This was the New Year’s Eve Fire in the Highlands.
Photo: MITCH BURMEISTER
Even though there had been prior fires in the past two months in the Highlands area of Pacific Palisades and severe Santa Ana was predicted on January 6, it appears no prevention was in place and the reaction time to the fire was lackadaisical and without gravitas – and initial reinforcements.
Newsmax reported that “LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley confirmed that more than 100 fire trucks -over over half the fleet – were in need of repairs and out of commission because of budget cuts during the wildfires.”
A five-page letter from current and retired and LAFD Bravest wrote “If you had done things right and prepared the LAFD for an incident of this magnitude, fatalities would have been reduced, and property would have been saved,” stated the letter, Scathing letter attacks LAFD chief’s leadership, wildfire management
NOVEMBER 13, 2024 FIRE
In November a five-acre brush fire was reported in the Highlands. LAFD reported that more than “60 firefighters on scene have stopped all forward progress. The precisely targeted, rapid water drops from LAFD Air Operations combined with the firefighter’s aggressive fire attack on the ground held the fire to approximately one acre (revised from initial size).”
Los Angele Fire Department Margaret Stewart told KTLA News that this area is a challenge because there are no hydrants, but that water tenders (large trucks carrying water) were being sent to the area.
“Fortunately, we’re not in a Santa Ana event,” she said, “but the moisture level in our vegetation is critically low.”
Bruce Schwartz captured this photo of a water-dropping helicopter at the Highlands fire on November 13. CTN asked LAFD about the empty reservoir then.
JANUARY 1, 2025 FIRE
An alarm went out at 12:17 a.m. that three to four acres of heavy brush in the highlands. Initially LAFD Air Ops was unable to fly because of low visibility.
In the fire update after midnight spokesperson Margaret Stewart noted that Los Angeles Country Fire Department sent Copter 22 and that local firefighters have been making their way via ground to the isolated areas. She said that LA County Fire also sent four camp crews for cutting line. Firefighters are in place to defend at least one home. Thirty minutes later visibility had improved and three LAFD helicopters joined LACoFD Copter 22 in making continuous water drops.
A resident followed the fire trucks up the fire and said, the streets were packed with emergency personnel.
Residents reported fireworks had been set off in the area, but according to LAFD, “no cause of fire had been determined.” (There were no homeless encampments in that area and no power poles.)
(A resident followed the numerous firetruck and police to the site of this fire.)
JANUARY 6, 2025
CTN wrote (“ Be Prepared to Evacuate with Upcoming Santa Ana Windstorm”) Red flag warnings of critical fire danger will take effect at 4 a.m. Tuesday and remain in place through 6 p.m. Thursday, for the Malibu coast, the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area and other south land areas. By 4 p.m. on Tuesday, the warning will extend to Los Angeles County beaches.”
The city was warned.
JANUARY 7, 2025
(Updated: A resident alerted CTN that he called the fire department at 10:25 a.m. and was told they already knew about the fire.)
At 10:30 a.m. this editor received the above photo from a resident who works near Olympic Boulevard and Sawtelle, who wrote simply “Looks big.”
A person living in Topanga, who has the Watch Duty app, (City and County text alerts don’t work in that area) was alerted at 10:33 a.m. to a fire southeast of Palisades Drive and Calle Victoria. She went to her window and took this photo (below) at 10:38 a.m.
At 10:53 a.m. with no planes flying, yet, this photo (below) was taken.
At 11:08 a.m. this was the fire scene (below).
Around 10:45, this LAFD message was received: “01-07-2025 10:30am 1190 N Piedra Morada Dr MAP: https://bit.ly/4gJqiln
Palisades Fire – 2 acres and showed the dispatched units: BC4 BC717 BC9 CM40 CM42 CM52 DZ42 DZ45 E19 E23 E263 E269 E292 E37 E59 E67 E68 E69 E71 E8136 E8137 E8138 E8139 E8140 E90 E94 EM9 H0D H7 HA7 HE1 PB1880 RA23 RA69 T63 T69.
At that time, an incident center had been set up at Fire Station 23, on Sunset Boulevard and Los Liones Drive.
At 10:51 a.m. this photo was taken at Lachman Lane.
At 11:08 the photo was taken in the same location on Lachman.
At 11:14 a.m. the photo was taken near El Medio and Sunset Boulevard.
