Investigators are looking into whether a small blaze was not totally snuffed out and reignited to start the Palisades fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department’s chief said.
“We owe that to you, as a community, to understand where and how this happened, where and how this started,” Chief Kristin Crowley said during a virtual community meeting on Thursday night, Jan 16.
Assistant Fire Chief Joe Everett said firefighters patrolled the area following the New Year’s Day fire for more than 36 hours and kept a hose line on the Pacific Palisades hill.
“That fire was dead out,” he said. “If it is determined that was the cause, it would be a phenomenon.”
Fire investigators are looking at a hiking area called Skull Rock as the potential point of origin for the destructive Palisades fire, which erupted on Jan. 7. The site was the scene of another fire on New Year’s Day; Los Angeles firefighters, just 15 minutes into the new year, were dispatched to the hillside community to put out the initial brush fire.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has asked that anyone hiking there on Jan. 7 to contact the agency by texting ATFLA to 63975 to create a report and describe anything seen, smelled or heard.
Though a cause has not been announced by officials concerning Los Angeles County’s other massive fire, the Eaton, lawsuits on behalf of dozens of victims have been filed against Southern California Edison blaming its equipment for sparking the blaze.
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Meanwhile, firefighters made another jump in containment of both the Eaton and Palisades fires overnight, taking advantage of favorable weather conditions before another round of Santa Ana winds was to enter the region early next week.
The Eaton fire, burning in Eaton Canyon, Altadena and Pasadena, was 65% contained by Friday morning, Jan. 17, authorities said.
The Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Topanga and Mandeville Canyons, was 27% contained as of Friday morning, according to Cal Fire.
Neither fire has grown in size in days.
The fires have combined to claim 27 lives as of Thursday and damage or destroy about 13,000 structures. The number of damaged or destroyed structures in the Eaton fire was just under 8,000, according to updated numbers from the Angeles National Forest Friday morning, while officials have said more than 5,000 have been damaged or destroyed in the Palisades fire.
As of Thursday, law enforcement officials were working 36 missing person cases tied to the fires’ footprints.
Some residents who evacuated in the Palisades fire near the Encino Reservoir were allowed to return to their homes Thursday afternoon. In Altadena, residents northeast of Millard Creek were also allowed back to their homes.
Officials on Thursday, thought, warned that most others likely would not be able to return to their homes for at least another week as authorities continue to conduct damage and search-and-rescue assessments.
For the Eaton fire, crews continued to work on constructing and improving containment lines in steep terrain near Winter’s Creek and officials again expected the fire to stay within its current footprint, officials said.
“Fire suppression repairs are in progress, along with watershed assessments to evaluate potential risks to life, property and infrastructure from debris flows, flooding and rockfall hazards,” officials said.
Crews working the Palisades fire had the luxury of cooler temperatures, light winds and good humidity overnight into Friday morning, according to Cal Fire.
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