By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-15 19:40:20 | Updated at 2025-01-15 21:48:47
2 hours ago
The investigation into the worst wildfire raging in Los Angeles is zeroing in on a popular hiking trail — where another fire broke out just six days earlier, soon after fireworks marked the start of New Year’s Day.
A cul-de-sac close to the Skull Rock trailhead in the Palisades was closed off with yellow caution tape Monday as cops helped federal agents and scientists meticulously examine the popular hiking trail area.
Lead investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that they are examining possible connections to the Palisades Fire and a smaller one in the same area that started minutes into 2025.
“We’re looking at every possibility, going down every rabbit hole, and examining video footage from residents in the area,” local ATF spokesperson Ginger Colbrun told the paper.
Photos showed that both fires started in almost the same part of the trailhead, which links to popular trails in Temescal Ridge in the Santa Monica Mountains.
In the first fire, locals had shared footage of the flames rising before 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day — soon after some raised fears that fireworks being set off there would start such a blaze, the WSJ noted.
Then six days later, people on the same WhatsApp chat reported flames there on Jan. 7.
“Same spot!!” one neighbor wrote — a minute before the official start time given for the Palisades Fire, the WSJ noted.
Neighbors were alerted to it being a “possible reignition” from the earlier fire, which Scott Sweetow, a retired ATF agent and arson expert, told the WSJ would be a key part of the ongoing investigation.
However, he doubted the extinguished fire could have simply been rekindled, given that they were six days apart.
Investigators will be looking for any embers from a cigarette or a flame for a lighter, with dogs hunting the hills for traces of gasoline or other flammable liquids, Sweetow added.
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Officials have previously said it likely had “human origins,” without detailing exactly what.
Unlike the first blaze, which was quickly extinguished, locals say it took at least 45 minutes for firefighters to arrive last Tuesday, which critics say likely allowed the Palisades Fire to grow uncontrolled.
It also emerged Tuesday that more than 1,000 firefighters and 40 water-carrying trucks were reportedly kept out of the line of action in the first few critical hours of the blaze.
Just five fire engines were sent to battle the Palisades fire, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Several fires have now been raging in the greater Los Angeles area for over a week, killing 25 people and destroying more than 12,000 structures.
An area the size of Brooklyn has been ravaged as multiple wildfires, driven by powerful Santa Ana winds, have torn through neighborhoods.
As well as the Palisades Fire, the other biggest has been the Eaton Fire in the northeastern suburb of Altadena.
