Bombshell Texts Reveal L.A. Fire Brass Knew Fire That Burned Down Palisades Wasn't Out
The Los Angeles Fire Department brass was even more clueless than we thought. Bombshell texts show that L.A. firefighters were ordered to leave the scene of the still-smoldering Lachman Fire despite protests from the team left to watch it. Days later, and as feared, predicted killer winds caused that fire to flare up.
As one of the text exchanges between the firefighters put it later, "And the rest is history."
The conflagration that followed killed twelve people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
The Los Angeles Times reported that firefighters tending the aftermath of the eight-acre Lachman Fire on January 2 were told by their commander in a text that they needed to leave. The firefighters explained that the rocks and the ground where they were watching for hot spots were still hot to the touch.
To the firefighters’ surprise, their battalion chief ordered them to roll up their hoses and pull out of the area on Jan. 2 — the day after the 8-acre blaze was declared contained — rather than stay and make sure there were no hidden embers that could spark a new fire, the text messages said.
In one text message, a firefighter who was at the scene on Jan. 2 wrote that the battalion chief had been told it was a “bad idea” to leave the burn scar unprotected because of the visible signs of smoldering terrain. “And the rest is history,” the firefighter wrote in recent weeks.
The text exchanges among three firefighters and a third party provide previously undisclosed details about the Los Angeles Fire Department’s handling of the Lachman fire, which federal investigators say was deliberately set and had burned underground in a canyon root system until the winds rekindled it.
The text exchanges are coming out following the after-action report, which blamed the fire on a "perfect storm" of conditions, communications problems, and leadership problems due to Mayor Karen Bass's hires and other leaders not having the proper experience with fires of this magnitude.
Related: L.A. Fire Victim Warns NYC Voters: ‘Don’t Make Our Mistake’"
The Palisades fire is the most destructive in California's history.
The L.A. Firefighters were not pre-deployed even though they'd had days' notice of the coming Santa Ana windstorm. Gavin Newsom's claim that he pre-deployed fire engines on state land nearby was quickly fact-checked as untrue.
While Bass and her crew at City Hall claim they're making things easier for people to rebuild, reports on the grounds are completely opposite. Palisades developer, Rick Caruso, says most of the city planning personnel are still working from home. He says if he were in charge, he'd have a series of contractor trailers in the Palisades filled with city planning department personnel to process permits.
Caruso lost the mayoral race to Bass in the 2022 election. Caruso is considering another run against Bass, who, instead of skulking away from public life in shame, is running for reelection.
The city's lack of preparation before the fire and its response after have been nothing short of a disgrace.
The Times talked to several firefighters who warned the brass of the problem with the smoldering Lachman Fire.
The LAFD Chief Ronnie Villanueva, who was brought out of retirement when the previous chief was demoted, said, however, that firefighters did "cold trail" the fire. That means they used their hands and feet to detect any warmth. Indeed, this month Villanueva declared that the Palisades "inferno was not due to “failed suppression” of the Lachman blaze. Instead, he said, it was the result of an “undetectable holdover fire” that lived deep within the roots."
Related: "Stunner: Why Was Pacific Palisades Reservoir EMPTY?
The Times spoke with the former Battalion Chief of the LAFD, who is now working as a crisis manager at the U.S. Capitol, who disagrees with the interim chief.
Former LAFD Battalion Chief Rick Crawford said that, based on his experience fighting wildfires, “we’re talking about something that was just beneath the surface.”
Crawford...believes the federal agency prefers the term “holdover” to “rekindle” because the latter “is a word that implies that you didn’t do your job. ‘Holdover’ suggests it was beyond our control. This is not that.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives investigated the Palisades Fire and determined that the arson-set Lachman Fire indeed was the spark that killed people and destroyed homes only days later. I wrote about the DOJ Announces Arrest for Palisades Fire.
The suspect, Jonathan Rinderknecht, used his Bible to Spark Palisades Fire — But Newsom and Bass Will Have Hell to Pay, as I reported earlier this month.
Not surprisingly, the text messages the Times reported about didn't make the city's after-action report.
Big surprise.
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