The Palasides Fire has killed at least eight people and caused chaos amongst thousands of homes. According to a report, the cause of the fires is believed to be tied to New Year’s Eve fireworks.
The fire could have been reignited due to the strong winds, which are still causing havoc and making the flames difficult to control.
Satellite images show that the fire started around the same area that firefighters had previously put out a fire. The second call out were slower to respond to the fire, according to one resident, which may have attributed to the devastating impact.
Residents shared with The Washington Post that the response time from the firefighters was much slower than for the NYE fire.
Michael Valentine, who was home at the time the fires started, said that the first time, the responders were swift and impressive. Sadly, the second call out were slower and hindered by the high winds.
He and his wife rang the LAPD 30 minutes apart on 7 January to inform them of the beginning of the Palisades Fire. He noted that he had to wait on the line due to it being busy.
The fire department were working on two other situations in different parts of the city at the time of his call, and were planning to send responders when they were available, according to WaPo.
A helicopter that was scheduled to drop water over the growing fire was unable to due to the high winds.
The resident said: “For the longest time, I didn’t see any police, firefighters, not on the ground or in the air. I was disappointed because the second fire was moving so fast, and there was no one there,”.
He reacalled that it took around 45 minutes before he could see a helicopter over the flames and at the point, it did not contain any water.
While attempting to stop the flames destroying his neighbourhood, Valentine sustained multiple burns and injured his back, falling from a ladder, he said.
“We know that fires rekindle and transition from smoldering to flaming. It’s certainly possible that something from that previous fire, within a week, had rekindled and caused the ignition,” Michael Gollner, a professor of mechanical engineering and fire scientist at the University of California at Berkeley said.
Darrin Hurrwitz, a hiker who was near the starting point of the fire only an hour before it broke out last Tuesday, said that he smelled smoke, but that it disappeared as he continued the trail.
Another resident claimed the fires were “started by idiots”. He claimed: “I don’t know if you’ve ever been camping, but when you go camping and put a fire out, that doesn’t mean that it’s not hot below. Then the Santa Anas came on Monday, and that’s what started, that’s what reignited the fire.”
