Firefighters left smoldering site before Jan. 7

Palisades crews were ordered to pack up while the ground was still hot, texts show.

- BY PAUL PRINGLE AND ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN

FIREFIGHTERS knew the Palisades fire was a rekindled blaze, they said in texts.

(BRIAN VAN DER BRUG Los Angeles Times)

Firefighters mopping up a small brush fire that authorities say reignited as the Palisades fire five days later were ordered to leave the original burn scene even though they complained the ground was still smoldering and rocks remained hot to the touch, according to firefighter text messages reviewed by The Times.

To the firefighters' surprise, their battalion chief ordered them to roll up their hoses and pull out of the area on Jan. 2 — the day after the eight-acre blaze was declared contained — rather than stay to make sure there were no hidden embers that could spark a new fire, the text messages said.

On the morning of Jan. 7, according to federal authorities, strong winds stoked the remnants of the New Year's Day blaze into the firestorm that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga.

In one text message, a firefighter who was at the scene on Jan. 2 wrote that the battalion chief had been told it was a "bad idea" to leave the burn scar unprotected because of the visible signs of smoldering terrain. "And the rest is history," the firefighter wrote in recent weeks.

The text exchanges among three firefighters and a third party provide previously undisclosed details about the Los Angeles Fire Department's handling of the Lachman fire, which federal investigators say was deliberately set and had burned underground in a canyon root system until the winds rekindled it. The third party asked that he and the firefighters not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The LAFD declined to comment on the text messages but has said officials believed the fire was fully extinguished.