same day, Shaw got a text from his father’s neighbor, alerting him about the wildfires. He went online to see what the situation was and saw that his father’s street wasn’t under any evacuation order or warning.

Around 8 p.m., Shaw called his dad twice but he didn’t pick up. Zhao wasn’t good with phones — he mainly used a landline and had a cell phone, but rarely responded to messages or picked up calls. His dad also had hearing problems and was taking sleep aid medication to help him fall asleep.

“I said to myself, let him continue to sleep,” Shaw said. “I will monitor the situation online.”

Around 5 a.m., Shaw went back online and saw that everything had changed: An evacuation order had been issued for his father’s neighborhood at around 3 a.m. He called his dad immediately but got no answer.

Shaw moved his flight up to earlier in the afternoon on Jan. 8. He landed around 7 p.m. in Burbank and got into a Lyft car, sharing his story with the driver. The Lyft driver offered to drive Shaw as close to his father’s street as possible so he could look for him.

They eventually reached a police barricade and weren’t allowed to drive to his father’s home on Tonia Avenue. Shaw then went to the Pasadena Convention Center, which was serving as an evacuation shelter for displaced residents. He stayed overnight, walking around from bed to bed searching for his dad to no avail.

“After that effort, I already knew that it was not a good sign,” Shaw said. “I couldn’t find him and I hadn’t received any call from him.”

On Jan. 9, the same Lyft driver offered to drive Shaw back to his father’s neighborhood. They got to Fair Oaks Avenue and Woodbury Road and from there, walked for about 90 minutes to his father’s house.

The entire neighborhood had been wiped out by the blaze. His father’s home had been entirely reduced to ash.

“Every house on both sides of the street was gone, except for one,” Shaw said. “It was very grim, just like a war zone.”

Shaw saw a coyote in his father’s front yard and his stomach dropped. The Lyft driver eventually found his father’s remains near where the animal had been. They immediately called 911.

His father’s remains were in the same position as when he sleeps, suggesting he died in his bed, Shaw said.

“This was all a preventable tragedy,” said Robert Jarchi, an attorney representing Shaw. “None of this had to happen. In the history of Southern California, there have been wildfires that have killed people, that have destroyed homes and communities as a result of utility infrastructure not being de-energized or turned off during high wind events.”

Kathleen Dunleavy, spokesperson for Southern California Edison, told The Times that the investigation is in its early stages.

“Our hearts go out to everyone who’s been impacted by Southern California wildfires,” she said. “Southern California Edison will continue to investigative the possible involvement of our equipment.

The utility acknowledged this week that “information and data have come to light, such as videos from external parties of the fire’s early stages, suggesting a possible link to SCE’s equipment, which the company takes seriously,” according to a press release.

SCE said it hasn’t “identified typical or obvious indications that would support this association, such as broken conductors, fresh arc marks in the preliminary origin area, or evidence of faults on the energized lines running through that area.”

This week, SCE also reported to state regulators that its equipment may have sparked the Hurst fire, which scorched nearly 800 acres in Sylmar last month. SCE hasn’t determined where the Eaton fire ignited but said it’s exploring all data and information.

Four power lines over Eaton Canyon had seen a brief increase of electrical current around the time that the fire sparked, the utility said in a separate filing.

Zhao grew up in rural China and his parents died when he was four years old, according to Shaw. Zhao studied at Peking University and eventually moved to Shanghai, where he met Shaw’s mother.

Zhao immigrated to California in the late 1980s and settled in Altadena. He encouraged Shaw to pursue computer science as a major in college.

Shaw and his parents moved into the Altadena home in September 2005. Shaw moved to Oregon when he got a new job, and his parents remained in Los Angeles. His mother died during the COVID pandemic, leaving his father to live there by himself.