The Los Angeles Police Department has released a report that identifies several shortcomings in its response to the devastating Palisades fire, including communication breakdowns, inconsistent record-keeping and poor coordination at times with other agencies — most notably the city’s Fire Department.
The after-action report called the January blaze a “once in a lifetime cataclysmic event” and praised the heroic actions of many officers, but said the LAPD’s missteps presented a “valuable learning opportunity” with more climate-related disasters likely looming in the future.
LAPD leaders released the 92-page report and presented the findings to the Police Commission at the civilian oversight panel’s public meeting Tuesday.
The report found that while the Fire Department was the lead agency, coordination with the LAPD was “poor” on Jan. 7, the first day of the fire. Though personnel from both agencies were working out of the same command post, they failed to “collectively establish a unified command structure or identify shared objectives, missions, or strategies,” the report said.
Uncertainty about who was in charge was another persistent issue, with more confusion sown by National Guard troops that were deployed to the area. Department leaders were given no clear guidelines on what the guard’s role would be when they arrived, the report said.
The mix-ups were the result of responding to a wildfire of unprecedented scale, officials said. At times the flames were advancing at 300 yards a minute, LAPD assistant chief Michael Rimkunas told the commission.
“Hopefully we don’t have to experience another natural disaster, but you never know,” Rimkunas said, adding that the endeavor was “one of the largest and most complex traffic control operations in its history.”
Between Jan. 11 and Jan. 16, when the LAPD’s operation was at its peak, more than 700 officers a day were assigned to the fire, the report said.
The report found that officials failed to maintain a chronological log about the comings and goings of LAPD personnel at the fire zone.
“While it is understandable that the life-threatening situation at hand took precedence over the completion of administrative documentation,” the report said, “confusion at the command post about how many officers were in the field “resulted in diminished situational awareness.”
After the fire first erupted, the department received more than 160 calls for assistance, many of them for elderly or disabled residents who were stuck in their homes — though the report noted that the disruption of cell service contributed to widespread confusion.
The communication challenges continued throughout the day, the report found.
Encroaching flames forced authorities to move their command post several times. An initial staging area, which was in the path of the evacuation route and the fire, was consumed within 30 minutes, authorities said.
But because of communication breakdowns caused by downed radio and cellphone towers, dispatchers sometimes had trouble reaching officers in the field and police were forced to “hand deliver” important paper documents from a command post to its staging area on Zuma Beach, about 20 miles away.
Several commissioners asked about reports of journalists being turned away from fire zones in the weeks that followed the fire’s outbreak.
Assistant Chief Dominic Choi said there was some trepidation about whether to allow journalists into the fire-ravaged area while authorities were still continuing their search for bodies of fire victims.
Commissioner Rasha Gerges Shields said that while she had some concerns about the LAPD’s performance, overall she was impressed and suggested that officers should be commended for their courage. The department has said that dozens of officers lost their homes to the fires.
The report also recommended that the department issue masks and personal protective equipment after there was a shortage for officers on the front lines throughout the first days of the blaze.
The Palisades fire was one of the costliest and most destructive disasters in city history, engulfing nearly 23,000 acres, leveling more than 6,000 structures and killing 12 people. More than 60,000 people were evacuated. The deaths of five people within L.A. city limits remain under investigation by the LAPD’s Major Crimes Division and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The LAPD reports details how at 11:15 a.m., about 45 minutes after the first 911 calls, the call was made to issue a citywide tactical alert, the report said. The department stayed in a heightened state of alert for 29 days, allowing it to draw resources from other parts of the city, but also meaning that certain calls would not receive a timely police response.
As the flames began to engulf a nearby hillside, more officers began responding to the area, including a contingent that had been providing security at a visit by President Trump.
Initially, LAPD officers operated in largely a rescue- and traffic-control role. But as the fire wore on, police began to conduct crime suppression sweeps in the evacuation zones where opportunistic burglars were breaking into homes they knew were empty.
In all, 90 crimes were reported in the fire zone, including four crimes against people, a robbery and three aggravated assaults, 46 property crimes, and 40 other cases, ranging from a weapons violation to identity theft. The department made 19 arrests.
The new report comes weeks after the city of Los Angeles put out its own assessment of the fire response — and on the heels of federal prosecutors arresting and charging a 29-year-old Uber driver with intentionally setting a fire Jan. 1 that later grew into the Palisades fire.
The LAPD’s Major Crimes and Robbery-Homicide units also worked with the ATF to investigate the fire’s cause.
When much of Altadena burned in January, it affected not just the city’s homes but also its businesses. Popular local shops went up in flames just like everything else, and work-from-home artisans — displaced from not just their residences but also their work spaces and all the materials contained within — were suddenly without a place to live or a place to work.
On the Westside, the Palisades fire, also in January, tore through Pacific Palisades and Malibu, forever changing the fabric of these tight-knit neighborhoods and small businesses. Although rebuilding efforts are underway, progress and construction are expected to take several years as residents and business owners deal with permit approval, insurance hindrances and inflation.
Even now, local businesses that remain have struggled to regain a foothold.
With the giving spirit in mind this holiday season, we’ve put together this list of gifts from Altadena, Pacific Palisades and Malibu businesses, all of whom were affected in some way by the Eaton and Palisades fires. Purchase one of these items and you’ll spread good cheer (and good money) around areas that still need all the help they can get.
If you make a purchase using some of our links, the L.A. Times may be compensated. Prices and availability of items and experiences in the Gift Guide and on latimes.com are subject to change.
The firestorms that broke out in January ravaged two distinctly different stretches of Los Angeles County: one with grand views of the Pacific Ocean, the other nestled against the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
But so far, a push from congressional Republicans to investigate the Jan. 7 firestorm and response has been focused almost exclusively on the Palisades fire, which broke out in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades and went on to burn parts of Malibu and surrounding areas.
In a letter to City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, two U.S. senators this week intensified that investigation, saying they want an enormous trove of documents on Los Angeles Fire Department staffing, wildfire preparations, the city’s water supply and many other topics surrounding the devastating blaze.
U.S. Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked for records related to several issues raised during and after the Palisades fire, including an empty reservoir and the failure to fully extinguish a previous fire that was later identified as the cause.
In contrast, the letter only briefly mentions the Eaton fire, which broke out in the unincorporated community of Altadena and spread to parts of Pasadena. That emergency was plagued by delayed evacuation alerts, deployment issues and allegations that electrical equipment operated by Southern California Edison sparked the blaze.
Both fires incinerated thousands of homes. Twelve people died in the Palisades fire. In the Eaton fire, all but one of the 19 who died were found in west Altadena, where evacuation alerts came hours after flames and smoke were threatening the area.
Scott and Johnson gave Harris-Dawson a deadline of Nov. 3 to produce records on several topics specific to the city of L.A.: “diversity, equity and inclusion” hiring policies at the city’s Fire Department; the Department of Water and Power’s oversight of its reservoirs; and the removal of Fire Chief Kristin Crowley by Mayor Karen Bass earlier this year.
