The 2025 Palisades Fire burns in the hills above Marquez.
A federal grand jury in a November 4 memo subpoenaed the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) for communications related to the Pacific Palisades’ Lachman Fire.
The Lachman Fire was started on January 1, allegedly by Jonathan Rinderknecht, near a hiking trail on state land above the Palisades Highlands. That fire was extinguished, but when firefighters were told to wrap up the operation on January 2, they reportedly told commanders that the ground was still hot.
Hikers sent videos of the smoke coming off the ground in the week leading up to the January 7 Palisades Fire, according to a lawyer that was featured on KFI with John Kobalt.
The LA Times reported today “The subpoena seeks any and all communications, including text messages, related to reports of fire, smoke, or hotspots received between” 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve and 10 a.m. on January 7.”
The L.A. Times ran an October 30 story after obtaining text messages from firefighters that noted “Their battalion chief ordered them to roll up their hoses and pull out of the area on January 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.”
Mayor Karen Bass, L.A. Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Councilmember Traci Park received an anonymous November 3 letter that said that some of the same fire officials that had been in charge of fighting the Palisades Fire, were the same people who supervised the after-action report for the Palisades Fire, which meant the report was biased.
The letter was instructive and pointed to the fact that “The majority of LAFD Chief Officers and Captains do not possess enough wildland firefighting training and most importantly experience. . . . Many of the command level officers charged with making critical decisions at the Lachman and Palisades fire lacked the required wildland training and experience to perform in a satisfactory manner.”
The letter argued that LAFD positions should have been appointed based on merit but “Beginning with Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, and with a lack of governance, oversight and tacit approval from the LAFD Fire Commissioners that have been appointed by Mayor Bass, the LAFD has been under pressure to conform to diversity, equity and inclusion policies resulting in an inexperienced, weak and dysfunctional command staff (Fire Chief, Chief Deputies, Deputy Chiefs, Assistant Chiefs and some Battalion Chiefs).
“The results of the past three years of mismanagement at the highest levels of the LAFD was dysfunction, chaos, poor decision making and an extremely negative outcome on the citizens of Los Angeles who were affected by the Palisades Fire.” click here.
This editor has covered two fires both called the Palisades Fires, the first was in 2019 and the second in 2025 and there was a decided difference in how the fires were handled.
The 2019 Palisades Fire was started along Palisades Drive and the photo was taken by the person who called 911.
Photo: Courtesy: Officer Rusty Redican
OCTOBER 2019 PALISADES FIRE
On October 21, 2019, a brush fire was reported at 10:39 a.m. and was extinguished. The next day, October 22, CTN reported that containment was 100 percent, but that “Firefighters will remain on scene extinguishing hot spots and ensuring wind gusts do not spread embers outside our containment lines.” https://lafd.org/news/pacific-palisades-brush-fire.
At a 5 p.m. press briefing, L.A. Fire Department Assistant Chief Patrick Butler said “The probability of ignition is very high. If an ember falls in a fuel bed it has 100 percent chance of catching fire.”
People were warned that the continuation of hot, dry air and predicted Santa Ana winds could present a problem if the fire is not completely out.
Butler said, “You’ve seen some tremendous air shows, not only with LAFD and the County, but with support from CalFire.” The big planes dropped phos-check, the red fire retardant that keeps a fire from burning.”
A day later, October 22, 2019, CTN wrote “Fire Crews Keep Searching for Smoldering Brush a Day after the Near-Disastrous Palisades Fire” click here. “Smoldering brush was still apparent when this editor visited Palisades Drive in the lower Highlands around 10:30 a.m. Firefighters were working to eradicate embers, because later this week a stronger Santa Ana is predicted.
“We want to get to the stuff that is 10 to 12 inches tall,” said Captain Andrew Shaffer, who noted that firefighters had been on the hillside trying to get to smoldering spots, but it had become unsafe because “a bunch of boulders were falling on us and we got out.”
Firefighters were on site beyond November 5. No homes burned, no deaths.
The Palisades Fire started on October 21, 2025, on Palisades Drive and threatened homes on upper Marquez Knolls. This photograph was taken from Haverford Street, near Gelson’s.
Photo: Tanya Barcessat (Visit: TanyaBarcessat.com)
JANUARY 2025 PALISADES FIRE
The 2025 Palisades Fire started around 10:30 a.m. on January 7 in an area of the Lachman January 1, 2025, fire. People/firefighters had been warned about upcoming severe Santa Ana winds, but no one was pre-deployed at the burn scar.
The anonymous letter notes that “standard well established LAFD Pre-Deployment Protocols were not followed or executed. We have a robust pre-deployment algorithm that works when it is followed and put into play. Unfortunately in the case of the Palisades fire, it is the opinion of multiple senior Captains and Chief Officers that the breakdown in pre-deployment was not a faulty system; rather it was Chief Officers in command positions who lacked the requisite knowledge and experience to make the right calls (Deputy Chief Richard Fields, Deputy Chief Phillip Fliigiel, Assistant Chief Joseph Everett, Chief Deputy Jason Hing, and then Fire Chief Kristin Crowley). You can have the best program in the world; however, if you do not have experienced personnel with oversight to execute the program, then failures will occur as evidenced by the outcome of the Palisades fire.”
Councilmember Traci Park had already asked on January 12 for an independent report regarding the Palisades Fire. A request for proposal has gone out and once a firm is hired, the story will be updated.
The anonymous letter concluded “a proper, unbiased and professional After-Action Report must be completed for both fires.”
The Chase Bank building burned January 8 in the morning after the Palisades Fire.
Great picture. Please not that while the palisades burned LAFD was down at Will rogers parking lot. Here we have a Santa Rosa engine on the exact location where hours earlier the mayor and the governor gave a press conference regarding the extraordinary effort that was underway to fight the fire with wisps of smoke on the chase building in the background. Just hours later on Wednesday January 8th the entire building was consumed along with the Methodist church and many other buildings. This wasn’t a wild fire. It was an urban fire burning one building at a time. The very idea nothing could be done is ludicrous and laughably tragic. Like that say in promoting the California lottery: “you can’t win if you don’t play” which sums up LAFD perfectly. You can’t put out a fire while you’re sitting on the beach not using the equipment we purchased. We all idle at the same speed.
My house burnt to the ground in the ElMedio Bluffs on January 8th as well. Many houses in the ElMedio Bluffs burned on January 7th. From images I was able to look at on the CalFire website on the evening of January 7th showed houses on all sides of mine were already gone. The evening of January 8, I checked again and the site had updated and shown mine to be wiped out by the fire too. I even saw an instagram video that my neighbor had posted. It videotaped them walking by my burning house to theirs, next door. Their house had burnt the 7th and wasn’t even smoldering. The background of the Instagram footage shows my garage with 12’ flames coming out of it and nobody doing anything.
It’s been a year now and my family is still traumatized by the whole thing. As I’m sure everyone who lived through this disaster of epic proportions.
And Hank should know, as a years-long member of the LAFD-ACS (Auxiliary Communication Service).
I hope that none of you are actually expecting to get that “proper, unbiased and professional After-Action Report” anytime soon. It’s going to take Smiling Mayor Karen a while to figure out her CYA strategy and find the appropriate media and “proper unbiased professionals” to deliver her story to the public.