Circling The News

This was my house before and after the Palisades Fire. It did not need to burn.

Somedays I wake up and I’m sad. After the January 2025 Palisades Fire, I have more sad days than I did before the fire. Today was a sad day.

Last night, January 22, at the Pacific Palisades Community Council Meeting L.A. City Fire Chief Jamie Moore spoke to the community and then introduced his new public spokesperson Stephanie Moore (no relation). He was asked by Palisades residents to explain who changed the after-action report. He was asked to give names. He was asked to be transparent.

The newly appointed Chief was asked to help people regain trust in LAFD and to help the community heal by telling the truth.

Instead, he said he wasn’t interested in the past and naming names and said, “I’m moving forward.”

If a member of your family is struck down by a car and killed, an investigation is done.

It’s important to know how and why the  accident happened. It’s important to find the driver and make sure they are punished so they understand the consequences of their actions.

No one says, “that was the past, that was before I was here.” That’s what Moore said last night.

The Palisades Fire, which killed 12 and destroyed nearly 7,000 properties was not a natural disaster, like a hurricane or a tornado, it was man-made. It is important to know where the fault lies, so it is never repeated.

People in Pacific Palisades lost everything, homes, family members, possessions, neighborhood, community. Palisades residents deserve to know who took everything and why.

There are so many who owned a home/land, but who can’t afford to come back. About 30 percent are seniors who can’t or don’t want to spend their retirement on replacing a home they had lived in for 40, 50 or 60 years. There are condo dwellers who can’t come back because of antiquated laws, which are not allowing rebuilding. There are people who lived in mobile home parks, who owned the structure but not the land. Even if they had money to replace the structure, there’s nowhere to put it. There are so many who had no insurance of Fair insurance, who don’t have money to rebuild.

The Palisades Fire is different than a natural disaster: one can’t stop a hurricane or a tornado, but this fire could have been prevented.

Yes, our officials don’t want to take ownership of the facts of how a town burned. They want us to forget. Just like Fire Chief Moore, they want to move forward and hope that no one examines why.

I will tell you this fire wasn’t climate change, it wasn’t hurricane-force winds, it wasn’t shrubs surrounding our homes or even the building materials used in our homes. City/state officials even blamed residents for the lack of water—“you shouldn’t have left your hoses running.” (That was a myth – didn’t happen. And there was an abundance of water in swimming pools, which could have been used to fight fires.)

At the PPCC meeting, this editor asked Moore. “On January 8, about a third of the town burned that morning. Why was there no aerial support? Why were there no firefighters?” He responded, “I’d like to know that, too.”

But will he find it out, will he tell residents why the Methodist Church and Via de la Paz and condos burned that morning when there was no wind?

Officials need to own up, starting with the text messages between city officials when the fire first broke out. This editor bets if someone could pull them up, there would be disdain and even contempt for the “rich people” in the Palisades. The City chose to stereotype the people living there, which led to biased judgments, discrimination and even hostility – and lack of services.

The majority of Pacific Palisades residents were not rich, not famous, and many had lived there for generations.

This editor is sad that the City/County/State doesn’t want to find out the truth about the fire and will probably continue to cover it up. And tell us, to be like Chief Moore and “move forward.”

We can’t heal until we know the truth. Maybe it’s time for a federal investigation into the fire.

Los Angeles is lacking explanations about why the Palisades Fire “exploded” and turned to a PR firm.

L.A. Times reporters Alene Tchekmedyian and Paul Pringle discovered that the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation paid Lede, a high-level celebrity public relations firm to  reshape the messaging of the Palisades Fire.

What image would they need to reshape? Ask Palisades Resident Jeremy Padawar, who held a “They Let it Burn” rally on the anniversary of the January 7 Palisades Fire.

“The day after the fire, Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom’s fire-message-shaping campaign was on full blast… claiming the fire was the product of climate change, wind, and then later adding building materials and plant materials too close to homes,” Padawar said. “Everything to point the finger away from themselves, the city, the state as well as political or financial liability. LAFD Foundation hiring a PR firm to reshape the messaging is just a continuation of systematic and purposeful gaslighting, untruth and cover-up to avoid embarrassment, accountability and liability.  Honest brokers would OWN IT.”

Jeremy Padawer spoke to the crowd gathered for the “They Let Us Burn” rally.

After the devastation if the Palisades Fire, it was widely reported that there was scarce firefighting resources. In the months following the fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation raked in millions of dollars in charitable donations from people who wanted to help hire firefighters and buy equipment.

The Foundation calls itself the official nonprofit of LAFD and helps provide equipment and also funds programs. One person who contributed to the LAFD Fire Foundation was Rick Caruso, who committed $5 million to the Fire Department Foundation, in annual increments of $1 million.

Caruso told The L.A. Times on January 20 that the foundation should disclose the amount and specific purpose of its spending on Lede, and that he will ask for an audit to ensure that none of his initial $1-million donation went to the company. “I don’t want the money we donated going to a PR firm,” he said.

Neither LAFD, nor the Foundation would say how much money was paid to Lede, which advertises “we help best-in-class organizations and individuals establish and manage their public affairs, as well as develop and support their mission, including brand strategy, internal and external communications and PR, content and campaign development, as well as their social impact, sustainability and advocacy efforts. Clients include Audi, Bose, Hello Sunshine (Reese Witherspoon’s company) and Complex (media and entertainment).”

According to the Times, Liz Lin, president of the foundation, said in an email.  “The LAFD Foundation provided communications support by hiring the Lede Company as part of its mission to provide resources to the LAFD. Specific details regarding the Department’s use of the Lede Company should be addressed by the LAFD.”

No one from LAFD is answering questions about the work Lede performed, but after seven revisions in the After-Action report, it is suspected the PR firm helped with rewrites. The initial author of the report LAFD Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, refused to endorse the final version because of the changes and called the report ““highly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.”

Fire Chief Jaime Moore, who answered questions at the Pacific Palisades Community Council January 22 meeting said he introduced himself to Lede in mid-November, but didn’t work with them.

At the PPCC meeting, Moore said “I would think a PR firm was going to give advice to the fire chief, because at the time, they didn’t have a director of public information. So, my assumption would be they were using a PR firm as the PR director.” That statement to the PPCC was exactly what he told the L.A. Times.

At the PPCC meeting he introduced his newly hired public information officer Stephanie Moore.

At the meeting Moore was asked to name names of the people responsible for watering down the report, but said that wasn’t his emphasis, instead “I’m moving forward.”

Mayor Karen Bass’ office did not respond to LA Times questions about whether she met with Lede.

Speaking to the LA Times, Austin Beutner, a former Los Angeles Unified school superintendent who is running for mayor, said the failure by Bass, the LAFD and the foundation to explain the Lede Company’s role is “an unconscionable lack of transparency.”

L.A. City Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the fire said, “It is disheartening to learn that, once again, charitable donations are being used for something that donors never intended. I highly doubt that people gave to the LAFD Foundation thinking that their money would be used to hire a celebrity PR firm and doctor a critical after-action report on the Palisades Fire.”