Officials in Los Angeles County said they have not received such a letter dealing with either the Palisades fire or the Eaton fire.
A spokesperson for Johnson referred questions about the letter to Scott’s office. An aide to Scott told The Times this week that the investigation remains focused on the Palisades fire but could still expand. Some Eaton fire records were requested, the spokesperson said, because “they’re often inextricable in public reports.”
The senators — who both sit on the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — opened the probe after meeting with reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost a home in the Palisades fire and quickly became an outspoken critic of the city’s response to the fire and subsequent rebuilding efforts. At the time, the senators called the Palisades fire “an unacceptable failure of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.”
The investigation was initially billed as a look at the city’s emergency preparations, including the lack of water in a nearby reservoir and in neighborhood fire hydrants the night of the fire. The Times first reported that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, located in Pacific Palisades, had been closed for repairs for nearly a year.
The letter to Harris-Dawson seeks records relating to the reservoir as well as those dealing with “wildfire preparation, suppression, and response … including but not limited to the response to the Palisades and Lachman fires.”
Officials have said the Lachman fire, intentionally set Jan. 1, reignited six days later to become the Palisades fire. A suspect was recently arrested on suspicion of arson in the Lachman fire. Now, the senators are raising concerns about why that fire wasn’t properly contained.
The sweeping records request also seeks communications sent to and from each of the 15 council members and or their staff that mention the Palisades and Eaton fires. At this point, it’s unclear whether the city would have a substantial number of documents on the Eaton fire, given its location outside city limits.
Harris-Dawson did not provide comment. But Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, who serves on the council’s public safety committee, made clear that he thinks the senators are confused by Southern California’s geography — and the distinctions between city and county jurisdictions.
“MAGA Republicans couldn’t even look at a map before launching into this ridiculous investigation,” he said. “DEI did not cause the fires, and these senators should take their witch hunts elsewhere,” he said in a statement.
Officials in L.A. County, who have confronted their own hard questions about botched evacuation alerts and poor resource deployment during the Eaton fire, said they had not received any letters from the senators about either fire.
Neither Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger — who currently serves as board chair — nor Supervisor Lindsey Horvath had received such a document request, according to their aides. Barger represents Altadena, while Horvath’s district includes Pacific Palisades, Malibu and unincorporated communities affected by the Palisades fire.
Monday’s letter also seeks records “referring or relating to any reports or investigations of arson, burglary, theft, or looting” in fire-affected areas, as well as the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, the Palisades fire arson suspect. It also seeks documents on the council’s efforts to “dismantle systemic racism” — and whether such efforts affected the DWP or the Fire Department.
Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, a nonprofit group based in Harris-Dawson’s district, said he too views the inquiry from the two senators as a witch hunt — one that’s targeting L.A. city elected officials while ignoring Southern California Edison.
“There’s been reports that Edison was responsible for the Eaton fire, but there’s [nothing] that shows any concern about that,” he said.
Residents in Altadena have previously voiced concerns about what they viewed as disparities in the Trump administration’s response to the two fires. The Palisades fire tore through the mostly wealthy neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades and Malibu — home to celebrities who have since kept the recovery in the spotlight. Meanwhile, many of Altadena’s Black and working-class residents say their communities have been left behind.
In both areas, however, there has been growing concern that now-barren lots will be swiftly purchased by wealthy outside investors, including those who are based outside of the United States.
Scott, in a news release issued this week, said the congressional investigation will also examine whether Chinese companies are “taking advantage” of the fire recovery. The Times has not been able to independently verify such claims.
A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
FRIDAY
Garfield (6-2, 4-0) vs. Roosevelt (4-4, 3-1) at East Los Angeles College, 7:30 p.m.
Throw out the records. Close the blinds. It’s East L.A. Classic week. Garfield should be a heavy favorite with running back Ceasar Reyes coming off a school-record 420 yards rushing performance. Roosevelt, though, has won three straight Eastern League games. Jason Moreno is Roosevelt’s version of Reyes. The pick: Garfield.
King/Drew (7-1, 3-0) at Crenshaw (7-1, 3-0), 7 p.m.
King/Drew has never won the Coliseum League title. This is the Eagels’ best chance behind top athlete Jayden Mitchell. Crenshaw has continued to improve behind receiver/defensive back Deance’ Lewis and quarterback Danniel Flowers. The pick: Crenshaw.
A look at this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
THURSDAY
Los Alamitos (7-0) vs. Edison (5-2) at SoFi Stadium, 5 p.m.
The Alpha League begins with a terrific matchup. Los Alamitos hasn’t played since Sept. 26, so the Griffins might start slow, but their offensive line has been key for quarterback Colin Creason and running back Kamden Tillis. Edison needs a big game from quarterback Sam Thomson, who has nine touchdown passes with one interception. The pick: Los Alamitos.
FRIDAY
St. John Bosco (7-0, 2-0) vs. Santa Margarita (5-2, 2-0) at Trabuco Hills, 7 p.m.
The Trinity League title could be decided in this game. Few teams this season have been able to deal with St. John Bosco’s high-scoring offense and aggressive defense. Santa Margarita showed last week in a 7-6 win over Mater Dei that it has an elite defense. The Eagles will need offensive improvement under first-year coach Carson Palmer. The pick: St. John Bosco.
This week’s City Section top 10 high school football rankings by The Times:
1. BIRMINGHAM (4-3): The Patriots have 51 consecutive victories against City Section opponents, so any computer rankings that don’t have them at the top are ignoring history.
2. CARSON (4-3): The Colts are on collision path to face San Pedro on Oct. 30 to determine the Marine League championship.
3. PALISADES (7-0): Jack Thomas had 460 yards passing and five touchdowns in a 56-54 win over Venice.
4. SAN PEDRO (4-4): Pirates quarterback Seth Solorio has passed the 2,000-yard mark this season.
5. GARFIELD (5-2): The Eastern League championship will be decided Friday night at South Gate.
6. KENNEDY (6-1): In Diego Montes the Golden Cougars trust.
7. EAGLE ROCK (5-2): Northern League title showdown at Franklin on Friday night.
8. KING/DREW (5-1): Sophomore defensive lineman Kenneth Webb is having big season.
9. VENICE (3-4): Joshua Aaron rushed for 170 yards and four touchdowns in loss to Palisades.
10. FRANKLIN (6-1): Senior Albert Cardenas is coming through at quarterback.
As local and state leaders celebrate the fastest wildfire debris removal in modern American history, the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates — a rent-controlled, 170-unit enclave off Pacific Coast Highway — remains largely untouched since it burned down in January.
Weeds grow through cracks in the broken pavement. A community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid. There’s row after row of mangled, rusting metal remains of former homes.
