Fire restarted and grew, officials say

Los Angeles fire officials, already under scrutiny for their failure to pre-deploy engines to the Palisades fire, are now facing questions about why they didn’t fully extinguish the flames from the initial fire before hurricane-force winds blew into the area and fanned an ember buried within the roots of dense vegetation.

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A VIEW of the Palisades fire zone Wednesday after the arrest of a former Uber driver on suspicion of starting the firestorm.

(ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times)

“This affidavit puts the responsibility on the Fire Department,” said Ed Nordskog, former head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s arson unit. “There needs to be a commission examining why this rekindled fire was allowed to reignite.”

He added: “The arsonist set the first fire, but the Fire Department proactively has a duty to do certain things.”

A Times investigation found that Los Angeles Fire Department officials did not pre-deploy any engines to the Palisades ahead of the Jan. 7 fire despite warnings about extreme weather. In preparing for the winds, the department staffed up only five of more than 40 engines available to supplement the regular firefighting force.

Those engines could have been pre-positioned in the Palisades and elsewhere, as had been done in the past during similar weather.

“Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Our heroic firefighters fought the blaze valiantly with no rest,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement Wednesday. “Each day that families are displaced is a day too long and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice — and today is a step forward in that process.”

New Year’s Day starts with a fire

Although some residents said they saw fireworks in the area on Jan. 1, authorities said they don’t believe fireworks were a factor in the initial blaze, called the Lachman fire. Rinderknecht allegedly set the fire “maliciously” with an open flame — “likely a lighter” that ignited combustible material such as vegetation or paper, according to the ATF agent's affidavit.