Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore admitted Tuesday that his department\u2019s after-action report on the Palisades fire was watered down to shield top brass from scrutiny.<\/p>\n
Moore\u2019s admission comes more than two weeks after The Times found that the report was edited<\/a> to downplay the failures of city and Los Angeles Fire Department leaders<\/a> in preparing for and fighting the Jan. 7, 2025, fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership in that final report,\u201d Moore said Tuesday during remarks before the city\u2019s Board of Fire Commissioners. \u201cThis editing occurred prior to my appointment as fire chief. And I can assure you that nothing of this sort will ever again happen while I am fire chief.\u201d<\/p>\n Moore, who was appointed fire chief in November, did not say who was responsible for the changes to the report. <\/p>\n The report\u2019s author, LAFD Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, declined to endorse it<\/a> because of substantial deletions that altered his findings. Cook said in an Oct. 8 email to then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva and other LAFD officials that the edited version was \u201chighly unprofessional and inconsistent with our established standards.\u201d<\/p>\n Mayor Karen Bass\u2019 office has said that the LAFD wrote and edited the report, and that the mayor did not demand changes. <\/p>\n On Tuesday, Clara Karger, a spokesperson for Bass said: \u201cMayor Bass fully respects and supports what the Chief said today, and she looks forward to seeing his leadership make the change that is needed within the department. Chief Moore is a courageous leader with strong integrity who continues to show his deep commitment to the people of Los Angeles and to the brave firefighters who serve our city every day.\u201d <\/p>\n Villanueva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n Moore\u2019s remarks, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Palisades fire, were the strongest admission yet of missteps by LAFD leaders. They amounted to an about-face for a chief who in November critiqued the media<\/a> following a Times report<\/a> that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and leave the area of a New Year\u2019s Day fire even though they had complained that the ground was still smoldering. That fire, the Lachman fire, later reignited into the Palisades fire. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is about learning and not assigning blame,\u201d said Fire Commissioner Sharon Delugach, who praised the chief for his comments. <\/p>\n The most significant changes, The Times found in its analysis of seven drafts of the report, involved top LAFD officials\u2019 decision not to fully staff up and pre-deploy available firefighters ahead of the ferocious winds. <\/p>\n An initial draft said the decision \u201cdid not align\u201d with policy, while the final version said the number of companies pre-deployed \u201cwent above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.\u201d<\/p>\n A section on \u201cfailures\u201d was renamed \u201cprimary challenges,\u201d and an item saying that crews and leaders had violated national guidelines on how to avoid firefighter deaths and injuries was scratched.<\/p>\n Another passage that was deleted said that some crews waited more than an hour for an assignment on Jan. 7, 2025.<\/p>\n The department made other changes that seemed intended to make the report seem less negative. In one draft, there was a suggestion to change the cover image from a photo of palm trees on fire to a more \u201cpositive\u201d image, such as \u201cfirefighters on the frontline.\u201d The final report displays the LAFD seal on its cover.<\/p>\n A July email thread reviewed by The Times shows concern over how the after-action report would be received, with the LAFD forming a \u201ccrisis management workgroup.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary goal of this workgroup is to collaboratively manage communications for any critical public relations issue that may arise. The immediate and most pressing crisis is the Palisades After Action Report,\u201d LAFD Assistant Chief Kairi Brown wrote in an email to eight other people.<\/p>\n \u201cWith significant interest from media, politicians, and the community, it is crucial that we present a unified response to anticipated questions and concerns,\u201d Brown wrote. \u201cBy doing so, we can ensure our messaging is clear and consistent, allowing us to create our own narrative rather than reactive responses.\u201d<\/p>\n Maryam Zar, a Palisades resident who runs the Palisades Recovery Coalition, said that \u201cwhen news came out that this report had been doctored to save face, it didn\u2019t take much for [Palisades residents] to believe that was true.\u201d<\/p>\n It was easy for Moore to admit the faults of previous LAFD administrations, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not going to take any heat. It wasn\u2019t him,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s not the fire chief who really should have stood up and said, \u2018I didn\u2019t do what I should have.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez called the chief\u2019s comments \u201ca refreshing change of position, but said it took too long for the department to admit its mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of unnecessary detours to getting us here,\u201d she added. \u201cThere was a lot of evading blame … but I think evading it didn\u2019t result in any less questions being raised.\u201d<\/p>\n