Hey, everybody, it's Kyle Rizdal, the host of Marketplace. I'm going to be live on stage at the

Aratani Theater on Sunday, March 29th, unpacking the headlines of this economy.

Get tickets now at lais.com slash events. I hope to see you there.

I'm Julia Paskin. Ever been enthralled in an LAS story and your car radio loses the signal

at just the wrong time. Ah, me too,

and it drives me bananas. That FM signal cannot interrupt your listen when you're streaming

through the LAS app, though. That's for iPhone and Android. This is in perfect paradise. I'm

Nereida Moreno. Accountability. Who is responsible for failures in emergency management during a disaster? And who should be held accountable?

They're lingering and painful questions for communities in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades as they grapple with the recovery more than a year after the January fires destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 31 people.

But we're getting new insights into the Eaton Fire emergency response about troubling allegations within a whistleblower complaint that pull back the curtains inside LA County's office of emergency management.

I think everybody kind of puts L.A. County on this pedestal because it's the biggest county in the country.

What I ended up finding out over time is that that is complete smoke and mirrors.

You'll hear more from the whistleblower who alleges that an employee who had a long history of sleeping on the job was placed in a key role as the Eden fire rapidly spread across Altadena.

In the months that have followed the deadly fires, we've been tracking on Imperfect Paradise, the ongoing developments and investigations into the fire response, the impact of SoCal's communities, and questions around accountability.

This week, we look into the whistleblower complaint that raises serious questions about L.A. County's Office of Emergency Management, or OEM, its staffing, its response, and whether the agency is prepared for the next big disaster.

L.A.'s climate and environment senior reporter Aaron Stone got access to the whistleblower complaint, and she's here to tell us more.

Hey, Erin.

Hi, Narita.

Erin, first, can you tell us just how you got a hold of this whistleblower complaint?

I got a tip from Nick Vicaro about his concerns that he alleges in a whistleblower complaint.

Nick Vicaro is an associate director in the LA County Office of Emergency Management. So he's one of the higher

level staffers in that office. And his job, before the fires, included creating a staff roster

...