Wednesday, January 7 marks the one year anniversary of the deadly Eaton and Pacific Palisades wildfires. Several events are taking place to mark the somber occasion. Meanwhile, thousands of families remain displaced, forced to navigate insurance battles, housing instability, and a rebuilding process marked by growing distrust and bureaucratic delays.
In the 12 months since those fires began, re-building has been slow. Los Angeles County has approved around 1,137 building permits, the Los Angeles Business Journal reports. Over 2,800 have been submitted. In the City of Los Angeles, nearly 3,000 applications have been turned in. 1,241 are under review and more than 1,400 have been issued. Construction is underway for around 340 projects.
The pace of rebuilding has been far more sluggish in Malibu, adjacent to the Pacific Palisades. Just 17 official building permits have been issued there. Certificates of occupancy for those who lost homes stand at zero.
Re-building efforts are only part of the challenge. Transparency concerns abound in the aftermath of the deadly blazes. An after action report issued in October was significantly watered down by Los Angeles fire officials, an investigation by the Los Angeles Times found. When Times staff compared the final report to earlier drafts, they found the following changes had been made:
- An initial version of the report said the failure to fully staff and pre-deploy fire crews ahead of the heavy wind storm “did not align” with department policy. That language was then struck from the report. A new line was added, stating that the number of engines deployed “went above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.”
- Another deleted passage stated that some crews waited over an hour for an assignment on the day of the fire.
- A section titled “failures” was re-named “primary challenges.”
- Officials removed a passage stating that fire crews and leaders had violated national guidelines for avoiding firefighter deaths and injuries.
- The report’s initial cover page photo showed palm trees on fire. That photo was changed to a picture of the LAFD seal. Notes on the margin of a previous draft show there was pressure to replace the palm tree photo with something more “positive.”
The alterations led Los Angeles Fire Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook to refuse to endorse the report’s final version. In an email to then interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva on October 8, Cook wrote that “the document has undergone substantial modifications and contains significant deletions of information that, in some instances, alter the conclusions originally presented.”
He called the final version “highly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.”
The Eaton and Pacific Palisades fires remain the most destructive in Los Angeles County history. A total of 31 people were killed and over 16,000 structures destroyed.
A year later, Angelenos are left with many unanswered questions. The anniversary has brought reflection, but not resolution, as residents continue to grapple with red tape and serious concerns over transparency and accountability.
UPDATE: Palisades fire report was sent to mayor's office for 'refinements' - Los Angeles Times