A chilling crime scene photo may mark the exact spot where the devastating Palisades Fire that has destroyed a swathe of Los Angeles started.
Part of the Temescal Ridge trail near Via Las Palmas and Via La Costa in LA’s Palisades-Highland community was seen cordoned off with crime scene tape Monday night.
The tape appeared to surround a burn scar, KTLA reported. Fireworks are illegal in LA, but Pacific Palisades teens are feared to have triggered an initial small blaze by setting off fireworks on the trail on New Years Eve.
Drought-like conditions and high winds mean that although that initial fire was put out, it may have smoldered for six days before re-igniting, investigators now believe according to sources to the San Francisco Chronicle.
‘There’s been no definitive determination that it is arson at this point,’ LAPD Asst. Chief Dominic Choi told the outlet. ‘But we are looking at every angle.’
It is the largest of at least six fires that have devastated the Los Angeles area to become the most destructive in modern California history.
At least 24 people losing their lives and over 12,000 buildings burning to the ground. The Palisades Fire has razed much of the Pacific Palisades, once a stunning coastal enclave home to the rich and famous.
Los Angeles’ Fire Department says around 14% of the 24,000 acre blaze has been contained as of Tuesday morning.
At least eight of the 24 people killed by the wildfires died in the Palisades blaze.
Residents have reportedly complained to the Pacific Palisades Community Council for some time over local youths setting off firefights in the bone-dry area.
‘There have been problems lately with teens and firecrackers, and it seems to come up at almost every PPCC meeting,’ said Sue Kohl, president of the council, told the Chronicle.
Now some are questioning if more should have been done to prevent the activity as experts say unseasonably dry conditions and high winds created a tinderbox-like environment.
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) descended on the Temescal Ridge trail on Monday to investigate it as a potential cause of the Palisades Fire.
ATF spokesperson Ginger Colbrun tentatively confirmed the investigation but said it was too early to say if the fireworks fire may have played a role.
‘ATF certified fire investigators did an initial assessment of the area, but the investigation has just begun,’ she said Monday. ‘We had additional expertise arrive over the weekend and the team is just starting to process the scene today.’
‘People want and deserve answers,’ Colbrun continued, noting that certified wildland fire investigators had joined the effort.
‘However, it is way too early to speculate on the cause and origin. We want to give accurate answers, so we need to have time to do a thorough investigation.’
While the ATF was wary of blaming the alleged fireworks fire for the blaze that has devastated much of the area, locals say they are convinced it is to blame.
Don Griffin, who shared images of both fires near his home showing them with essentially the same start point, told the SF Chronicle that he has repeatedly heard of teens setting off fireworks and flares in ‘fire danger areas.’
‘It’s a place where kids hang out, drink, smoke weed and break bottles,’ Griffin said.
Images shared with the outlet show teens setting off large stacks of fireworks has been an issue for some time, including a huge explosion at the Palisades Recreation Center in February.
‘So many in our community had been trying for two years to go after and prosecute the kids that had been setting them off almost every Friday and Saturday night all over town,’ David Serota, a commercial director who lost his home, also wrote this week on social media.
‘We sat in the Palisades Town Council … meetings about it. The police told us they didn’t have the resources to go after kids with fireworks. Despite the fact that they’d started fires previous to the one on New Year’s Eve.’
‘WE SOUNDED THE ALARM. WE SAW SOMETHING AND SAID SOMETHING,’ he concluded the scathing caption.
‘But still we all sit here with no homes, no community, and all the evidence of our lives reduced to a pile of ash.’
It comes as Los Angeles was placed under an unprecedented wind warning amid fears 70mph gusts could trigger a new inferno.
The National Weather Service issued a fourth ‘particularly dangerous situation’ warning to take effect 4am Tuesday, cautioning that winds of up to 70mph will last through noon Wednesday.
Huge swaths of the bone-dry city are under the new warning from Ventura across much of the San Fernando Valley, while areas from San Diego to San Bernardino remain under conventional red flag warnings.
The fourth warning comes after the previous three this fire season brought havoc to the densely populated area, including the ongoing Palisades and Eaton fires that have become among the deadliest in California history.
Much of the area around Malibu and the Pacific Palisades are also under the new warning, where at least 24 people have died and over 12,000 buildings have been destroyed in multiple fires.
Meteorologists warn that unseasonable drought-like conditions have turned the city into potential kindling as high winds set in.
The last significant rainfall in downtown Los Angeles came in May 2024, and since October 1 just 0.16 inches of rain has fallen – compared to a historical average of 5.34 inches by this time, reports the LA Times.
Climatologist Bill Patzert told the outlet that ‘the past nine months has been one of the driest in the historical record going back to 1900. During my career, I’ve never seen punishing Santa Ana events so overwhelm the normal winter rain season.’
