Altadena woman reflects on her home being the only one on her block to survive fire
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — The wildfires burning across the Los Angeles area have ravaged thousands of structures, with the Eaton Fire destroying generations of homes in Altadena. One woman’s house was the only one on her block to survive.
Debbie Slavin told ABC News on Monday about how her house avoided catching fire when the first six houses on her block were burned to the ground.
“When the fire burned the fence, it also burst the pressurized water pipe,” Slavin said. “I honestly believe that’s what put the fire out on that fence.”
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst fires have burned over 38,000 acres. More than 12,000 structures, including homes and places of worship, have been destroyed, and officials expect further damage in the coming days.
The Eaton Fire has burned over 14,000 acres.
When Slavin returned to her neighborhood in Altadena to see Eaton’s damage, she got emotional.
“I got a call from my neighbor down the street whose also, house has survived, and he basically shared with me that there was still smoldering on my front lawn and that he was going to go ahead and, and spray it,” Slavin said. “And when I got there, it also was still smoldering, so I went ahead and also put more water on it.”
Altadena is a community in which many families have made their homes for decades. According to Slavin, the community members were close and organized gatherings.
Slavin, who still can’t get back to her home, mentioned that one of her neighbors had even gone to check on her house while she was away to ensure it was still locked. She cherishes the trust and care that neighbors have for one another, and feels emotional seeing her friends’ homes getting destroyed while hers remains safe.
“I don’t know what it’s going to look like in the future,” Slavin said about her community. “And that’s also what’s so heartbreaking. I’ve had some great friends lose their homes. And you have to ask yourself why my home and why not the ones across the street.”
(NEW ORLEANS) — The suspect in the truck attack that killed 14 and injured dozens in New Orleans on New Year’s had traveled to Egypt in 2023 for about a month, his half-brother told ABC News.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, went to Egypt alone and told his family he was going “because it was cheap and beautiful,” his half-brother, 24-year-old Abdur Jabbar, said.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s foreign travel is a part of the ongoing investigation, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Investigators are working to determine what he did during his travel in Egypt, why he went and who he interacted with while there, multiple sources said. Critical to the probe is whether he had been radicalized prior to the travel or if the travel marked the start of his radicalization.
“This next most important phase of the investigation is to find out how that radicalization happened and if it happened on that trip,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told ABC News.
Early on New Year’s Day, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch on Bourbon Street, police said. He then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing him.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar posted several videos online hours before the attack “proclaiming his support for ISIS” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, according to the FBI.
Officials said the first 24 hours after the ramming attack were occupied by a feverish effort to determine whether there were additional suspects on the loose or if Shamsud-Din Jabbar worked with accomplices. Since Thursday, investigators have been focused on piecing together his path to radicalization and the events that led up to his decision to attack Bourbon Street.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security has issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies about potential copycats, ABC News learned. The bulletin was sent out of an abundance of caution to sensitize law enforcement around the country to be on the lookout for any activity pointing to the use of vehicles as a method to inflict mass casualties, sources told ABC News.
“We advise federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement officials and private sector security partners to remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe,” the bulletin said.
The bulletin notes that ISIS has been promoting the use of vehicles as a terrorism weapon since around 2014.
ISIS has ramped up calls for its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming attacks in recent months, sources told ABC News, especially since the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.
The bulletin stated that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that there remains no evidence of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official told ABC News that there is so far no sign of ISIS claiming responsibility for the New Orleans attack.
“Law enforcement should be aware that in many cases attackers have conducted vehicle-ramming attacks with secondary weapons and may continue the attack with edged weapons, firearms, or IEDs after the vehicle has stopped,” the bulletin said. The tactic could be “attractive” for foreign terrorist organizations and other actors due to its low complexity threshold, the warning said.
An intelligence bulletin from the New York Police Department obtained by ABC News indicated that ISIS supporters did celebrate the attack online. Violent extremists, the bulletin said, “continue to view densely populated walkways, parades, mass gatherings and other outdoor events along streets, especially during holidays, as vulnerable targets of opportunity.”
“This enduring threat underscores the criticality of pre-staged blocker cars and the deployment of other effectively configured countermeasures including heavy block, barriers and bollards,” it added.
Surveillance footage showed Shamsud-Din Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said. He had a remote detonator in the truck to set off the two devices, President Joe Biden said. Both devices were rendered safe, officials said.
Bomb-making materials have been recovered at Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s Houston home, sources confirmed to ABC News. The items found were also referred to as “precursor chemicals” by agents in the field, sources said.
Law enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday as the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the area to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl on Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday but postponed in the wake of the attack.
“I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city,” she said. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims’ families,” Cantrell added.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members, the White House said. Biden said Friday that he’s spoken with victims’ families.
There is no apparent direct connection between the New Orleans attack and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which is also being investigated as a possible act of terror, the FBI said Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — A New York-based Iranian journalist who was the target of an alleged failed assassination attempt that federal prosecutors say involved an Iranian general said she has “been given a second life.”
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced criminal charges against Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Brig. Gen. Ruhollah Bazghandi in connection with the alleged murder plot against Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has been critical of the Iranian government, in particular the status of women’s rights.
The charges name Bazghandi and six other Iranian operatives who federal prosecutors said plotted to kill Alinejad.
