{"id":196294,"date":"2026-02-27T09:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/196294\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:33:09","slug":"la-firefighter-says-lachman-fire-was-still-smoldering-when-crews-were-ordered-to-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/196294\/","title":{"rendered":"LA firefighter says Lachman Fire was still smoldering when crews were ordered to leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A Los Angeles firefighter says the Lachman Fire was still smoldering when crews were ordered to leave, days before embers reignited into the deadly Palisades Fire<\/a>, according to newly released deposition testimony.<\/p>\n

Scott Pike, a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Fire Department, testified last month as part of a lawsuit filed by 3,000 Palisades Fire victims against the city and the state.<\/p>\n

Pike said he saw at least five areas that were still smoking and extremely hot.<\/p>\n

“I saw light smoke on the ground,” he said. “I saw branches that were smoking still. I could smell smoke, and there were … for what I would say … I would say several smokers.”<\/p>\n

Pike said some of the hot spots were intense enough that he hesitated to touch them, even with gloves.<\/p>\n

“I could feel the heat coming off of it, and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot,” he said. “So I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it and there was like red hot, like, coals, what I believe to be the base of a bush or branches that was still smoldering, and I even heard crackling.”<\/p>\n

Pike testified that he reported what he found to other firefighters and a captain but felt his concerns were dismissed.<\/p>\n

He also said he was never interviewed for the city’s after-action report on the Palisades Fire.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Fire Department leadership has maintained that flames were out at the site of the Lachman Fire.<\/p>\n

Pike said the devastation that followed weighs heavily on him.<\/p>\n

“I saw something, I said something and to my best ability, I felt like we could have done more,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Karen Bass’ office released a statement Thursday, saying the mayor has been “extremely public” about demanding transparency.<\/p>\n

“As Mayor Bass said months ago when this first came to light, these revelations are ‘tremendously alarming,'” read the statement. “That’s why she immediately ordered a full investigation of the Lachman 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.”<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A Los Angeles firefighter says the Lachman Fire was still smoldering when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[91499,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-196294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-91499","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}