What to Document if You Were Affected by the Eaton Fire

Most Eaton fire survivors are now well past the immediate emergency-response phase and the initial intake with counsel. The next several months are documentation work — pulling together the evidence that will eventually support each claimant's individual allocation in the proceeding. Doing this work thoroughly now pays off later; doing it haphazardly produces avoidable disputes during allocation.

This post is a practical checklist, organized by claim category, of what to document for an Eaton fire claim.

For all categories — the foundation

Regardless of the specific kind of claim, every survivor should have:

• A timeline of the fire and the days following. Where you were when you first learned of the fire, when you evacuated, where you went, when (and whether) you were able to return, and the relevant times. A short written narrative is enough; details fade quickly.
• Identification and address verification. Driver's license, utility bills with the affected address, lease or deed records, voter-registration records — anything that establishes that you were affiliated with the affected address before the fire.
• Evacuation and displacement records. Hotel receipts, Airbnb confirmations, gas receipts, restaurant receipts during the displacement period, and any FEMA or Red Cross assistance documentation.
• Insurance correspondence. Every email and letter exchanged with your insurer, every claim number, every adjuster name and contact, every payment record. Keep originals.
• Photographs of the property — both pre- and post-fire. Any photographs you have of the property before the fire are valuable. Post-fire photographs (from your own visits, news coverage, or insurance adjuster reports) anchor the loss.

For real-property claims (homeowners and other property owners)

If you owned the affected real property:

• The deed, recorded ownership history, and most-recent title insurance policy. These establish ownership and provide title-related context.
• Tax assessor records. The county assessor's records show the assessed value of land and improvements over time. These records are useful for establishing the property's pre-fire condition and the basis for any later valuation work.
• Mortgage and loan records. Original loan documents, current statements, and any payoff or escrow records.
• Improvement records. Receipts, contractor records, and permits for any improvements made over the period of ownership. These establish basis for tax purposes (see the related tax post) and provide evidence of the property's condition.
• Recent appraisals. Any appraisal performed in the past several years for refinancing, sale consideration, or estate purposes.
• Photographs of the interior. Any photographs you have of the inside of the home before the fire are valuable. Family photographs that happen to capture rooms behind the subjects are useful even when the photographs were not taken for documentation purposes.

For personal-property claims

For personal property destroyed in the fire:

• Inventory. A written list of the personal property in the home — room by room — with descriptions of meaningful items, approximate purchase dates and amounts, and identifying details. The work of doing the inventory is significant; it should not be put off.
• Photographs and video. Any pre-fire photographs or videos that show the contents of the home — even casual footage — are valuable. Phone-camera tours of rooms taken in the months before the fire can establish the contents.
• Receipts and credit-card records. For larger items, original purchase records or credit-card transaction records establish the purchase.
• Insurance schedules. If your insurer maintained a schedule of insured personal property (for jewelry, art, electronics, or other higher-value items), keep a copy.
• Sentimental items. Items with significant emotional value — family heirlooms, artwork, irreplaceable items — should be specifically described, even if their dollar value is hard to quantify.

For personal-injury claims

If you were physically injured in the fire (burns, smoke-inhalation injuries, evacuation-related injuries, psychiatric injuries):

• Medical records. Every emergency-room visit, every hospital stay, every follow-up with a treating provider. Continuous documentation matters.
• Treatment timeline. A written narrative of the injury and the course of treatment, from the date of the fire forward, including any periods of incapacity.
• Out-of-pocket expenses. Co-pays, prescriptions, transportation to and from medical appointments, durable medical equipment.
• Lost income. Pay stubs, HR records of missed time, tax records establishing earnings before the injury.
• Treating-provider names and contact information so that records can be requested and providers can be reached for testimony if necessary.

For business-related claims

If you operated a business affected by the fire:

• Tax returns. Several years of business tax returns establish baseline operating performance.
• Profit-and-loss statements from before and after the fire.
• Lease or ownership documents for the business premises.
• Customer and vendor records. Documentation of pre-fire customer relationships and supply-chain commitments that were affected.
• Business-interruption insurance correspondence and payments. Parallel to first-party property insurance, business-interruption coverage typically operates on its own track.
• Documentation of efforts to reopen — temporary locations, rebuilding plans, communications with customers about the status of the business.

For wrongful-death claims

If a family member died in the fire or from injuries sustained in the fire:

• Death certificate. Issued by Los Angeles County or the State of California, depending on the specific facts.
• Family relationship documents. Marriage certificates, birth certificates, adoption records — whatever establishes the relationship between the deceased and the surviving claimant.
• Medical records of the decedent, particularly those related to the fire-caused injury or illness.
• Pre-fire documentation of the decedent's life — financial dependence of family members, household contributions, relationship documentation.
• Funeral and burial expenses.

A practical organization tip

Documentation tends to accumulate in piles — physical paper, scanned PDFs, emails, photographs spread across phones and cloud accounts. Putting structure on it pays off:

• A single shared folder (Dropbox, Google Drive, or similar) with subfolders by category
• A running log of what has been gathered and what is still outstanding
• Files named consistently so that documents can be found later

The firm can provide a starter folder structure and intake checklist for clients. The work of organizing is the client's; the value of organizing is in the eventual allocation.

If you have questions about what to document for your specific Eaton fire claim, please reach out.

This article is general information and not legal advice. Specific documentation requirements depend on the specific facts of each claim; specific situations need specific review with current authority.