LA firefighter says he warned brush fire wasn't out before massive blaze ignited
ABC News
A Los Angeles firefighter has testified that the ground was still smoldering from a brush fire days before a massive wildfire exploded last year in Pacific Palisades
LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles firefighter testified in a newly released deposition that he told colleagues the ground was still smoldering from a brush fire days before authorities say it reignited into the most destructive blaze in city history.
Scott Pike, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said he told colleagues the ground was still hot on Jan. 2 when he was sent in to help clean up a New Year's Day brush in the hillsides near the scenic Pacific Palisades neighborhood, the Los Angeles Times reported. Pike's comments came in a sworn deposition taken in a lawsuit that was filed by fire victims. The deposition and those of other fire officials were made public this week after city attorneys had moved to keep it confidential for a month.
“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 said in the deposition, according to video published by KNBC-TV. “I even heard crackling.”
“I felt like I got kind of blown off a little bit,” Pike said. “I saw something, I said something.”
Alexander Robertson, an attorney for the fire victims, said he obtained a court order to depose a dozen firefighters tasked with mopping up the Jan. 1 fire. Pike was the only one who indicated fire officials had been warned the blaze had not been fully extinguished when they packed up and left the scene, Robertson said.
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