Yet just across a nearly 1,500-foot-long shared property line, the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park — like thousands of fire-destroyed properties cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the last nine months — is now a field of cleaned, empty lots.
The difference in treatment is based on standards used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which directed the corps’ cleanup efforts. FEMA, which focused on providing assistance to local residents — and not properties owned by real estate companies — argued in letters to state officials that since it could rely on the Tahitian’s owners to rebuild the heart of Pacific Palisades’ affordable housing, it would make an exception and include the property. However, it said it could not trust the owners of the Palisades Bowl to do the same.
The Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates, right, and the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park, left, where fire debris has been removed.
(Eric Thayer/For The Times)
Both mobile home parks requested federal cleanup services, records obtained from the corps show. And both Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles lobbied the agency to include the properties in its mission.
In a May letter approving the corps’ cleanup of the Tahitian, FEMA noted that the property, riddled with asbestos and perched above the busy Pacific Coast Highway, was a public health hazard and that the owners, with limited insurance money, probably would struggle to pay for the cleanup. FEMA Regional Administrator Robert Fenton also wrote to the state Office of Emergency Services, saying that he was “confident” including Tahitian “will accelerate the reopening of the park for its displaced tenants and ensure the community retains this affordable residential enclave in an otherwise affluent area.”
When it came to the Bowl, FEMA took a different tone. The agency said in a July letter to the state agency that with flatter terrain, the Bowl did not pose the same health hazard as the Tahitian Terrace did, and with $1.2 million in insurance money already disbursed to the property owners, it had “no indication the owner lacks the financial means to remove the debris independently.”
FEMA’s letter also noted that unlike with the Tahitian property, “FEMA cannot conclude that Palisades Bowl represents a preserved or guaranteed source of long-term affordable housing,” based on the owners’ track record.
The Bowl’s former residents — artists, teachers, lifeguards, boat riggers, bookstore owners and chefs — are now scattered across Southern California and the globe. Speaking to The Times, many felt helpless, frustrated and unsure whether they’ll be able to return. Many, nine months after the fire, are running out of the insurance money and government aid they’ve relied on to pay rent for temporary housing.
“We’re the great underdogs of the greatest American disaster in history, apparently. This little community,” said Rashi Kaslow, a boat rigger who lived in the Bowl for more than 17 years. “The people of the only two trailer parks — the isolated, actual affordable housing communities … you would think that we would be the No. 1 priority.”
“You would think that we would be the number one priority.”
— Rashi Kaslow, Pacific Palisades Bowl resident
The Bowl began as a Methodist camp in the 1890s, and was developed into a mobile home park in the 1950s. For decades, the Bowl and the Tahitian remained among the only places along the California coast still under rent control, preserved by the Mello Act, and consequently, some of the only affordable housing in the Palisades.
“We’re all connected through this legacy of what we had,” said Travis Hayden, who moved into the Bowl in 2018, “and I think our greatest fear is that it goes away.”
Nine months after the fire, the Palisades Bowl’s community pool is filled with a murky, green liquid.
(Eric Thayer/For The Times)
Many longtime residents never planned to leave.
“I was going to have my bed put in the living room, with a large window wall, and lay and watch the sun set and the ocean. That was going to be the end of my life,” said Colleen Baker, an 82-year-old closet designer. “I don’t, of course, have it anymore. … It’s all gone.”
The Bowl was passed among a few families and local real estate moguls over the decades.
In 2005, Edward Biggs of Northern California bought the Bowl. When Biggs, who rarely appeared at the park, died in 2021, his real estate empire was fractured between his first wife, Charlotte, and his second wife, Loretta, further complicating the Bowl’s management.
Since the fire, residents have heard virtually nothing from ownership. Neither Colby Biggs — Charlotte and Edward Biggs’ grandson who began co-managing the park after Charlotte’s death — nor lawyers with Loretta Biggs’ real estate company, responded to a request for comment.
What Bowl residents have seen is the corps descend on other Palisades properties — clearing burned-out cars, piles of rubble and charred trees from single-family homes as well as the Tahitian — while leaving the Bowl untouched.
At the center of FEMA’s reasoning to refuse cleanup for the Bowl: “The prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.”
“The prior actions of the owner demonstrate a lack of commitment to reopen the park for its displaced residents.”
— FEMA, regarding the owners of the Pacific Palisades Bowl
Over the two decades the Biggs family has owned the Bowl, residents have become painfully familiar with this “lack of commitment.”
In 2006, some residents sued Biggs and the previous owner, accusing them of failing to repair and stabilize the bluff behind the park that, the previous year, crumbled after heavy rain, leaving some units uninhabitable.
A year later, Biggs fell into a legal dispute with city of Los Angeles over a plan to split up the property that residents characterized as a move to circumvent rent control.
It prompted Biggs’ attorney to send residents a letter in 2009, stating that the inability to raise rent and the never-ending series of lawsuits made the park unprofitable and that he may file for bankruptcy. It also claimed that Biggs already had received a $40-million offer from an international hotel developer, the Palisadian-Post reported. No sale ever went through.
In 2013, Biggs decided to build an “upscale resort community” instead, by buying up resident’s homes, demolishing them, and building two-story, manufactured homes on the properties. To do so, he planned to target the homes of the residents suing him over a landslide on the property, the California 2nd District Court of Appeal found.
The residents ended up winning $8.9 million from Biggs. The case with the city eventually made it to the California Supreme Court, which sided with residents and the city.
While residents agonize over FEMA’s decision, the experiences have led many to ultimately agree with FEMA’s reasoning: They cannot trust that the owners intend to preserve their park as affordable housing.
Former Bowl residents met atop the Asilomar bluff overlooking their old community on Oct. 3 — the day after a city-imposed deadline for the owners to remove the debris — to call on local leaders to act.
Most skipped the formality of a handshake, going in for hugs. They reminisced. Many took a moment in silence to look down. Rows of empty dirt lots to the left — the Tahitian — and rows of rubble still sitting to the right — their homes.
Residents of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Home Estates meet on a hill above the park in Pacific Palisades.
(Eric Thayer/For The Times)
Nine months after the fire, many former Bowl residents are trying to figure out what to do when their temporary housing insurance money and aid runs dry. They still have little certainty when — or whether — they’ll ever be able to return.
Baker, the closet designer, found a 388-square-foot mobile home in Santa Monica to live in.
“I’m in the very sad stage, and I’m realizing my losses,” she said. “You go to look for something and you go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s gone.’ That’s an everyday occurrence.”
Tahitian’s residents are stuck in a different limbo: With cleared lots, they wait for the property owners to decide whether to rebuild — adding back the concrete slabs for homes and building back the common spaces — or whether to sell the park to its residents, Chase Holiday, a Tahitian resident, said.
“We’re pretty much ready,” Holiday said. Indeed, Tahitian’s homeowners’ association has been in talks with the owners. Barring the complicated paperwork, “we could buy the park tomorrow.”
