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The Trump administration’s Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced they had determined the cause of the Pacific Palisades fire and arrested an alleged arsonist. Previously, local officials had said the cause was unknown but may have been caused by fireworks.
As a Palisades resident whose home was damaged but survived the fire, I hope whoever is guilty goes to jail for a long time. However, let there be no mistake, he was not the one responsible for the town of Pacific Palisades burning to the ground. The brunt of that responsibility lies with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Newsom has failed to properly manage the state’s forests, leaving them dangerously overgrown with the brush that fuels the fires. Rather than taking swift action to clear them, Newsom seems to relish in blaming climate change after each devastating fire. After the Palisades fire, he said, “The hots are getting a lot hotter. Dries are getting a lot drier. The wets are getting a lot wetter. That’s climate change.”
ARREST MADE IN CONNECTION TO DEADLY PACIFIC PALISADES FIRE, SOURCES SAY
Bass has shown her utter disregard of her duties as mayor. During her campaign, she said if elected, “I would not travel internationally. The only places I would go would be DC, Sacramento, San Francisco and New York in relation to LA.” Yet, she left the country five times, including her now infamous trip to Ghana while LA was under a Fire Weather Watch from the National Weather Service (which quickly became a Red Flag Warning the next day) in order to attend the inauguration of the president of Ghana. She was at a cocktail party when she learned of the fire.
It is bad enough to violate a campaign pledge, but to do so at a dangerous time, and for something that has absolutely nothing to do with her job as mayor, is inexcusable. She is the mayor of the second-largest city in the U.S., but does not seem to appreciate the responsibility that comes with the job. (This was her second inauguration party outside the country; she also attended the Mexican president’s inauguration.)
Bass is also to blame because her DEI hiring practices put less qualified people into critical positions in charge of protecting the safety of city residents. These positions included the deputy mayor of public safety, the fire chief, and the head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), all of whom let down the city. She proudly states on her website her commitment “to make sure our administration truly reflects the full diversity of the people of Los Angeles,” rather than a commitment to hire the best and brightest.
Thanks to the feds, we now know conclusively that the fire, and its spread, was utterly preventable. The ATF has determined that the January 7 fire was a re-ignition of a very small fire created by the arsonist on New Year’s Day. The fire only burned eight acres, and the arsonist even called 911 immediately after starting it. However, anyone knowledgeable about brush fires knows that just because you put it out does not mean it cannot reignite, especially when dealing with overgrown brush.
The ATF special agent on the case, Kenny Cooper, reported that “the fire burned deep within the ground, in roots and in structures, and remained active for several days.” He reported that when he worked at a state forestry agency, “we would have a lightning strike, and it would hit a tree, and it would burn for days, sometimes weeks, and then ignite into a forest fire. We would go suppress that, and then every day, for weeks on end, we would patrol those areas to make sure they didn’t reignite.”
Flames from the Palisades Fire burn a building on Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. (Apu Gomes)
But this was not done in the Palisades. Instead, according to the ATF, the LAFD returned the next day to collect their hoses and did not return until it had reignited on January 7, when it was too late. The ATF findings are a stinging indictment of the LAFD. From other reports we also know the LAFD did virtually nothing to prepare for the potential of a fire despite the red flag warning that had been issued, like pre-deploying fire trucks in sensitive areas.
The fire chief was Kristin Crowly, an LGTB female who herself is known for DEI hires. (As reported by the Los Angeles Times, she has “elevated younger historically marginalized deputies to replace older veterans.”) Bass fired her after Crowly partly blamed the mayor’s budget cuts to the department for the failure to better contain the fire.
She was not wrong. Under Bass, the city has increased spending on the homeless while decreasing spending on basic services to protect residents. Last year, the Council passed a budget providing $1.3 Billion for homeless-related expenses while cutting the fire department by $17 million. The city has the same number of fire stations today as it had in the 1960s.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, and Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, left, address the media at a press conference on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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We also know they were handicapped by a lack of water because the Santa Ynez reservoir, built to provide water for fire fighting in the Palisades and managed by the LADWP, had been left empty for almost a year awaiting minor repairs, causing all the fire hydrants in the Palisades to run dry by the evening of the fire. The fault for this lies at the feet of Bass’s pick to run the department, Janisse Quinones, a Latina female, born and raised in Puerto Rico with a degree from the University of Puerto Rico. Her experience was in energy, not water. Without the reservoir, firefighters were left with three million gallons of water rather than over 100 million. The cost of the repair: $130,000.
We also know that at the time Bass left for Ghana, the city had no one in charge of public safety. That is because her deputy mayor of public safety, Brian Williams, a Black male, was on suspension at the time for calling in a fake bomb threat to the police. He admits he did so and says it was to get out of a long meeting. He recently pled guilty to a felony for “threats regarding fire and explosives.” Bass did not replace him until April, months after the fire.
Bass said of the DOJ’s indictment of the arsonist that the city is “working towards closure and towards justice — and today is a step forward in that process.” It is a first, small step. Justice means those responsible paying a price. For the arsonist, it means jail time. For Bass, it means resigning her post.
If she had any shame, she would have done so immediately upon her return from Ghana. Instead, she has put herself in charge of leading the recovery of the town she destroyed. Recently she announced she is running for reelection. In deeply blue LA, she is favored to win.
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Jim Breslo is an attorney, host of the “Hidden Truth Show” and founder of RealKast, a new media company. He was formerly a partner at the international law firm Seyfarth Shaw, defending companies and individuals against alleged civil rights violations.
