Additionally, new LAFD whistleblower testimony alleges Palisades fire wasn’t fully out before it roared back and incinerated the city.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
We are rapidly approaching the first anniversary of the Los Angeles area wildfires that destroyed Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
As I reported recently, it appears that three-quarters of Pacific Palisades and two-thirds of Altadena residents remain in temporary housing. Court cases for compensation and identifying the causes and contributing factors are also continuing.
Now, attorneys for Palisades fire victims are moving to question Los Angeles firefighters under oath to explore claims that a California State Parks official limited how the department responded to an earlier blaze, which later reignited into the catastrophic firestorm that destroyed thousands of homes. This is in response to accusations that the official was concerned about…”native plant species“.
Alexander “Trey” Robertson, one of the attorneys who filed the complaint against the state, told The Times that a fire official up on the Lachman burn scar Jan. 1 alleged that a California State Parks representative told them “they couldn’t bring a bulldozer in to cut a line around the fire and they could not do mop-up with their hand tools, dig up around any native plant species.”
“They basically put plants over people and wouldn’t let the firefighters attempt to fully mop up this fire.”
…The attorneys are highlighting information they received from a Palisades fire victim, reality television personality Spencer Pratt, who says a fire battalion chief told him earlier this month that a representative of California State Parks showed firefighters maps of native species and prohibited firefighters from using a bulldozer to cut a line around the fire. Pratt confirmed the claim in an interview with The Times, and the battalion chief did not respond to a request for comment.
Robertson said his legal team also interviewed an L.A. firefighter who was on the burn scar on the morning of Jan. 2, who said a battalion chief told him to roll up hoses and leave. The firefighter said he saw a state park representative on scene, though he did not speak to the person and had no information about whether the person influenced mop-up operations.
The state park in question is Topanga State Park. If the name seems familiar to Legal Insurrection readers in the context of the Palisades fire, it’s because I previously noted the issue the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) faced when it began replacing nearly 100-year-old power line poles and fire-hardening the region that includes Topanga State Park.
As I reported shortly after the wildfire broke out this January, the project was halted within days by conservationists outraged that federally endangered Braunton’s milkvetch plants.
[A]fter an amateur botanist hiking through the park during the work saw the harm done to some of the park’s Braunton’s milkvetch — a flowering shrub with only a few thousand specimens remaining in the wild — and complained, the project was completely halted, Courthouse News Service reported.
Instead of fire-hardening the park, the city — which the state said had undertaken the work without proper permitting — ended up paying $2 million in fines and was ordered by the California Coastal Commission to reverse the whole project and replant the rare herb.
That work saved about 200 Braunton’s milkvetch plants — almost all of which have now likely been torched in the wildfires that consumed Topanga Canyon, along with nearly 24,000 acres (37 square miles) of some of LA’s most sought-after real estate.
Furthermore, new whistleblower accounts and internal firefighter text messages indicate the deadly Palisades fire may never have been fully extinguished, and that warnings about lingering hot spots detected on January 2 were disregarded by Los Angeles Fire Department leadership.
Investigations by the LA Times and whistleblower intimidation claims have led to a federal grand jury issuing subpoenas to the LAFD seeking communications, text messages, and operational logs from Jan. 1–7, focusing on decisions made in the field and the accuracy of the department’s later reporting.
…Timeline: Firefighter Texts, LAFD Actions and Statements
(Firefighter texts in italics)
…January 3–6: Smoldering period, no crews at site despite shifting wind forecasts.
“Hope that hillside stays quiet.”
“That spot was not cold.”
“Wind forecast looks nasty.”
LAFD: No public statements; earlier fire considered resolved.
Jan 7: Fire Reignites, Becomes Palisades Fire
Event: Strong winds; fire erupts in same burn area.
“It’s the same area—it re-lit.”
“Told them it wasn’t cold.”
“How did this get past the supervisors?”
“We left it hot. Now look.”
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