The Los Angeles County Fire Department will hire an independent investigator to probe a reported three-hour delay in evacuation orders issued in the west Altadena area in response to the Eaton fire on Jan. 7, after a state-commissioned report out this week raised questions over the timeline of the alerts, Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said Friday.

The pending investigation comes in the wake of a report out Thursday, commissioned by Gov. Gavin Newsom, on the spread of the Palisades and Eaton fires that suggested that the movement of the Eaton fire from east Pasadena into west Altadena occurred earlier than originally reported, leaving questions on whether evacuation orders should have come sooner.

The Eaton fire, which started at 6:18 p.m. Jan. 7 near high-tension electrical towers in r

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