LOS ANGELES () Eight months following the Pacific Palisades fire, deemed California’s worst wildfire ever, has obtained exclusive documents indicating what lawyers term as “massive failures” by state and local officials, potentially contributing to the disaster’s severe impact.
The January blaze resulted in 12 fatalities, the destruction of 7,000 structures, and an estimated $18-20 billion in insured losses. Internal records acquired by victims’ attorneys reveal a sequence of errors before, during, and after the fire.
Michel Valentine, who witnessed the fire’s start Jan. 7, said he called 911, but waited for help that never came.
“I did not see any firefighters up there,” Valentine stated. His home was one of the thousands destroyed, leading him to join a lawsuit against the state, city, and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
No predeployed resources went to Palisades despite recent brush fire
Attorney Roger Behle, representing over 3,000 fire victims, noted that despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s predeployment of hand crews and 110 fire trucks to Southern California prior to the fire, none were dispatched to the Pacific Palisades, even though a brush fire had occurred in the area five days earlier.
Documents show the Santa Ynez reservoir sat empty while LADWP failed to put the Palisades reservoir into service as planned.
On the day of the fire, LADWP acknowledged it should have shut off power to prevent spot fires throughout the region, as per the records.
“Had the power been turned off, those spot fires would have been avoided,” Behle said.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection confirmed to that none of their fire trucks were predeployed to the Palisades.
Technician allegedly altered records to cover delayed response time
The documents further reveal that a technician tasked with shutting off power to a substation arrived much later in the day and was unable to complete the task due to the fire reaching the area.
Three weeks later, the same technician allegedly altered log records, changing his arrival time from 6 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., a difference of five and a half hours.
“This is just redefining incompetence,” Behle said. “This is what you’d expect to see in a third-world country. You don’t expect to see this in the United States or in the state of California.”
“Never in a million years would I have suspected that the city and the LADWP would seek to manufacture facts to fit their narrative in order to avoid liability,” Valentine said. “It’s absolutely disgusting.”
President Donald Trump addressed the fire response in the Oval Office, calling it “gross incompetence” and suggesting a congressional investigation.
“They had no water,” Trump said, claiming sprinkler systems failed because officials “send the water out to the Pacific Ocean.”
LADWP has not responded to requests for comment. A Senate investigation into the fire response is reportedly imminent.