Although the wait is excruciating, “I feel pretty confident that either we’ll buy it or they’ll rebuild,” she said. But with little clarity over when that would happen, “the bigger question is, will I want to?”
On Wednesday, a handful of Bowl residents — including Jon Brown, a real estate agent who has become one of the Bowl’s leaders in the fight to rebuild — packed a board of Building and Safety commissioners meeting, pushing for the board to finally declare the property a public nuisance, which would allow the city to do the cleanup work and send the owners the bill.
The L.A. County Department of Public Works estimated that, at the end of September, about 20 properties in each burn area, Palisades and Eaton, had failed to clear debris.
In a letter mailed and posted at the Bowl, dated Sept. 2, the department had given the owners 30 days to complete the work or risk being declared a public nuisance.
At the Wednesday meeting, Danielle Mayer, an attorney whose law firm represents Loretta Biggs’ company, asked the commission for more time.
“This community has seen these park owners act with such a lack of integrity for years and years.”
— Jon Brown, Pacific Palisades Bowl resident
“This community has seen these park owners act with such a lack of integrity for years and years,” Brown said to the board. “They never do anything unless they are absolutely forced to.”
The board ultimately declared the Bowl a public nuisance.
It’s a small but significant step, with a long road still ahead. The Department of Building and Safety has yet to provide any details for how and when it will remove the debris. And the Tahitian’s still-empty lots serve as a reminder that debris removal isn’t the end of the battle.
Yet, Bowl residents remain optimistic that, someday, they will be able to buy the park from the owners and finally serve as the caretakers of the eccentric and beloved affordable community.
To residents, the Bowl was something special. They cared for one another. They surfed together, let each other’s cats in and celebrated holidays on the small community lawn. They raised their kids in the Bowl and sometimes bickered over politics and annoyances, as any proper family does.
“If the people were permitted to go back,” saidresident John Evans, “that would just restart — probably with a vengeance.”
Times staff writer Tony Briscoe contributed to this report.
They had come to hear plans for the privately funded rebuilding of the Palisades Recreation Center that was badly damaged in the January fire that tore through Pacific Palisades.
Most of the hundreds crammed into the rec center’s old gym cheered about plans for new park space, pickleball courts and basketball hoops to be paid for by some of Los Angeles’ wealthiest and most prominent philanthropists.
But that Tuesday night — nine months to the day since the Palisades fire began — they were angry, too. With City Hall.
During public comments, Jeremy Padawer, whose home in the Palisades burned, said of the city-owned rec center: “We need this. We need churches, we need synagogues, we need grocery stores. We need hope.”
But he said he didn’t trust the municipal government to run the beloved rec center and reminded the crowd that the city, which is navigating the complex recovery from one of the costliest and most destructive fire in its history, is “a billion dollars in debt.”
Firefighters extinguish hot spots at the Community United Methodist Church of Pacific Palisades on Jan. 12.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“What are they going to do with this brand new facility when [philanthropists] turn the keys over to them?” he asked. “Do we trust them?”
“No!” the crowd shouted.
He added: “Where is Mayor Bass?” The audience cheered. Someone hollered back: “Lost cause!”
Bass and other city leaders dispute they have neglected the fire-ravaged Palisades, but the scene encapsulated the anger and disappointment with City Hall that has been building in one of Los Angeles’ wealthiest neighborhoods. There, scores of yard signs depict the mayor wearing clown makeup à la the Joker. On one cleared lot, an enormous sign, roughly 7 feet tall, stands where a home once did, declaring: “KAREN BASS RESIGN NOW.”
Residents have blamed city leaders for a confusing rebuilding process that they say is being carried out by so many government agencies and consultants that it’s difficult to discern who is in charge. They also say that the city is moving too slowly — a charge that Bass and her team vehemently reject.
Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, speaks during a news conference announcing the arrest of 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht in connection with the Palisades fire on Wednesday.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
On Wednesday, a day after the meeting at the rec center, federal prosecutors announced that the deadly Palisades fire was a flare-up of a small arson fire that had smoldered for six days, even after city firefighters thought they had it contained. Authorities said they had arrested Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old Uber driver who is suspected of setting the initial fire on New Year’s Day.
Hours after the arrest was announced, the Los Angeles Fire Department — which failed to pre-deploy engines despite extreme wind warnings — released its long-awaited after-action report that said firefighters were hampered by an ineffective process for recalling them back to work, as well as poor communication, inexperienced leadership, and a lack of resources.
Many Palisadians had already suspected the fire was a rekindling of the smaller blaze, said Maryam Zar, who runs the citizen-led Palisades Recovery Coalition. But the onslaught of news landed “like a ton of bricks” in the frustrated community.
Zar got home late after attending the meeting at the rec center Tuesday night. Then, on Wednesday morning, her phone buzzed with text message chains from Palisadians telling one another to brace for a traumatic day — not necessarily because they would learn how the fire started, “but because we all knew that it was so unnecessary,” she said.
While people were happy there was “finally some accountability” with the arrest, she said, conversations in the Palisades quickly turned to: “Had the city been prepared, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Zar, who has spent more than a decade serving on and founding volunteer organizations and task forces in Pacific Palisades, said she was well accustomed to byzantine government processes.
“But for the first time, I’m worried because the wheels just aren’t turning,” she said.
A large sign on a fire-scorched lot at Alma Real Drive and El Cerco Place in Pacific Palisades calls on Mayor Karen Bass to resign.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
One project that has, for some, become surprisingly emblematic of working with the city is the promised-but-delayed installation of a small temporary space for the Palisades Branch Library, which stood next to the rec center campus before it was destroyed.
Cameron Pfizenmaier, president of the volunteer group Friends of the Palisades Library, said Los Angeles Public Library officials told her in July that the city would be placing a 60-by-60-foot prefabricated building — essentially a large trailer — on a grassy space at the entrance to the rec center.
It would include lockers for patrons to pick up books ordered online, computers, printers and scanners, and public meeting space. The building, she said she was told, would be up and running by August.
Then, she said, the building’s installation was delayed to October. And the location was changed, with the temporary space — which probably will stand for several years while the library is being rebuilt — now set to be placed atop two tennis courts at the rec center.
In an email to The Times this week, Bass’ office said that the building’s installation is expected to begin in November and that it should open by the end of January.
“The community is losing faith that the city is actually able to do anything,” said Pfizenmaier, who lost her home. “It’s such a missed opportunity for good news and hope.
“It’s not that hard to drop a bungalow and hook it into power. … The only thing that’s making it hard is the bureaucracy that’s preventing it.”
People play tennis at the Palisades Recreation Center on Oct. 5.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Yet Palisadeans themselves seem divided on the library, with some decrying the proposed use of the rec center’s grassy expanse, a rare green oasis in the charred neighborhood. Reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his home, posted a photo of the space on Instagram, complaining that “Karen Bass and her city goons want to put a temporary library on top of it” and that he figured “the library will be designed in the shape of an empty water reservoir.”
