Arson investigators from the ATF, LAPD, and LAFD converged at the suspected origin site of the deadly Palisades Fire on Monday afternoon.
BREAKING: ATF arson investigators have descended on the area of suspicion, along a hiking trail at The Summit of the Pacific Palisades #PalisadesFire pic.twitter.com/9y6ktpbMSr
— Chris Cristi (@abc7chriscristi) January 13, 2025
According to ABC Los Angeles, 15 federal investigators arrived in Los Angeles over the weekend, and Via La Costa is closed to the media while the investigation continues.
Via La Costa is adjacent to the Skull Rock Trailhead, where a group of men had been hanging out before the fire started. Multiple people in that group posted video to social media, and while their original posts have been deleted, the videos had already been saved.
Allegedly, this tiktokker was among the group who ran away or near start of Pacific Palisades fire. with some saying words like… “We were just there”. I want to give them benefit of doubt. He has deleted at least one of the videos since. pic.twitter.com/y5mwsh9Xha
— Woll Street (@paulwoll) January 13, 2025
LAPD sources have confirmed to RedStae that the department’s Robbery/Homicide division, LAFD’s Arson Counter-Terrorism Section, and the ATF are working collaboratively on the investigation.
Multiple arson fires or fires of suspicious origin have ignited in the area over the past four years after the LAPD, at the behest of now former City Councilman Mike Bonin, discontinued regular patrols of the Bluffs and the hillside areas. One of the officers who conducted those patrols, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told RedState that he and his partner regularly removed homeless encampments from the area and that the patrols were a visible deterrent to fire-starting activity.
The most recent suspicious fire in the Palisades, again in The Summit area, occurred on New Year’s Eve.
In November, a fire that started just a half mile from the suspected start location of the current fire was quickly extinguished when more than 60 firefighters converged on the scene. An LAFD spokesperson commented that the situation would have been much different had the area been in a Santa Ana wind event at that time:
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 Angeles Fire Department [spokesperson] 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.”
That fire was adjacent to the Santa Ynez Reservoir, which was empty at the time of the current fire.
BOMBSHELL: Key Reservoir Was EMPTY When Palisades Fire Started, Contributed to Loss of Homes and Life
News video from the November fire show that the reservoir was empty then, calling into question assertions by LAFD spokespeople that they didn’t know it was empty:
This is WILD. Less than two months ago there was a fire RIGHT NEXT TO the empty reservoir in the Pacific Palisades. Talk about a warning.
The fire was held to 1-2 acres because luckily there was almost no wind that day. Arson was suspected. pic.twitter.com/Y2RJ4wrSTM
— MAZE (@mazemoore) January 11, 2025
In light of the above, Mayor Karen Bass and LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley have a lot of explaining to do.
Read all of RedState’s Palisades Fire coverage here.