According to a KTLA February 10 story (“Flying into the Firestorm: The Fight to Save the Palisades”) Television news choppers were grounded due to a “TFR,” a “Temporary Flight Restriction,” because President Joe Biden was in Los Angeles.”
Initially, firefighting crews were at a structure fire in Hollywood because of the presidential visit, LAFD told KTLA, “Like any other request to enter the TFR, that call creates an approximate four-minute delay while the Secret Service generates our unique squawk code. It takes under 10 minutes for pilots and aircrews to tow the aircraft out of the hangar, gather communications plans, begin the aircraft start-up procedures, and obtain tower clearance to depart and lift. The first aircraft lifted at 10:31 a.m.”
But air ops was initially assigned to Hollywood. One aircraft that departed at 10:34 from the Van Nuys airport, saw smoke from the Palisades Fire and diverted to the Palisades. At 10:41, that helicopter dropped water on the western edge of the fire.
At that point, LAFD aerial supervisor requested all assets to be redirected to the Palisades. There were four LAFD choppers and two LACF choppers.
By 11:12 a.m., the Canadian super scoopers Quebec One and Quebec Two were in the air.
By 11:55 a.m., five fixed-wing aircraft were working the fire as well, capable of dropping 35,000 gallons of fire retardant.
At 12:23 p.m. Dispatched Units to the fire included: AO1 AO2 AR1 AR11 BC4 BC701 BC705 BC706 BC717 BC9 BP19 CM40 CM42 CM51 CM52 DZ42 DZ45 E1 E105 E12 E14 E15 E17 E19 E1B E20 E23 E237 E26 E263 E269 E27 E29 E292 E3 E37 E38 E3S E4 E41C E43 E43C E5 E59 E61 E62 E63 E64 E66 E67 E68 E69 E6S E70 E71 E73 E75 E8136 E8137 E8138 E8139 E8140 E85 E90 E93 E94 E98 EM17 EM9 H1 H2 H3 H4 H7 HA1 HA2 HA3 HA4 HA7 HE1 HT3 PB1880 PH1 RA19 RA23 RA37 RA69 RA92 SO1 SU4 T37 T63 T69 WT77
By 12:40 p.m., Helitank 40 from Ventura County had joined, and later, Fire Copter One from Orange County.
12:42 p.m. on Alma Real
According to LAFD, A steady bombardment of water drops and fire retardant went until 7:45 p.m. when the LAFD said the wind and turbulence were just too severe to continue, and all aerial assets were grounded due to the wind.
But the watch duty app shows the lack of any aerial activity by 4:44 p.m.
At daybreak on January 8, news crews couldn’t launch without special permission because President Biden and the First Lady were still in town. The couple departed on the afternoon on January 8, after visiting their great-grandchild at Ceders Hospital.
Fire crews resumed water drops as soon as the weather allowed, according to KTLA.
The L.A. Times did a report on non-existent warnings to people to evacuate. In that report, they note that not only were people not warned, in some cases they were not able to evacuate. Additionally, the number of cars of fleeing people, meant that Sunset Boulevard and Palisades Drive were inaccessible to emergency vehicles.
One man wrote on Nextdoor that “ I was told about the fire by colleagues while I was at work.
“I left work at 12:10 p.m.., drove the 10 to PCH and saw no police or DOT stopping inbound traffic. I made it to Chautauqua by 12:25 p.m., saw no police or DOT so I went up Chautauqua and entered the village at 12:30 p.m., no police, no DOT anywhere.
I went home, helped my wife and daughter grab the cat and a few basic items. I received the evacuation order text at 1:39 pm, at that point we helped our elderly neighbors (who did not hear the text alert) evacuate.
“I drove up to Mt. Holyoke to check on friends and UPS and Amazon drivers were still delivering packages. People were out watching the smoke. No police or DOT were canvassing the neighbors spreading the word.
“It was neighbors calling and texting neighbors that saved lives that day. When I drove out of the Palisades around 2:30 p.m. there were no police on Via or on Sunset. I saw no police or DOT all the way out to Allenford and into Santa Monica. No plan. No control. No protection. I videoed my drive in and out that day showing no police or DOT doing the most basic job they have in a natural disaster: saving lives.
“When the class action suit comes, I look forward to adding my videos to the mounds of evidence that the city, county and state failed the citizens of the Palisades at every turn, and particularly on the day we needed them most.”