Others have blasted the decision to place the structure atop the popular tennis courts.
In a statement to The Times, Bass’ office said the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks and the Los Angeles Public Library are gathering community feedback about the modular building, which the two agencies will share. They also are still determining how to hook up plumbing, sewage and electricity on site and are ordering books, computers, supplies and furniture, the mayor’s office said.
“This effort needed to be coordinated with and adjusted to the plans to redesign and rebuild the Palisades Rec Center to ensure the temporary site would not impede future construction,” Bass’ office said.
From the days just after the fire through July, the library lot on Alma Real Drive served as a staging area for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s emergency response, including distributing water and providing electric vehicle charging stations for Palisades residents, Bass’ office said.
Bass has issued a swath of executive orders to aid recovery, including providing tax relief for fire-affected businesses and streamlining permitting. And she has touted the speed with which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency, cleared debris from the library lot, citing her own “call to prioritize public spaces in the debris removal operation.”
The lot was cleared in April in six days — 24 days ahead of schedule.
Bass’ office said the L.A. Public Library is working to select an architect from a list of preapproved contractors through the Bureau of Engineering “to expedite the rebuilding of the permanent library.”
Joyce Cooper, director of branch library services for the library, said in an interview that the Palisades Branch Library held more than 34,000 items, including books, audiobooks, DVDs and CDs.
“Pretty much our entire collection — everything was lost,” Cooper said. “It was a community hub. When the fire destroyed the branch, it took that away from everybody.”
The city established limited library services in the nascent Pacific Palisades in the 1920s, and the community got its first branch library in 1952.
The most recent facility opened in 2003 and was damaged by a 2020 electrical fire that destroyed much of the children’s collection, said Laura Schneider, a board member and former longtime president for Friends of the Library.
After a long closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers worked hard to draw people back to the library, Schneider said. Children and teenagers competed in writing contests, volunteers hosted big weekend book sales, and older people sought help with computers.
Schneider — whose still-uninhabitable home was damaged by the January fire — was first drawn to the library as a young mom. She moved to the Palisades when her son, now 23, was 2 years old and was enchanted by the big, circular window with a window seat in the fairy-tale-themed children’s section.
“I really believe it’s the heart of the Palisades,” Schneider said. “It’s a place that welcomes everyone. … There’s no community center. There’s no senior center in the Palisades. The library is as close to that as it comes.”
At the start of Tuesday night’s meeting at the Palisades Recreation Center, Jimmy Kim, general manager of the city’s cash-strapped parks department, made clear that questions about the location of the temporary library were “outside the scope” of the gathering and would not be answered. Many in the audience groaned.
The recreation center will be rebuilt through a public-private partnership that Bass and her onetime political adversary, billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso, promoted in a joint appearance in the spring. There, Bass told reporters that the city’s job was to ensure the project was able to move quickly through the permitting process and that “the role of government is to get out of the way.”
Private donations from Caruso’s philanthropic group Steadfast LA will help pay for the roughly $30-million rebuilding of the rec center. Another major donor is LA Strong Sports, a group started by Lakers coach JJ Redick, a Palisades resident who coached a youth basketball team at the center and appeared at the Tuesday meeting.
Speaker after speaker praised the private donors for making speed a priority.
“I’m so grateful that this is going through private [development] and not city because otherwise it would not be up for another 10 years,” said one woman, who said she had lived in the Palisades for two decades and had an 8-year-old boy who used the park often.
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She added: “I just want to thank Rick Caruso for being the savior of our community.”
Caruso — who defeated Bass in the Palisades by wide a margin in the 2022 mayoral election — smiled and waved at her from the front of the room as the audience clapped.
A 15-year-old girl came to the microphone and said the rec center was where she learned to ride a bike and where her brothers played Saturday basketball games. Please, she pleaded with the donors in the room, hurry.
“Please don’t let us age out,” she said. “Please don’t let this take so long that kids never get to experience what I have. We’re ready to come back stronger. We just need help getting there.”
Caruso told the audience he expected construction to begin in January and for the center to reopen in January 2027. He said his group will not operate the space — the city will — but that he thought it would be in better hands if a community foundation took it over from the government.
At the end of the meeting, a City Hall staff member told the crowd that Bass had sent several staffers that night. The mayor, she promised, was listening.
When federal prosecutors arrested a man Wednesday for setting a small fire that reignited days later into the deadly Palisades blaze, they suggested the arrest largely settled the matter of blame.
“A single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen,” Bill Essayli, acting United States attorney for Central California, said as he announced the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, a 29-year-old Uber driver.
But the new details they offered about the cause of the fire only added to residents’ anger and dismay about how city officials handled the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,700 structures across Pacific Palisades and Malibu. It also renewed calls for City Hall to be held accountable.
The Santa Ynez Reservoir in Pacific Palisades was going through maintenance and empty during the Palisades fire. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Until this week, the focus of Palisades residents has been on a reservoir that was supposed to be a key source of water for the neighborhood being dry and other issues related to the fire response. But federal investigators concluded Wednesday that L.A. firefighters thought they had put out the small fire Rinderknecht allegedly set Jan. 1 only for it to smolder and burn underground and then rekindle in heavy winds Jan. 7.
This latest revelation is fueling debate over whether the city of L.A. or the state of California can be found civilly liable for its role in the fire.
Already, a flurry of complaints have been filed over the last 10 months accusing various L.A and California officials of failing to prepare for and respond to the fire.
Most legal experts agree that cases against government entities are tough because California law gives public officials broad immunity from failing to provide fire protection. Some argue that a criminal case against Rinderknecht could ultimately hurt residents’ civil complaints.
“Now those civil cases are dead in the water, because you have an arsonist,” said Neama Rahmani, president of the L.A.-based law firm West Coast Trial Lawyers, which is handling Eaton fire cases against Edison.
“That ultimately means that the already weak civil cases against the government became even weaker,” he said, “because now you have the person who’s really at fault for all this.”
EPA crews comb the ruins for hazardous material at a home on Miami Way, that was burned in the Palisades Fire, Thursday, February 6, 2025.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
But lawyers suing the government on behalf of Pacific Palisades residents disagree, and maintain that Rinderknecht’s arrest does not undermine their case.
Just hours after federal law enforcement officials announced Rinderknecht’s arrest, attorneys representing thousands of Palisades fire victims filed a new master complaint against the city of L.A. and the state of California, plus about a dozen new defendants, including Southern California Edison, Charter Communications and AT&T.
“We never allege that the state or the city started the Palisades fire,” said Alexander “Trey” Robertson, an attorney representing 3,300 Palisades fire victims. Rather, he said, their case against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the California Department of Parks and Recreation hinged on the lack of preparations in advance of the fire and the response after the fire started. “That has nothing to do with what started the Lachman fire,” he said. “It is what transpired after that fact.”
