Palisades fire may be linked to previous blaze in popular hiking area
Palisades fire may be linked to previous blaze in popular hiking area
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Elite federal fire investigators arrived in Los Angeles this week to probe cause of deadly blaze. At the start of the new year, firefighters used a water-dropping helicopter to snuff out a blaze that began a few hours earlier near Skull Rock, a popular hiking destination on the Temescal Ridge trail above the Palisades.
Some residents wonder whether parts of that fire survived and set off the Palisades fire, which began on January 7. Past fires, including the 1991 Oakland Hills fire and the 2023 Maui fire continued after previous blazes were thought to be contained. Areas around where the Palisades fire began, including Skull Rock and Via La Costa Street, remain closed to the public.
The area is littered with shattered electrical equipment, blackened trees, charred utility poles, and litter from recent visitors, all of which might suggest more information about how the Palisades fire began. In addition to probing the cause of the fire, officials are scrutinizing why fire hydrants ran dry as firefighters battled the Los Angeles fires, and whether more extensive brush clearing and controlled burns before this month’s fires would’ve prevented some of the risk.
