“They Let Us Burn” Rally Attracted Thousands

“Palisades residents were failed at every level – local, state and federal. This wasn’t one mistake or one agency. It was a systemic collapse that left an entire community exposed, unprotected and unable to recover.”                                                                                         Mariam Engel – Palisades Resident and Rally Organizer

Jeremy Padawer spoke to the crowd gathered for the “They Let Us Burn” rally.                                            Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN

By HENRY KAMER

On the first anniversary of the Palisades Fire, there were many events planned, that brought thousands of people into town. One of the events was a “They Let Us Burn” rally, organized by Palisades residents Jeremy Padawer and Mariam Engel. Engel is also the founder of the Palisades Fire Residents Coalition. The rally ran until about 1:30 p.m.

With “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel playing, Padawer kicked off the rally at 10:40 a.m. on the corner of Antioch and Swarthmore with the burned historic Business District building as a backdrop. The memorial service for the 12 people who lost their lives to the fire was concluding directly across the street.

“This [rally] is not about the left or the right… it’s about operational excellence,” Padawer said and added it cost him personally $40,000 to for permits and police to hold the protest. “The Palisades is dolphin blue but now is orange and red, a product of the fire,” he said. “This was the most extensive, expensive leadership failure in the history of the U.S.”

Padawer, whose home burned during the fire, delivered the ten community imperatives, chief concerns being a “suspension of property taxes on houses until a certificate of occupancy is issued followed proper remediation and rebuilding,” “a sales tax exemption on all state and city purchases related to rebuilding and fire recovery” and a “restoration of a dedicated Palisades police presence, including a local station or permanent deployment.”

He closed his opening remarks by stating that “I don’t have a milkvetch in my house… I don’t have a house. They put plants over people,” referencing the endangered shrub in a state park “avoidance area” where firefighters were prevented from using heavy equipment to ensure the January 1 Lachman Fire had been fully extinguished. That holdover fire was responsible for the January 7 Palisades Fire, which killed 12 and destroyed nearly 6,000 structures.

Padawer passed the microphone to Engel, who described the rally as a “community-led demonstration marking the one-year anniversary of the Palisades Fire, bringing residents together to demand answers, accountability, and concrete changes that help families rebuild safely and prevent this from happening again.”

Engel said that the name of the rally comes “not only because the Palisades Fire was a preventable disaster, but because our community has continued to be burned long after the flames went out. For the past year, survivors have been burned again and again by a lack of transparency, accountability, and real support from the institutions meant to protect us,” Engel noted.

The crowd waved signs at the rally.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN

Following Engel, Padawer introduced 11th District Councilwoman Traci Park, who was the only incumbent political official present at the rally. She said that some people thought that by her being at the rally it was not the right way to spend her time.

Park thanked Padawer for the invitation and all crowd members for showing up and said she was “looking around and seeing victims of the worst tragedy in our city’s history. [The fire] was the result of decades of ignoring warnings and risks, adding more and more density without adequate evacuation routes or infrastructure.”

Park told the crowd she was their advocate and added, “We shouldn’t have to beg our government to make this right… We have to be so very careful as we rebuild your future, we cannot let Sacramento or City Hall turn the Palisades into a policy sandbox where safety is sacrificed for ideology.”

During the rally five invitees announced their campaigns for political office. These people were Spencer Pratt (running for L.A. mayor and calling to “disinfect our city with our light”), Steve Hilton (running for California governor, showing a sign that read “Wanted: Some Leadership” as he said “we need to make L.A. and California golden again”), Lewis Herms (running for California governor and calling the destruction of the Palisades “perfect planning” at the hands of government), David Collenberg (running for California governor, farmer and firefighter) and Josh Sautter (running for the 32nd District in the U.S. Congress against incumbent Brad Sherman, calling to “bring back common sense and regular politics.”)

Padawer told attendees that he had invited speakers, there were 12 on the rally info sheet and represented different backgrounds, including business owners, condo and mobile home residents and even a standing home resident and an Altadena resident. click here.

All agreed that both communities deserved more transparency and accountability from their local and state political leaders. Notable speakers included Pratt’s wife and Palisades resident, Heidi Montag, demanding that “we cannot let negligence be the new normal,” Palisades resident and business owner, Jaimie Geller, who said the town lost stability when it burned, Attorney Alexander Robertson IV representing fire survivors and discussing the “secret plants over people policy” and former L.A. Sheriff Alex Villanueva who emphasized the need for effective and accountable leadership.

As Padawer introduced speakers and spoke about the numerous grievances he and other residents had with the city and state governments in their reaction to the fire, students from Pali High first marched and then loudly drove down Sunset in trucks holding American flags multiple times throughout the rally.

As the rally ended, runners came back one last time, holding American flags as the Freedom Run, organized by Teagan “Pure Joy” McCoy, cut through the intersection on the way to Sunset, after starting at the Rec Center.

Padawer ended the rally as he proudly proclaimed “we spoke truth to power, we raised a new vision for the Palisades based on transparency and accountability. They didn’t want us to have a voice, but we had a voice… whether we are actually listened to or not will decide if we will have this next year.”

Thousands thronged to the “They Let Us Burn” rally held in front off the burned Business Block  Building located at Swarthmore, Antioch and Sunset Boulevard.
Photo: RICH SCHMITT/CTN