LOS ANGELES (AP) — New testimony reveals that a Los Angeles firefighter alerted his team about continuing underground heat from a brush fire several days before officials say it flared back to life, becoming the city’s most devastating wildfire on record.
Los Angeles Fire Department member Scott Pike testified under oath that he informed coworkers the soil remained dangerously hot on January 2nd while assisting with cleanup operations from a New Year’s Day brush fire in the hills surrounding the upscale Pacific Palisades area, according to the Los Angeles Times. Pike’s statements were part of sworn testimony in litigation brought by fire victims, with depositions released publicly this week after city lawyers initially sought to keep them sealed for 30 days.
“I could feel the heat coming off of it, and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot, so I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it. And there was like red hot, like coals,” Pike stated during his deposition, as shown in footage aired by KNBC-TV. “I even heard crackling.”
“I felt like I got kind of blown off a little bit,” Pike added. “I saw something, I said something.”
Fire victims’ lawyer Alexander Robertson revealed he secured a judicial order to question twelve firefighters responsible for extinguishing the January 1st fire. Among all those interviewed, Pike was the sole individual who reported that fire department personnel had received warnings about incomplete suppression before crews departed the area, Robertson explained.
The wildfire claimed 12 lives throughout the hillside communities spanning Pacific Palisades and Malibu, representing one of two major fires that erupted on January 7th, 2025. Combined, these blazes resulted in more than 30 fatalities and eliminated over 17,000 residential and commercial structures during their multi-day rampage across Los Angeles County.
Officials have determined the fire was a rekindling of the New Year’s Day incident, which federal prosecutors allege was ignited by a local resident. In October, they filed charges against Jonathan Rinderknecht for initiating the Palisades fire. Rinderknecht maintains his innocence, with his legal counsel arguing he’s being made a scapegoat for the Los Angeles Fire Department’s inability to completely extinguish the initial blaze.
Claims of fire department shortcomings form the foundation of the legal action filed by Palisades fire survivors against the city. The complaint also accuses the municipal water department of failing to supply sufficient water resources for firefighting operations.
A former interim LA fire chief has previously explained that such fires can persist within root systems and penetrate 15 to 20 feet underground, making detection through thermal imaging equipment impossible.
Robertson, representing the plaintiffs, accused the fire department and Mayor Karen Bass’s administration of conducting a “cover-up to conceal and suppress the truth about the Palisades Fire.”
“We will hold them accountable,” he declared.
Yusef Robb, a Bass advisor, described these revelations as disturbing. Bass has instructed the fire department to authorize an independent investigation into the New Year’s Day fire response.
“For more than a year, Mayor Bass has been extremely public about her demand for transparency and accountability to inform ongoing Fire Department reforms, and because those affected deserve nothing less,” Robb wrote in an email statement.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, who assumed the position in October, expressed concern about the conflicting accounts in firefighters’ testimonies, the department stated via email.
“That concern underscores why the ongoing independent investigation is so important, and why the Chief is fully committed to providing complete cooperation on behalf of himself and the Department,” the email stated.
