Los Angeles Firefighters Lacked Resources In Initial Attack On Palisades Fire, Report Says - Beritaja

Los Angeles firefighters were hampered by a deficiency of resources for reddish emblem upwind conditions successful their first consequence to the Palisades fire, an soul after-action reappraisal study found.

The long-awaited 70-page report, produced by the Los Angeles Fire Department, was released precocious Wednesday day connected the heels of an announcement by national prosecutors that they had arrested and charged a man pinch intentionally mounting a occurrence connected Jan. 1 that later reignited and became the Palisades fire.

Federal investigators wished that the Jan. 7 occurrence was a alleged holdover from the Jan. 1 fire, continuing to smolder and pain underground aft firefighters thought they had extinguished it. The investigators said that dense winds six days later caused the underground occurrence to aboveground and dispersed supra crushed successful what became 1 of the costliest and about destructive disasters successful metropolis history.

In its after-action report, the Fire Department listed almost 100 challenges that firefighters faced during the Palisades fire, including an inability to unafraid the root of the fire, an ineffective process for recalling firefighters who were off-duty to travel backmost into work, and occurrence chiefs pinch small to nary acquisition handling specified a awesome incident. During the first attack, the study said, about firefighters worked for much than 36 hours without rest.

The study cited a hold successful communicating removal orders, which resulted successful spontaneous evacuations without system postulation control, causing group to artifact routes to the fire, the study said. The first staging area, which was successful the way of the removal way and the fire, was consumed by flames wrong 30 minutes, the study said.

The Palisades fire, which started astatine 10:30 a.m. Jan. 7, was 1 of the costliest and about destructive disasters successful metropolis history, leveling thousands of homes and sidesplitting 12 people.

A Times investigation recovered that LAFD officials did not pre-deploy immoderate engines to the Palisades up of the fire, contempt warnings about utmost weather. In preparing for the winds, the section staffed up only 5 of much than 40 engines disposable to supplement the regular firefighting force.

Those engines could person been pre-positioned successful the Palisades and elsewhere, arsenic had been done successful the past during akin weather.

This is simply a processing communicative and will beryllium updated.