The 198-page complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, was not a response to Rinderknecht’s arrest or the new details provided by federal prosecutors. Wednesday just happened to be the deadline a judge set for lawyers to file an omnibus complaint on behalf of 10,000 residents and business owners.
Robertson noted that his complaint did not include the Los Angeles Fire Department: California governmentcode gives it broad immunity against claims of negligent firefighting.
But Robertson argued that the LADWP is liable, because the draining of the Santa Ynez reservoir resulted in fire hydrants running dry and their energized power lines came down on homes and vegetation that ignited additional fires. And the state of California is also liable, he said, because it did not inspect its land in the days between the Lachman and Palisades fires to ensure that no smoldering embers or residual heat remained that could reignite during the predicted Santa Ana wind event.
Robertson said there is case law that holds that a public entity is liable for a “dangerous condition” allowed to exist on its property that causes a fire.
“We allege that the embers from the Lachman Fire which the state allowed to burn for six days on its land (Topanga State Park) constituted a ‘dangerous condition of public property.’ This claim is expressly authorized by statute and not barred by the immunity statutes.”
Rahmani, whose law firm is handling cases against Edison in the Eaton fire, said that would be a very tough ‘dangerous condition’ case.
“What was the dangerous condition here that caused this fire?” he asked. “You’re saying the state has a legal duty. Think of all the hundreds of thousands of square miles of state parks in California to inspect the land. I don’t think any judge would say that there’s a legal duty to inspect forest land for smoldering fire.”
David Levine, a professor of law at UC San Francisco, said Wednesday’s arrest ultimately didn’t seem to change the limited liability public officials have in a fire through government immunity.
“It would be hard to prove liability on that because they’re going to have so much protection due to immunity,” Levine said. “Because these are public entities, they’re not going to be liable for punitive damages.”
Still, Levine said, plaintiff lawyers’ could try to thread the needle by using a ‘dangerous condition’ exception. “The statutes allow for that kind of a claim, but you have to prove it,” he said. “That’s a factual matter that would have to be developed.”
Rahmani said he always thought the cases against government entities in the Palisades fire were weak because California statute gives officials broad immunity from failing to provide fire protection.
“I personally feel that they’re leading people on, giving them hope that does not exist,” Rahmani said.
The emergence of a criminal suspect in the Palisades fire further hindered attorneys’ case, Rahmani said, because judges and juries tend to put all the fault on the criminal, even if there was a claim for negligence. “Because you have an intentional criminal act,” he said, “liability would have to be apportioned between the bad actors.”
Jurors, he said, already tended to be reluctant to put a lot of liability on government defendants. “They’re thinking, ‘Hey, my taxes are gonna go up, who’s gonna pay for all this?’.. That’s why it’s very hard to get massive verdicts against government entities.”
Asked about potential liability for the state or other jurisdictions in the Palisades fire resulting from the reignition of an earlier fire, California Gov. Newsom said, “We will look at the facts and judge on the basis of those facts.”
“When it comes to the issue of fire liability, I know a thing or two, going back to Paradise…” Newsom added. “This is done without political interference. The facts need to be pursued.”
Some lawyers expect that claims will be filed against Uber, Rinderknecht’s employer.
“Obviously, Uber is going to fight that,” Rahmani said. “In terms of someone to go after, Uber seems to me to be the only entity, and that’s gonna be a tough argument.”
Legal experts appear to agree on one thing: Even if Rinderknecht is convicted, he cannot possibly compensate the thousands of residents in the affluent coastal neighborhood of Pacific Palisades who lost loved ones and homes.
“I’ll assume he’s not an heir of Elon Musk or Estee Lauder,” Levine said. “The private and public loss is so vast here. Whatever assets this guy has, I would say, wouldn’t even qualify as a drop in the bucket.”
“Criminal justice — having someone be held accountable — is important,” Rahmani said. “But obviously, as far as money in the bank, it’s not going to be helpful.”
If an arsonist was found responsible in the Eaton fire, Rahmani said, that would have a huge impact on legal claims.
“That would be a home run for Edison,” Rahmani said. “That would save them and the California Fire fund billions of dollars, because then they wouldn’t be a fault. It wouldn’t be their tower. It wouldn’t be the electrical fire. This sort of arson with an accelerant, it would completely change the game, and the value of those claims would go to almost nothing.”
Times Staff Writer Daniel Miller contributed to this report
Los Angeles firefighters were hampered by a lack of resources for red flag weather conditions in their initial response to the Palisades fire, an internal after-action review report found.
The long-awaited 70-page report, produced by the Los Angeles Fire Department, was released late Wednesday afternoon on the heels of an announcement by federal prosecutors that they had arrested and charged a man with intentionally setting a fire on Jan. 1 that later reignited and became the Palisades fire.
Federal investigators determined that the Jan. 7 fire was a so-called holdover from the Jan. 1 fire, continuing to smolder and burn underground after firefighters thought they had extinguished it. The investigators said that heavy winds six days later caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground in what became one of the costliest and most destructive disasters in city history.
In its after-action report, the Fire Department listed almost 100 challenges that firefighters faced during the Palisades fire, including an inability to secure the origin of the fire, an ineffective process for recalling firefighters who were off-duty to come back into work, and fire chiefs with little to no experience handling such a major incident. During the initial attack, the report said, most firefighters worked for more than 36 hours without rest.
The report cited a delay in communicating evacuation orders, which resulted in spontaneous evacuations without structured traffic control, causing people to block routes to the fire, the report said. The initial staging area, which was in the path of the evacuation route and the fire, was consumed by flames within 30 minutes, the report said.
The Palisades fire, which started at 10:30 a.m. Jan. 7, was one of the costliest and most destructive disasters in city history, leveling thousands of homes and killing 12 people.
A Times investigation found that LAFD officials did not pre-deploy any engines to the Palisades ahead of the fire, despite warnings about extreme weather. In preparing for the winds, the department staffed up only five of more than 40 engines available to supplement the regular firefighting force.
Those engines could have been pre-positioned in the Palisades and elsewhere, as had been done in the past during similar weather.
A look at three of this week’s top high school football games in the Southland:
THURSDAY
Leuzinger (4-1, 1-0) vs. Palos Verdes (4-2, 1-0) at SoFi Stadium, 8:30 p.m.
It’s going to be a late night in Inglewood as these two schools vie for what could be the decisive game to determine the Bay League championship. Both have outstanding quarterbacks, Ryan Rakowski for Palos Verdes and Russell Sekona for Leuzinger. Both schools have played challenging schedules. A field goal could decide it. Loyola plays Gardena Serra at 5 p.m. The pick: Leuzinger.
FRIDAY
Santa Margarita (4-1, 1-0) vs. Mater Dei (4-1) at Santa Ana Stadium, 7 p.m.
