LOS ANGELES — The "Rising Together" float in Pasadena's Rose Parade was supposed to celebrate the resiliency of Los Angeles in the face of the unprecedented double disaster that flattened thousands of homes and took 31 lives last January.

But amid the float's proud phoenix and colorful California poppies, two frustrated fire survivors unfurled a surprise message: "AG Bonta, Altadena demands an investigation."

A parade worker quickly pulled down the sign, but the statement made its mark, cutting through conversations about recovery and progress with the gnawing questions that continue to haunt so many Eaton fire survivors:

Why were timely evacuation alerts not issued for west Altadena, which accounted for almost all of the Eaton fire deaths and experienced the most widespread devastation?

Why were there almost no fire trucks in west Altadena, known to be a historically Black, less affluent section of the unincorporated town?

And why have repeated probes resulted in almost no answers? No accountability?

"It is shameful that we have not yet seen any kind of serious undertaking of righting the wrongs that were committed in this fire," said Gina Clayton-Johnson, a lifelong Altadenan who helped unroll the sign on the Tournament of Roses float. "We have a responsibility to not let this kind of thing happen again."

That feeling was only amplified this week as the community marked one year since the deadly blaze.

At a memorial gathering Wednesday night, Clayton-Johnson urged her former — and, hopefully, future — neighbors to join the growing coalition calling on California Attorney General Rob Bonta to launch a full, independent investigation into the response to the fire that devastated their community, killing 19 and destroying more than 9,000 structures.

"As a person who wants to return to this community but not be stupid to return ... I want answers," Clayton-Johnson told a crowd gathered at Fair Oaks Burger, an Altadena staple that survived the firestorm. "How was it that this catastrophe happened in such a way that people died? ... How was it that people were running from flames (and) did not get evacuation warnings?"

At media events and commemorations across the area marking the first anniversary of the fire, many survivors showed up in red shirts that bore Bonta's face and called on him to "investigate the Eaton fire now!" Several residents held signs that called out failures in the fire response: "Flames spread fast. Warnings didn't." "Fire Dept failed Dena." "East Altadena got alerts. West Altadena got silence."

The Los Angeles Times revealed last January that west Altadena never received evacuation warnings, and orders to evacuate came hours after flames and smoke threatened the community. All but one of the 19 who died in the Eaton fire were found in west Altadena, among them a 54-year-old woman whose family claimed she died because of the delayed evacuation alerts.

Although reporting revealed that the late evacuation alerts appear to have been the fault of officials at the L.A. County Fire Department, the agency still hasn't explained what went wrong. In November the Fire Department said it would initiate a new independent investigation into the delayed evacuation alerts, but agency spokesperson Heidi Oliva declined to provide further information on that probe.

A spokesperson for Bonta declined to "confirm or deny potential or ongoing investigations ... to protect their integrity." The statement did, however, refer to an ongoing investigation of the fire response ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom that is being completed by the independent nonprofit Fire Safety Research Institute. Its analysis isn't expected to be complete until midyear.

Clayton-Johnson said the coalition — Altadena for Accountability, made up of Black community leaders, west Altadena advocates, local nonprofits and concerned residents — is aware of the ongoing investigations and even prior reviews but hasn't found them to be adequate. Group members want to see Bonta's office take ownership of a review, as occurred in Hawaii after Maui's devastating Lahaina fire.

"We have a structure for moments just like this, and a person whose responsibility it is to get to the bottom of failures by counties, failures by officials, civil rights violations," Clayton-Johnson said, referencing Bonta. "If he would hear us, then I think that we could move him, both his head and his heart, to do the right thing."

She said the neighborhood coalition has for months been "politely, quietly, collaboratively" reaching out to Bonta to meet with them but to no avail. Now they are losing patience.

"It's not just about Altadena," Clayton-Johnson said. "What we know is that there will be more climate refugees in this state, there will be more disasters ... and we all deserve safety in our homes. We deserve this fire to be properly dealt with (and) investigated."

The sentiment resonated among west Altadenans.

"The Fire Department abandoned us," said Miguel Vidal, who like most in the crowd at Fair Oaks Burger had lost his home in the fire.

"We were our own alert system," another person said, shaking their head.

Marialyce Pedersen walked around the parking lot spinning a weather vane on which she'd fashioned a picture of L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, calling for his resignation. She said his agency had "no clue" as to the wind direction on the night of the fire.

Earlier in the night at a massive event commemorating the anniversary, L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, acknowledged the calls for accountability, telling the crowd of thousands that she supports transparency.

"You have a right to know what happened," Barger said, though she didn't provide a clear path to those answers.

County officials this week highlighted new processes and plans that they said would improve the work of its Office of Emergency Management and Fire and Sheriff's departments, including staffing increases and new technology.

But those changes fall short because they don't address the specific issues west Altadena experienced, said Sylvie Andrews, a member of the Altadena for Accountability group. She said the pain continued to motivate her, recounting how a loved one barely escaped the fire because they never received an evacuation alert, and how she watched her beloved home burn — after surviving the initial night of the fire — without any available water or first responders to fight it.

"Why the unequal response east and west of Lake (Avenue)?" Andrews asked. "Why was it that this historically under-resourced area west of Lake continued to be under-resourced during an event like this?"

Most importantly she doesn't want any other neighborhood or family to experience what her community went through.

"We've been fighting a battle for a year," Andrews said. "If we can't get clear answers about why were were abandoned the way that we were in the western part of Altadena … I don't think we will ever fully heal. We need honesty and clarity and transparency.

"If somebody made the wrong decisions that night, if more than one group made the wrong decisions that night, we need to know about it," she said. "That's one of the only ways we will know that it won't happen again."

Many fire survivors have voiced the same concerns but say it's hard to join the fight with so many insurance, legal, housing and rebuilding issues already weighing on them, exhausting them.

Araceli Cabrera said she still thinks about how she and her fiancé barely escaped because they were waiting for an evacuation order. But joining meetings or speaking with public officials about it only increases her stress, she said.

"They're trying to show they care about us but they're not really taking the steps to help us," Cabrera said. "There's no accountability."

Anthony Mitchell Jr., whose disabled father and brother died in the fire waiting for first responders to help them evacuate, said their family still is struggling with the losses — and the failures that led to their deaths.

"We deserve to have emergency departments that work," said Mitchell, who lives in Bakersfield and worries this isn't an Altadena-specific issue. "I don't think most of California has learned."

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