This photo was taken at 12:25 on January 7 from Theatre Palisades on Temescal Canyon Road.
Although reporters have made numerous public information requests for the Palisades Fire about the number of resources and the timing, the requests have gone unfilled.
A number of ham radio operators were monitoring the channels on January 7, 8 and 9, and provided CTN with this information.
Three key DWP pumps failed, which significantly contributed to the water shortage.
A “hot” microphone at Incident Command in the early morning of January 8 – after the firestorm had come through – said “to abandon the neighborhood.” There were so many homes, businesses and churches that burned on January 8 (and into the 9th), why was the decision to let them burn? And who made that decision?
There were fires actively burning in the Muskingham (Marquez) area on January 8 and no firefighters were present. Some of the homes that had burned, had water spraying out of broken pipes, showing there was water.
Firefighters were told not to use the pool water to put out fires because “it would take up too much hose to set up a pool draft.” One resident wrote CTN that “this was the worst policy failure. After the homes were lost, notice how many had pools full of water.”
Living down the street from this editor was a retired L.A. County Fire Captain, who served as a fire captain on a strike team for 23 years and sent the following message to CTN and to the L.A. Times:
“When a single fire department has an emergency that has overwhelmed all of its resources, that department (LAFD) contacts the Regional Operations Center for immediate need of strike teams for structure protection.”
“The Palisades Fire Incident Commander should have requested at least 10-20 strikes teams from all of the Southern California Regional Operations Center early on. It should not have taken more than four hours for strike teams from Region 1 to arrive in the Palisades if they were requested early enough.” (The fire started around 10:30 a.m.)
The Captain wrote that he left his home at 7 p.m. in the Via las Olas area, as fire was coming down Swarthmore, consuming homes and palm trees.
“There were no firefighting engine companies or strike teams in my area of the Via Bluffs when I left,” he said.
Close friends who lived in the Las Casas bluffs, El Medio bluffs, Bienvenida, Via Bluffs, Alphabet Streets, Huntington’s, “never had any fire resources (Strike Teams) deployed into their areas.”
LAFD ran out of engine companies and strike team resources from within their own department probably around noon on January 7, the Captain said.
He also noted that the California Office of Emergency Services had established a mutual aid plan to help communities, impacted by wild fires and asked “Why did it fail?”
Back in the 1970’s California fire department chief officers recognized after numerous catastrophic emergencies in the 1960’s and 1970’s that a master mutual aid plan was needed to share resources to control large scale emergencies, brush fires and earthquakes. California officials created the Department Office of Emergency Services (OES).
And a question the Captain asked and that many people have wondered “Why were most of the Palisades communities unprotected at 7 p.m. [on January 7]. A video was taken (below) on Haverford Avenue, by a neighbor that shows no strike forces.
(Editor’s note: Circling the News will continue to examine the start of the Palisades Fire on Sunday, February 9.)
Please keep following up! What resources were called in? when? and where? Hindsight is always 20/20, but surely a disaster of this magnitude deserves a careful dissection of what went wrong and how this might have been prevented.
I have good videos showing zero teams or fire department during fires
Thank you for your fine reporting. I keep wondering if the fire shortly after midnight on New Year’s Eve ultimately caused this catastrophe. As you say, thousands of residents lost their homes, thousands more had their homes damaged, our neighborhood was destroyed (for now) and, most important, lives were lost and many of us were traumatized. It’s important to investigate the firefighting effort (but not the brave and incredible firefighters), but we also deserve to find out how the fire started.
Thank you for not giving up on asking these questions and continuing to be the journalist you are.
Thank you for your fine reporting. Along with the issues you are investigating regarding the response to the fire, I would like to know what caused the fire. I keep thinking of the fire on New Year’s Eve in spot close to where this conflagration started. The smell in Marquez Knowlls that night lingers in my memory. I also clearly remember your prescient write up about that fire (perhaps you should reprint that issue) I do not know if the two fires are connected but, I and the other residents of our town deserve to know if they are.
You may want to speak to the Presidents of the HOA’s at 15480 Antioch and 870 Haverford. I’ve got it on good authority that the President of 15480 and a couple of homeowners were there all night watering the place down.
We live in Sunset Mesa, “the land of misfit toys” we don’t really belong to anyone. We are an unincorporated party of L.A. County. Not part of Malibu city, or Los Angeles City. For us Pacific Palisades is our town too. Where we shopped where our friends live kids played sports and the Rec Center, went to school and church at Corpus Christi etc.
Our neighborhood up Coastline Drive was built in the 1960’s and has never had any structures burn until now. On our street alone, Clifftop Way, there is one house still standing, and 35 completely destroyed!
During previous fire events there have been fire fighters camping out on our street, even putting their fire hoses through our yard etc.. During this fire I saw one, drive through, look around and drive away, not even talking to us neighbors standing outside our homes wondering what to do. I felt abandoned. and then later saw footage of our beautiful street burning, not a firetruck insight, only camped out and surrounding the Getty Villa at the bottom of our neighborhood. The Villa was saved. We are devastated.
I keep asking what the STATE is doing to ensure that we have fire insurance in two years if we rebuild. People with Fair Plan are not getting much at all, not enough to rebuild at all. Unless the state does something, what’s the point of rebuilding.
Soboroff sort of huffed and said call your insurance company. I asked Ben Allen’s office, they didn’t know because no-one is addressing it. We must get Newsom to do something.
Sue Pascoe you are one of kind. Please post your Zelle or Venmo and let us contribute to CTN.
Our house was standing on January 8th and now we join so many with rubble.
Sue you remain a shining light for all of Pacific Palisades.
Fyi….. More causal factors of the Palisades Fires. IMHO
Audio Podcast I did earlier this week. It was a pleasure speaking with Travis, about the massive failures of LAPD West LA and West Bureau’s abject failures!
I warned them that this type of devastating fire would occur if they destroyed the fabric of safety and security, through proactive patrols, we forged for the People of the Pacific Palisades!
We warned them in person, then via email, then in person again! Athough LAPD has some amazing leaders? Unfortunately, they also have a massiveve problem, where people have promoted far beyond their aptitude!!!
An institutional inbreeding of ineptitude, has been a self inflicted malady that must change!
Good managers are many times marginalized, similarly to hard working and good Police Officers!
But definitely going to be far more sunlight coming!
https://www.yatesleadership.com/failed-leadership-in-pacific-palisades-with-rusty-redican/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0WYypvd_svAM6a61z-DC7fe5cm9lA412PIo9mpOemZXf_T707DDzinOBw_aem_TW-SP6KfU7-th0a_L4p-aw