Newsom's Fire — and that of the majority of Californians who vote these people into offie and keep them there
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Smoking gun: Gavin Newsom’s ‘Plant Police’ set the stage for deadly Palisades fire
Eleven months after the Palisades Fire destroyed thousands of Los Angeles homes, we may finally have the smoking gun linking Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to the deadly blaze.
A newly discovered “Wildfire Management Plan,” quietly issued by California State Parks just weeks before the Jan. 7 wildfire, states Newsom’s policy bluntly: “Unless specified otherwise, State Parks prefers to let Topanga State Park burn in a wildfire event” — disregarding the park’s proximity to residential neighborhoods.
The document, prepared in December 2024, was unearthed this week through legal discovery in a civil lawsuit against the state.
Attorney Alexander “Trey” Robinson, who represents thousands of Pacific Palisades residents, says the manual outlines new procedures for fire management.
Those procedures could have barred local firefighters from fully extinguishing an earlier blaze that later re-ignited in high winds.
Federal investigators say the Palisades Fire was rekindled from the much smaller Lachman Fire on Jan. 1, which was started by alleged arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, of Florida.
The Lachman Fire began “on land owned by the local Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority . . . and spread onto land owned by California State Parks (Topanga State Park),” according to a federal indictment against Rinderknecht.
Local firefighters put out that fire in the wee hours of New Year’s Day, and came back on Jan. 2 to make sure it was fully extinguished.
But according to text messages first unearthed by the Los Angeles Times, they were ordered to leave “even though they complained the ground was still smoldering and rocks remained hot to the touch.”
That was likely a fateful decision.
Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later determined that the fire continued within the root structure of plants “approximately 20 feet south” of the original blaze.
In the extreme winds of Jan. 7 — a seasonal Santa Ana wind, made stronger by a jet stream at high altitude — the conflagration reignited and spread from the chaparral of the park to nearby homes.
Locals have wondered for months why the firefighters left on Jan. 2, given the high risk that the fire could start again and spread from the state park to homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Highlands, just a few hundred yards away.
Some residents — notably reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his home and has been investigating the fire ever since — have claimed that State Parks officials told firefighters they could not use heavy equipment to clear the perimeter of the fire, because doing so would harm engendered plant species.
Newsom has denied any state responsibility for the blaze.
His office has even called residents who are suing the state “opportunistic plaintiffs.”
But one local citizen took a photograph of a California State Parks employee — wearing a jacket with the department’s logo — talking to firefighters working on the Lachman Fire.
And the “Wildfire Management Plan” provides a key piece of evidence linking the disaster to the state’s apparent negligence.
The document defines “Avoidance Areas,” which contain “all sensitive Natural and Cultural Resources,” and where “no heavy equipment, vehicles, and retardant are allowed.”
Shockingly, the document says the public should not be told where these areas are: “Avoidance Areas should be shared with the Incident Command, but measures should be taken to keep the information confidential.”
The document also advises firefighters to use “modified fire suppression” techniques in these areas.
When performing a “mop-up” of an extinguished fire, firefighters are told to “consider allowing large logs to burn out.”
It adds: “No mop-up techniques are allowed in avoidance areas without the presence of an archaeologist.”
Robinson, who obtained the Wildfire Management Plan on Tuesday thanks to a judge’s order, alleges that the Wildfire Management Plan prevented the Los Angeles Fire Department from fully extinguishing the Lachman Fire.
“We believe this is the reason LAFD was restricted from performing a normal mop-up of the Lachman Fire,” he told The Post. “I suspect State Park ‘Resource Advisors’ shared the avoidance map with the Lachman [Incident Command] and LAFD was forced not to mop up” in those designated areas.
“My personal opinion is that we will learn this is why the fire rekindled,” he added.
“The Plant Police prevented LAFD from doing their job.”
That — and the lack of an archeologist.
Related:
I remember reading stories last year, post-fire, about the curtailment of a land clearing project in Topanga Canyon due to the preence of the beloved — to some — Braunton’s milkvetch, but, rather than spend too much time digging around for individual citations, I used Google’s AI search tool. Carefully worded, a question directed to the tool will, usually, produce a useful summary. Here’s one:
AI Overview
Yes, California projects to clear underbrush in Topanga have been blocked due to concerns over protected plant species, notably the Braunton's milkvetch, which led to a halt in a 2019 wildfire prevention project by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. This conflict highlights the tension between wildfire safety and ecological protection, a debate that has intensified following recent fires in the region.
The incident in Topanga Canyon
The project: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) began a project in Topanga State Park to replace old power poles, widen fire-access lanes, and install fire-resistant lines due to high fire risk.
The controversy: The project was halted after an amateur botanist reported damage to the Braunton's milkvetch, a rare and endangered shrub.
The consequence: The work was stopped, investigations were launched, and the incident sparked debate over how to balance wildfire prevention with protecting fragile ecosystems.
Here’s one of the sources cited in the AI search results — similar incidents have been occurring in California or decades, pitting “environmentalists” against the brutal frqpists armed with chainsaws, and the environmentalists have won almost every time. The result, possibly intended, possibly not, has been that as the annual drought season is followed by the California’s fire season, wildfires sweep the state, homes, towns and forests burn up, and blame is deflected from the land management policies that are the actual cause and placed instead on utilities, with extra credit awarded more recently to Global Warming and an angry Mother Gaia.
L.A. Workers Bulldozed Endangered Plants in Topanga to Ease Fire Danger, Prompting Outrage
Crews for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power recently bulldozed hundreds of federally endangered plants in Topanga State Park, and both state and city authorities have launched investigations into DWP’s actions, part of a wildfire prevention project aimed at replacing wooden power poles with steel ones.
“In response to recent community concerns about protected plants in the construction area, the LADWP has halted construction and is working with biologists and other experts to conduct an investigation and assessment of the site,” Stephanie Spicer, a spokeswoman for the city water and power agency, said late Wednesday in response to inquiries from The [LA] Times.
In a separate incident this year, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works apparently encased federally threatened red-legged frogs in cement while making emergency repairs to a culvert in a portion of nearby Leo Carrillo State Park, which is vulnerable to heavy debris flows because of last year’s Woolsey fire.
Both events, not previously publicized by the agencies involved, have recharged debate over balancing wildfire safety and protecting fragile ecological resources following big blazes, including last year’s deadly Camp and Woolsey fires — and the Tubbs fire the year before that.