These testimonies show what so many residents already know in our hearts: THIS DIDN’T HAVE TO HAPPEN.
A preventable fire became a disaster because leaders failed to act. And our community paid the price.
They let us burn.
A Los Angeles firefighter said in sworn testimony that he sounded an alarm about the inadequate mop-up of the Lachman fire — and was blown off by a captain — days before the embers reignited into the deadly Palisades fire.
Scott Pike, a 23-year LAFD veteran, was assigned to roll up hoses that had been left out overnight at the scene of the Lachman fire.
Around 8:45 a.m. on Jan. 2, 2025, Pike saw about five areas that were still smoking, he testified last month in a lawsuit brought by Palisades fire victims against the city and the state.
At one ash pit, Pike said, “I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot. So I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it, and there was, like red hot, like, coals … that was still smoldering. And I even heard crackling.”
(Click here to watch additional deposition on X)
Pike’s dramatic retelling, which attorneys representing the city initially blocked from release along with transcripts of deposition testimony from 11 other firefighters, corroborates previous reporting by The Times that a battalion chief ordered crews to pack up their hoses and leave, despite signs that the Lachman fire was not completely extinguished.
Read the whole story and watch the video on LA Times here.