In response to the charges, Alinejad said it was a “beautiful day” in a statement on X on Tuesday while posting a video of herself riding a bicycle, smiling, and saying, “I love my life.”
Asked by ABC News’ Diane Macedo about the joyful video during an interview on ABC News Live on Wednesday, Alinejad said, “I’ve been given a second life. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stay forever, but it is a beautiful day for me and I have to celebrate it because, look, the Iranian regime actually showed that how far they can go.”
“When I read the details, I was like, ‘Wow, the high-ranking member of Revolutionary Guards actually were in charge to kill me?'”
Alinejad said she met with members of the FBI and the Department of Justice about the case.
“When they named Ruhollah Bazghandi, I was screaming out of joy because it is beautiful,” she said. “You have to be a woman from Iran, from the Middle East, to understand when a killer [gets stopped], how it feels.”
“I smiled. But at the same time, I am very sad because I know that this is happening to my women inside Iran,” she continued. “They are facing the same killers every day.”
Alinejad, 48, fled Iran in 2009 in the aftermath of the country’s disputed presidential elections. Her 2018 memoir, “The Wind in My Hair,” detailed how she helped spark an online movement against the compulsory hijab as the founder of the My Stealthy Freedom campaign.
Alinejad, who lives in exile in New York City, said she has moved 21 times between safe houses in the past three years, following an alleged Iranian plot to lure and kidnap her in 2021.
Since at least July 2022, the Bazghandi network sought to assassinate Alinejad, as directed by individuals in Iran, according to the federal indictment, which was released on Tuesday.
The indictment details how the network of operatives surveilled Alinejad and quotes them talking about her in July 2022.
“I’m close to the place now brother I’m getting even closer,” the indictment quotes one operative as saying.
In response, another said, according to the indictment, “OK my brother dear don’t let her out of your sight. Let’s not delay it my brother dear.”
The operative — Khalid Mehdiyev — was disrupted when he was arrested near the victim’s home on July 28, 2022, while in possession of an assault rifle, along with 66 rounds of ammunition, approximately $1,100 in cash, and a black ski mask, according to the indictment.
The operatives were members of an Eastern European crime group allegedly contracted by the Bazghandi network to kill Alinejad, according to the indictment.
“The Islamic Republic hired criminals to do their dirty job on U.S. soil to get away with it, to get away from accountability,” Alinejad said. “But now, the law enforcement actually found the high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guards that were behind this assassination plot.”
“I’m not carrying weapons. I’m only 45 kilos. But they were trying to kill me,” she said.
Tehran has not responded to the recent charges.
The FBI released a wanted poster for Bazghandi, who is based in Iran and is being sought on charges including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement Tuesday that the indictment “exposes the full extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for criticizing the Iranian regime” and that the FBI will “work with our partners here and abroad to hold accountable those who target Americans.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Authorities warned of the potential for more attacks on ballot boxes after a series of arson incidents in Oregon and Washington state.
Ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, were set on fire with incendiary devices early Monday, police said. Authorities believe the two incidents, as well as a similar incident that occurred earlier this month in Vancouver, are connected.
“Investigators believe it is very possible the suspect intends to continue these targeted attacks across the area,” Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Benner described the suspect sought in the three incidents as a white male between the ages of 30 and 40 with “balding or very short hair,” a thin face and medium to thin build.
“We believe this suspect has a wealth of experience in metal fabrication and welding,” Benner said.
Police are seeking one suspect in the case, Benner said.
Portland Police Chief Bob Day said that without a suspect in custody they “have to assume that there are other events that are likely to occur,” but that he is encouraged by the progress in the investigation so far.
Police had previously released photos of a suspect vehicle being sought in connection with the incidents. The vehicle is believed to be a Volvo S-60 from 2001 to 2004 with a tan or light-gray interior. The vehicle has dark wheels, unpainted body trim and no front license plate, police said.
The FBI is investigating the incidents, an agency spokesperson said.
Benner said police intend to add extra patrols around ballot boxes in the wake of the attacks. Officers will also have “high visibility” in terms of their presence next week, Day said.
The most recent incidents occurred early Monday, when two ballot boxes were set on fire with incendiary devices that had been attached to them, police said.
Three ballots were damaged in the Portland incident, while fire suppressant prevented further damage, election officials said. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott told ABC News that 409 ballots inside the ballot box “were undamaged” and preserved thanks to the fire suppressant.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told ABC News on Wednesday that the county has identified 475 damaged ballots in the Vancouver incident. The ballot box had a fire suppression device, which did appear to work very well, he said.
It is unclear at this time how many ballots were completely destroyed, he said.
Election officials in both states said they would ensure impacted voters have replacement ballots in time.
Monday’s incident is similar to an incident that occurred on Oct. 8 in Vancouver, in which a ballot box was set on fire, police said.
The incendiary device used in that incident had “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” on it, two sources familiar with the ongoing investigation told ABC News.
The two subsequent devices, set off in the early hours of Monday morning in Vancouver, Washington and nearby Portland, Oregon, carried the slogan “Free Gaza,” according to the sources.
One of the sources told ABC News it was unclear whether these markings reflect the views of a pro-Palestine activist — or if it was an individual trying to manipulate existing divisions in the U.S.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Lucien Bruggeman and Chris Boccia contributed to this report.
