LA firefighter says he warned brush fire wasn’t out before massive blaze ignited

A Los Angeles firefighter has testified that he warned colleagues about still-smoldering ground days before a devastating wildfire erupted, according to newly released court documents in a lawsuit filed by fire victims.

Scott Pike, a veteran with over two decades of experience at the Los Angeles Fire Department, stated in a sworn deposition that on January 2, 2025, he discovered hot spots while helping collect hose equipment from a New Year’s Day brush fire in the Pacific Palisades area.

“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 testified. “I even heard crackling.”

Pike’s testimony, made public this week after city attorneys attempted to keep it confidential, indicates he informed other firefighters and a supervisor about the hot spots but felt his concerns were dismissed.

“I felt like I got kind of blown off a little bit,” Pike said. “I saw something, I said something.”

The initial brush fire would later reignite on January 7, 2025, into what became the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history. The catastrophic fire killed 12 people in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, and was one of two fires that collectively claimed more than 30 lives and destroyed over 17,000 homes and buildings across Los Angeles County.

Alexander Robertson, an attorney representing fire victims in the lawsuit against the city, said he obtained a court order to depose twelve firefighters who had been assigned to mop-up operations after the January 1 fire. According to Robertson, Pike was the only one who indicated that fire officials had been warned about the incomplete extinguishment.

Federal prosecutors have charged Jonathan Rinderknecht with starting the initial New Year’s Day fire. Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty, with his defense attorney claiming he’s being used as a scapegoat for the fire department’s failure to properly extinguish the blaze.

The lawsuit filed by Palisades fire victims alleges critical failures by both the fire department and the city’s water department, which plaintiffs claim failed to provide adequate water resources for firefighting operations.

Pike’s account stands in contrast to testimony from Los Angeles Battalion Chief Martin Mullen, who stated in his deposition that he personally walked the fire’s perimeter four times on January 1 with different assistant chiefs, conducting a process called “cold-trailing” to detect hot spots.

Mullen testified that he identified one hot spot early in the day and reported it to the captain. When he returned later, he found it fully extinguished. He maintained that he discovered no other hot spots during his subsequent inspections.

“It was a great mop up they did because if they didn’t, I’d still be there,” Mullen stated, asserting that the fire was “absolutely” extinguished when he departed the scene.

An interim LA fire chief had previously explained that such fires can linger in root systems at depths of 15 to 20 feet, making them undetectable even with thermal imaging cameras.

Robertson has accused the fire department and Mayor Karen Bass’s office of engaging in a “cover-up to conceal and suppress the truth about the Palisades Fire,” vowing accountability.

In response, Yusef Robb, an adviser to Mayor Bass, described the revelations as “alarming” and confirmed that Bass has directed the fire department to commission an independent investigation into the handling of the New Year’s Day fire.

“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 stated.

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore, appointed in October, has expressed concern about the discrepancies in firefighters’ testimonies, according to a department email, which emphasized the importance of the ongoing independent investigation and the chief’s commitment to full cooperation.

The case highlights the challenges of wildfire management in urban-wildland interface areas of California, where increasingly severe fire conditions due to climate change have made firefighting operations more complex and high-stakes than ever before.