If first-year coach Carson Palmer of Santa Margarita doesn’t know about the physicality of the Trinity League, he’s about to find out. Mater Dei’s defense will be coming after quarterback Trace Johnson. If the Eagles can put together a running game, that would help. Santa Margarita has an outstanding secondary to test Mater Dei’s talented receiving group. The pick: Mater Dei.
Palisades (6-0, 1-0) at Venice (3-3,1-0), 7 p.m.
It’s a Western League showdown featuring Venice’s stingy defense against a Palisades offense that hasn’t been held below 35 points this season. Quarterback Jack Thomas of Palisades has 23 touchdown passes with two interceptions. Venice has the speed to prevent big plays. The pick: Venice.
Federal investigators have determined that the wildfire that leveled much of Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7 was a so-called “holdover” from a smaller fire that was set intentionally on New Year’s Day, about a week earlier.
After Los Angeles firefighters suppressed the Jan. 1 fire known as the Lachman fire, it continued to smolder and burn underground, “unbeknownst to anyone,” according to federal officials. They said heavy winds six days later caused the underground fire to surface and spread above ground in what became one of the costliest and most destructive disasters in city history.
The revelations — unveiled in a criminal complaint and attached affidavit Wednesday charging the alleged arsonist, Jonathan Rinderknecht — raise questions about what the Los Angeles Fire Department could have done to prevent the conflagration in the days leading up to the expected windstorm on Jan. 7 and the extraordinary fire risk that would come with it.
“This affidavit puts the responsibility on the fire department,” said Ed Nordskog, former head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s arson unit. “There needs to be a commission examining why this rekindled fire was allowed to reignite.”
He added: “The arsonist set the first fire, but the Fire Department proactively has a duty to do certain things.”
A Times investigation found that LAFD officials did not pre-deploy any engines to the Palisades ahead of the Jan. 7 fire, despite warnings about extreme weather. In preparing for the winds, the department staffed up only five of more than 40 engines available to supplement the regular firefighting force.
Those engines could have been pre-positioned in the Palisades and elsewhere, as had been done in the past during similar weather.
Kenny Cooper, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who was involved in the investigation into the Palisades fire’s origin, said the blame for the fire’s re-ignition lies solely with the person who started it.
“That fire burned deep within the ground, in roots and in structure, and remained active for several days,” Cooper said. “No matter how good they are, they can’t see that, right?”
But, he said, wildland firefighters commonly patrol for days or weeks to prevent re-ignitions.
When he worked at a state forestry agency, he said, “we would have a lightning strike, and it would hit a tree, and it would burn for days, sometimes weeks, and then ignite into a forest fire. We would go suppress that, and then every day, for weeks on end, we would patrol those areas to make sure they didn’t reignite,” he said. “If we saw evidence of smoke or heat, then we would provide resources to that. So that, I know that’s a common practice, and it’s just, it’s a very difficult fire burning underground.”
The affidavit provides a window into the firefighting timeline on Jan. 1, when just after midnight, the Lachman fire was ignited near a small clearing near the Temescal Ridge Trail.
12:13 a.m.: An image taken from a UCSD camera, approximately two-tenths of a mile away, shows a bright spot in the upper left — the Lachman fire.
12:20 a.m.: Rinderknecht drives down Palisades Drive, passing fire engines heading up Palisades Drive, responding to the fire.
That night, the LAFD, with help from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, used water drops from aircraft and hose lines, as well as handlines dug by L.A. County crews, to attack the fire, according to the complaint. Firefighters continued suppression efforts during the day on Jan. 1, wetting down areas within the fire perimeter. When the suppression efforts were over, the affidavit said, the fire crews left fire hoses on site, in case they needed to be redeployed.
Jan. 2: LAFD personnel returned to the scene to collect the fire hoses. According to the affidavit, it appeared to them that the fire was fully extinguished.
But investigators determined that during the Lachman fire, a firebrand became seated within the dense vegetation, continuing to smolder and burn within the roots underground. Strong winds brought the embers to the surface, to grow into a deadly conflagration.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of starting the Pacific Palisades fire in Los Angeles that killed 12 people and destroyed more than 6,000 homes in January.
Justice department officials said evidence collected from 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht’s digital devices showed an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a burning city.
The fire was sparked on 7 January near a popular hiking trail overlooking the wealthy coastal neighbourhood.
The Eaton Fire, ignited the same day in the Los Angeles area, killed another 19 people and destroyed about 9,400 structures. The cause of that fire remains unclear. Mr Rinderknecht will appear in court in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
The suspect allegedly started the fire in the Pacific Palisades on New Year’s Day. That blaze smouldered underground for days before it spread above ground.
Mr Rinderknecht was arrested in Florida on Tuesday and has been charged with destruction of property by means of fire, Acting US Attorney Bill Essayli said at a press conference on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
“The arrest, we hope, will offer a measure of justice to all those impacted,” Mr Essayli said.
Officials said further charges – including murder for those who were killed – could come in the future.
The suspect was familiar with the area because he was a former resident of Pacific Palisades, officials said. Since the fires, he relocated to Florida.
He lit the fire with an open flame after he completed a ride as an Uber driver on New Year’s Eve. Days later that fire spread and became one of the most damaging in Los Angeles history.
Officials said that the suspect had lied to investigators.
Among the thousands of structures destroyed in the fires were the homes of a number of celebrities including Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton and Jeff Bridges.
Trailing at halftime for the first time all season, Palisades faced its toughest test so far and passed with flying colors to stay unbeaten Friday night in San Pedro.
Seeing his potent passing attack sputtering, coach Dylen Smith switched to the ground game in the second half and the Dolphins overcame a 13-point deficit to pull out a 35-28 intersectional victory over host Mary Star of the Sea.
“My message at halftime was we need to run the ball and we don’t need to win the game on one pass,” said Smith, who piloted Palisades to the City Section Division I final last fall. “We finally had a collective effort in the fourth quarter, Harrison Carter ran hard and the defense made stops when it needed to.”
Carter caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jack Thomas for the first points of the second half and later took a pitch around left end for a 50-yard score that cut the Dolphins’ deficit to 28-21 with 5:47 left in the third quarter.
After drawing double coverage and being held to one catch through three and a half quarters, star receiver Demare Dezeurn caught two touchdown passes with less than six minutes left, the second a juggling 46-yarder for the go-ahead score with 1:21 remaining.
On its ensuing drive Mary Star marched to Palisades’ 20, but Carter broke up a pass in the flat on fourth and 10 with 12 seconds left to seal the win.
Johnny Rivera scores the first of his four touchdowns runs for Mary Star of the Sea against Palisades.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
Thomas, who entered the game having thrown for 1,304 yards and 17 touchdowns without an interception, was held to 17 yards passing in the first half but finished nine of 16 for 123 yards and four touchdowns.
