Federal prosecutors’ announcement Wednesday that the Jan. 7 Palisades fire was a resumption of a smaller arson that firefighters thought they had brought under control six days earlier raised concerns among some residents about how Los Angeles firefighters handled the smaller conflagration.
The first fire, called the Lachman Fire, was reported around 12:17 a.m. on New Year’s Day on a hillside above Pacific Palisades by a resident whose home is about two blocks from the popular Skull Rock Trail.
Shortly after 3:30 a.m., Los Angeles firefighters reported they had stopped the fire from progressing, according to a federal investigation. A little over an hour later, the LAFD reported that firefighters had “completed the hose around the perimeter of the fire and it is fully contained,” according to an affidavit from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent. Some firefighters remained on scene to clean up and prevent the fire from re-igniting.
On Jan. 2, federal authorities said, “LAFD personnel returned to the scene to retrieve fire hoses. It appeared to them that the fire was completely out,” the affidavit states.
Intense winds on Jan. 7 — which had been predicted by the National Weather Service before that day — reignited the fire and sent it roaring toward Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
A handful of Palisades fire survivors gathered in the lobby of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety Wednesday morning to listen to a news conference announcing charges against the man accused of starting the Jan. 1 fire.
Several former residents of Pacific Palisades Bowl, a 170-unit mobile home park that burned, had just successfully petitioned to have the property deemed a public nuisance to force the owner to pay to remove ash and hazardous debris from the site.
Jon Brown, whose family lived in the park for a decade, put his hand over his mouth in disbelief when he learned that a fire had been intentionally set on New Year’s Day — and that the suspected arsonist was a former Pacific Palisades resident.
But he and his neighbors mocked public officials who evaded the question of why the embers of that fire weren’t completely extinguished.
“I think it’s just going to infuriate people, to be honest,” Brown said. “They think they did something by finding the guy who did it, but they’re really going to fan the flames on what’s really pissing everyone off.
“Why wasn’t the fire put out on the 1st?”
Authorities announced Wednesday the arrest of an Uber driver, Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, suspected of being behind the first fire. Rinderknecht, who moved to Florida after the fire, was arrested Tuesday and charged with destruction of property by fire. He faces at least five years in federal prison.
The Palisades Fire has charred 23,400 acres and razed more than 6,800 structures, including many homes. Twelve people died. Questions have already been asked about deployment levels in the Palisades on Jan. 7, based on a Times investigation.
On the morning of Jan. 7, Darrin Hurwitz, 49, dropped his two children off at Marquez Charter Elementary School around 8:15 a.m., then went to hike the Temescal Ridge Trail, as he did several times a week. He hiked a five-mile loop that took him above Skull Rock. Around 9 a.m., he examined the scar caused by the New Year’s fire. It was a small scar, he said, only a few hectares in size.
“This was a relatively confined area that had burned, meaning any prior deployment of resources could have, at least potentially, prevented the fire from spreading widely,” he said in an interview Wednesday morning.
It took about an hour before the flames were first spotted, but he smelled smoke. He thought it was from another fire somewhere else or that it was the remains of the New Year’s fire.
It was already “extremely windy” during his hike, he said.
The runway was quiet that morning and he did not see any firefighting resources in the area, on the ground or in the air. He said of the New Year’s Scar: “It’s not far away. Where the fire started, you can get to it from the Highlands. It’s a very short walk. … It wouldn’t have been difficult to deploy firefighting resources on the ground in advance.”
Hurwitz’s home, located near the trail, burned, as did his children’s school. His family is temporarily relocated to Santa Monica and has just begun the process of rebuilding their home in Pacific Palisades.
He said it was concerning to learn that the New Year’s Eve fire was allegedly arson, but Wednesday’s news raised more questions than answers.
“I think it’s troubling and unfortunate that anyone would intentionally start a fire. Obviously, I’m not discounting the criminal activity that may have taken place here. But I think the biggest concerns will be around fire prevention and firefighting.
“Any information that helps determine the cause of the fire and prevent future fires is obviously important,” he added, “but in this case, the determination that the fire was a resurgence of a small fire that was reportedly extinguished six days prior raises far more questions than answers. What protocols were in place to ensure the Lachman Fire was completely extinguished? Were they followed? Were resources adequately deployed in the area on January 7 given the extreme winds? warnings?
He said he hoped “fire detection needs to be taken more seriously and pre-deployment of resources really needs to be a priority”, and that any fires should be “fully extinguished and monitored”.