A resident who lives on Paseo Miramar wrote an email to CTN on January 13. (Paseo Miramar is west and south of the Highlands.)
“We were the first ones to get hit by the windstorm of flying embers from the Highland directly to us – and our hill started burning at around 10:30 a.m. about 20 minutes after the fire started up in the Highlands. We had no warning; no evacuation order and we were evacuating on our own. I emailed the whole hill to leave and only about 30 minutes later did the evacuation order come in.
“The City was utterly under prepared.
“Also, my husband tried to save our house with hoses and by around 1:30-2 p.m. the hill at the top had run out of water. Nothing the fire fighters could do. I am convinced had there been enough water, so much of us would have been spared.
“And here is what I am so angry about. We were the first ones getting hit and we had no water three hours after the fire started.
“LADWP needs to be held accountable for not maintaining their lines better and not giving the much needed water to the fire hydrants. If they had contained the fire better on Paseo Miramar we wonder how much more could have been saved everywhere else.
If someone had been monitoring park cameras, especially given the severe weather warning, and had gone into action immediately, the fire could have been stopped. Now, the estimated cost of the fire from weather forecasting service AccuWeather puts the total expected damage and economic loss to between $250 billion and $275 billion.
(Editor’s note: several news organization have made a public records request for the time line of when different fire fighting units were requested, the 911 calls about the fire and the communication between the command post and firefighters, but so far that has not been made available. On Sunday, CTN will look at the buildings burned on January 8, the day after the fire storm.)
Excellent article about the fire that changed so many lives.
We heard on the news that PCH was closed heading east; and about 2:30 on the 7th we were shooting pictures of water-dropping planes going over Muskingum near Sunset.
When the ash began to fall and it was hard to breathe we grabbed overnight bags and drove east on Sunset. At around 3:10 Sunset was deserted and the Ralph’s parking lot was empty. We actually stopped to buy gas at the Palisades Car Wash and paused to talk to a friend standing by himself in the parking lot. He was reporting from his location on his phone. No police or firefighters in sight.
Just beyond Chautauqua driving toward WLA Sunset traffic was stopped and only inching forward. It took us 4+ hours to drive to Pasadena and relatives that night.
I called the fire department at 10:25am on January 7th. I was told that they already knew about the fire.
Had the LAFD would of combed the area of the 10 acre fire of January 1st for hot spots, this event might of been avoided.
Keep fighting the fight Sue we will succeed in holding those responsible for this catastrophe accountable. Sign me up on that class action on day 1!
I received an announcement to be to be prepared to evacuate. There was no other warning. I gathered as many belongings and had to make 3 trips down stairs and got the car ready to leave. My husband was coming from Pasadena and was told he could not come to our house to help me. I knew then that I had to get out alone. We did meet at a friend house in Brentwoood but had to go to a hotel. We are lucky our house did not burn but we cannot live there yet.
Thank you Sue ~ We all have lost so much. We greatly appreciate your reporting and will continue to follow you.
Nancy & Erik Jorgensborg
Thank you for taking an interest in facts! At 10:36am, I have videos with sirens at Palisades Drive at Vereda de la Montura. Before 11am, there were helicopters.
A few reasons have led to confusion on response time. I see it all the time in the Highlands when people misread or take an LAFD Alert as the final word. The reality is that LAFD is impacted by the same cellular service issues that plague the top of Highlands.
I don’t recall if LAFD uses TMobile or Verizon, but I believe Engine 23 uses Verizon for its tablet. When an engine responds to a call, they submit for arrival on the tablet. If there’s no reception, the arrival time isn’t properly registered. The paramedics and firemen do not stay in vehicle to resubmit over and over, they try once and tend to the issue at hand. If a hospital call, it will resubmit when they get reception back. Or, as often the case in a fire, Dispatch will hear an Engine on the radio, recognize they arrived, and enter it in their system. For those not in the know, it would make sense to conclude the response times are very slow. In fact, it’s a cellular reception issue with their equipment.
For the January 7 fire, at 10:37am a radio transmission from Engine 23’s Captain states they have just passed Piedra Morada on Palisades Drive. Since Calle Victoria is about 30-60 seconds above Calle Victoria, it stands to reason, Engine 23 arrived around 10:38am and had no reception there for the tablet to transmit arrival time. Only when radio transmissions indicated 23 was on scene did dispatch manually enter arrival time for them.