Carter rushed for 123 yards and caught three passes for 40 yards for the Dolphins (5-0), who are third in The Times’ City Section rankings behind Birmingham and Carson,
Johnny Rivera rushed 40 times for 217 yards and four touchdowns for the Stars (3-2), who led 20-7 at halftime and 28-21 entering the fourth quarter.
Palisades begins Western League action next Friday at Westchester while the Stars host St. Genevieve in their Camino Real League opener the same night.
“I feel like this is going to be so powerful for all of the United States because there shouldn’t be disasters that are preventable,” Pratt, who lost his home during the fire, told reporters.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said the main goal of the investigation is to figure out why the fire happened, why the state and local governments were unable to prevent it and how officials are helping the victims recover.
“We are going to get answers,” Scott said. “We are going to do everything we can to help the victim and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The congressional investigation, which launched on Monday, is focused only on the Palisades fire, but Scott said the probe could expand to other destructive fires that have taken place in Los Angeles County.
“We are going to start with this,” Scott said. “We’ll just let the facts take us where they are.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has welcomed the congressional investigation. At the news conference, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin warned that if officials fail to cooperate, the panel is ready to issue subpoenas to compel them to do so.
“We don’t want to use it and we hope we don’t have to,” Johnson said. “It is a good sign Gov. Newsom is willing to do so, and that’s the best way of doing it. But if they don’t, you’ve always got that backstop of compelling testimony, compelling documents, and that’s what we’ll do if we have to.”
“But I don’t think we will have to, quite honestly,” he added.
Two Senate Republicans have opened yet another investigation into the deadly Palisades fire, adding to a long list of ongoing probes aimed at determining whether local officials prepared sufficiently for the emergency.
The investigation will look at whether emergency preparations were sufficient, including an examination of whether there was enough reservoir water to respond to the deadly wildfire.
Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced Monday that they were leading the congressional investigation, which they said is necessary to “uncover and expose the truth” about how the state and local governments responded to the major blaze, which broke out amid hurricane-force winds and quickly overwhelmed firefighting resources.
“Families in this community deserve answers and accountability,” Scott and Johnson wrote in a joint statement.
The new probe is the latest in a string of ongoing investigations into the start of the fire and how officials responded. It comes almost nine months since the fire broke out on Jan. 7, killing 12 and largely destroying Pacific Palisades. That same day, the Eaton fire erupted in Altadena, killing 19 people and devastating the foothill community.
The congressional investigation appears to focus only on the Palisades fire, and will look specifically at what water resources were — or weren’t — available, and why.
The Times first reported that the Santa Ynez Reservoir, located in the heart of Pacific Palisades, was empty when the fire broke out, and remained that way as firefighters experienced dry hydrants and water pressure issues. The 117-million-gallon water storage complex had been closed for repairs to its cover for nearly a year, officials said.
After The Times’ reporting on the reservoir, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered an investigation into the city’s water system and how it may have hampered firefighting efforts.
Times reporting also exposed poor preparation and deployment by the Los Angeles Fire Department, even as city officials were repeatedly warned about life-threatening winds and red flag conditions. Top brass at the agency decided not to deploy roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the Palisades fire.
The announcement of this federal investigation comes a few weeks after Scott — the former governor of hurricane-prone Florida — met with former reality star Spencer Pratt to tour some of the areas destroyed by the Palisades fire. At the time of their meeting, Pratt, who lost a home in the fire, was demanding a congressional investigation — an action that Scott said he would do his “best to make sure it happens.”
Pratt has also sued the city, alleging it failed to maintain an adequate water supply and other infrastructure.
In recent weeks, Scott has sent letters to several agencies seeking answers about how California used federal funds for wildfire management and response. In an August letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Scott said it appeared that the state and the city of Los Angeles had not used the agency’s funds “wisely or appropriately.”
The response to the January firestorm, particularly in the Palisades, has become a polarizing topic — and rife with misinformation —among national and local political leaders, from President Trump to developer Rick Caruso, a former mayoral contender against L.A.’s current mayor, Karen Bass. Caruso, who owns Palisades Village mall, became an immediate critic of the city’s response, blasting officials for struggling to meet water demands during the fire fight.
But fire and water experts have repeatedly said that the conditions during the fire were unprecedented, and one that no urban water system could have been properly prepared.
Still, understanding what, if anything, went wrong during the Palisades fire appears to have struck somewhat of a bipartisan note. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday said his team will “absolutely welcome” this additional review.
“It complements the thorough investigations already taking place — including by the federal government, the state, and an independent review by the nation’s leading fire experts,” Newsom said in a statement. “From day one, we’ve embraced transparency because Californians deserve nothing less.”
Los Angeles officials last month delayed releasing one of those reports, so as not to interfere with a federal investigation into the cause of the Palisades fire.
The new congressional investigation, which will be led by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, will give senators the power to issue subpoenas and seek documents for the committee’s review.
There’s no need to scout Palisades’ football team this fall. Everyone knows the passing duo of quarterback Jack Thomas and receiver Demare Dezeurn is going to be electric.
Dezeurn, who ran a 10.32 100 meters as a sophomore last season at Bishop Alemany, made his Palisades debut in a scrimmage Thursday. Several times he was used as a decoy, opening the door for receiver Harrison Carter to show his stuff.
Palisades kept Dezeurn under wraps. “We’re not showing anything today,” Thomas said.
Palisades opens against Washington Prep on Thursday. The team still doesn’t have a campus field because of repairs being made after the Palisades fire. Santa Monica College will be the site for several home games.
Receiver Demare Dezeurn of Palisdes.
(Steve Galluzzo)
Thomas is already predicting the Dolphins will play Birmingham to decide the City Section Open Division championship. Dezeurn still needs to be cleared by the City Section to play next week.
Chaminade faced Santa Margarita in a scrimmage on Thursday, and Eagles coach David Machuca said he was very happy with the play of his team’s offensive line considering that Santa Margarita’s strength could be its defensive line.
Chaminade faces Oaks Christian in an opener next week, with Santa Margarita playing Mission Viejo.
The Sierra Canyon-Corona Centennial scrimmage matched two top 10 teams and exposed issues both teams will need to improve on.
Sierra Canyon still has a competition going at quarterback, and that’s the position likely to decide how far the Trailblazers might advance in the Division 1 playoffs. Their defensive line is one of the best in the Southland. Centennial had trouble running the ball, something that needs to improve since the Huskies have a three-game stretch against Servite, Santa Margarita and Mater Dei in nonleague games.
Birmingham’s powerful soccer program has supplied three kickers to the football program, giving coach Jim Rose options with special teams. Kicking field goals will definitely be an option.
Making adjustments for multi-sport athletes, such as letting them leave early for a club practice, is something coaches must do if they want to attract the best athletes in school.
St. Francis quarterback Shawn Sanders suffered a broken collarbone in a scrimmage on Thursday and will be sidelined for a month or longer.
