The Justice Department and the Trump administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced they have determined the cause of the Pacific Palisades fire and arrested an alleged arsonist. Local officials had previously said the cause was unknown but could have been caused by fireworks.
As a Palisades resident whose home was damaged but survived the fire, I hope whoever is guilty goes to prison for a long time. But let there be no mistake: he was not the one responsible for burning down the town of Pacific Palisades. Most of that responsibility falls to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
Newsom has failed to properly manage the state’s forests, leaving them dangerously overgrown with brush that fuels the fires. Instead of taking quick action to clean them up, Newsom seems to delight in blaming climate change after every devastating fire. After the Palisades fire, he said, “The heat is going to be a lot hotter. The dry temperatures are going to be a lot drier. The wet temperatures are going to be a lot wetter. That’s climate change.”
ARREST MADE IN CONNECTION WITH DEADLY PACIFIC PALISADES FIRE, SOURCES SAY
Bass has shown complete disregard for her duties as mayor. During her campaign, she said that if elected, “I wouldn’t travel internationally. The only places I would go are DC, Sacramento, San Francisco and New York in relation to LA.” Still, she left the country five times, including her now infamous trip to Ghana while LA was under a National Weather Service fire watch (which quickly became a Red Flag Warning the next day) to attend the inauguration of Ghana’s president. She was at a cocktail party when she heard about the fire.
It’s bad enough to violate a campaign promise, 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 mayor of the second largest city in the US, but doesn’t seem to appreciate the responsibility that comes with the job. (This was her second inauguration party outside the country; she also attended the inauguration of the Mexican president.)
Bass is also to blame because its DEI hiring practices placed less qualified people in critical positions responsible for protecting the safety of city residents. These positions included the deputy mayor for public safety, the fire chief, and the head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), all of whom left the city in the lurch. She proudly states on her website her commitment to “ensuring that our administration truly reflects the full diversity of Los Angeles’ population,” rather than a promise to hire the best and brightest.
Thanks to the FBI, we now know conclusively that the fire and its spread were completely preventable. The ATF determined that the Jan. 7 fire was a revival of a very small fire that the arsonist set on New Year’s Day. The fire burned only eight hectares, and the arsonist even called immediately after it was ignited. However, anyone who knows about forest fires knows that just because you put it out doesn’t mean it can’t ignite again, especially when dealing with overgrown brush.
The ATF special agent in charge on the case, Kenny Cooper, reported that “the fire burned deep into the ground, into roots and structures, and remained active for several days.” He said that when he worked for a state forestry agency, “we had a lightning strike that hit a tree, and it burned for days, sometimes weeks, and then ignited into a forest fire. We would suppress that, and then we would patrol those areas every day for weeks to make sure they didn’t ignite again.”
Flames from the Palisades Fire burn a building on Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful storm on January 8, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. (Apu Gomes)
But this didn’t happen in the Palisades. Instead, according to the ATF, the LAFD returned the next day to retrieve their hoses and did not return until it had reignited on January 7, when it was too late. The ATF’s findings are a stark indictment of the LAFD. We also know from other reports that the LAFD has done virtually nothing to prepare for the possibility of fire, despite the red flag warning that was issued, such as pre-deploying fire trucks in sensitive areas.
The fire chief was Kristin Crowly, an LGTB woman who is herself known for her DEI hiring. (As reported by the Los Angeles Times, she has “elevated younger, historically marginalized deputies to replace older veterans.”) Bass fired her after Crowly partially blamed the mayor’s budget cuts on the department’s inability to better manage the fire.
She wasn’t wrong. Under Bass, the city has increased spending on the homeless while reducing spending on basic services to keep residents safe. Last year, the Council approved a budget that allocated $1.3 billion for homelessness-related expenses while cutting the fire department by $17 million. The city has as many fire stations today as it did in the 1960s.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, and Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, left, address the media during a press conference on Saturday, January 11, 2025. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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We also know that they were handicapped by a lack of water, because the Santa Ynez Reservoir, built to provide water for firefighting in the Palisades and operated by the LADWP, had sat empty for almost a year awaiting minor repairs, leaving all the hydrants in the Palisades dry on the night of the fire. The fault for this lies with Bass’s choice to lead the department, Janisse Quinones, a Latina woman 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 liters of water instead of more than 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’s because her deputy mayor for public safety, Brian Williams, a black man, was suspended at the time for reporting a false bomb threat to police. He admits he did that and says it was to get out of a long meeting. He recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of ‘threats with fire and explosives’. Bass didn’t replace him until April, months after the fire.
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Bass said of the DOJ’s charges against the arsonist that the city is “working toward closure and toward justice — and today is a step forward in that process.” It’s a first, small step. Justice means those responsible pay a price. For the arsonist it means prison time. For Bass, this means that she must resign from her position.
If she had any shame, she would have done so as soon as she returned from Ghana. Instead, she has put herself in charge of rebuilding the city she destroyed. She recently announced that she is running for re-election. In deep blue LA, she is favored to win.
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