{"id":315041,"date":"2026-05-14T07:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/315041\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T07:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T07:08:13","slug":"california-withheld-palisades-fire-text-messages-lawsuit-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/315041\/","title":{"rendered":"California withheld Palisades Fire text messages, lawsuit alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"

(NewsNation<\/a>) \u2014 California is accused of failing to turn over text messages and emails to a judge about prior knowledge of smoke long before the deadly Palisades Fire<\/a> fully ignited, NewsNation has learned.<\/p>\n

In December, a court ordered California State Parks to turn over all text messages and emails. However, the agency allegedly did not, leaving them out of the case.<\/p>\n

Thousands of victims of the January 2025 fire are suing the city and state, alleging government failures to completely extinguish an earlier blaze led to the Palisades Fire. Plaintiffs say crews failed to fully extinguish the Lachman Fire, which authorities say was intentionally started Jan. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

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The fire killed 12 people, burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed about 6,800 buildings.<\/p>\n

State Parks employees documented smoke and smoldering roots<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Fire Department firefighter Scott Pike testified that he saw ash and smoldering embers in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot,\u201d Pike said. \u201cSo I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it. And there were red-hot coals that were still smoldering.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pike marked the specific location where he saw the ash and embers in his deposition. After firefighters left, two California State Parks employees took photos in the same area. The employees were asked by their manager what they saw that day and, in a text message, said: \u201cI told her there was smoke, smoldering roots popping up here and there, and we had to take care of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What the employees saw was in the same area where the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the Palisades Fire started five days later. The state is accused of failing to turn over the photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our shock, they were confirmations by these two people that they saw \u2026 smoldering roots and embers at the Lachman Fire burn scar on Jan. 2,\u201d attorney Roger Behle said. \u201cThese were not innocuous text messages that they inadvertently failed to give to us. These were critical pieces of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behle added: \u201cThese are damning text messages that prove our case. It proves the state knew there were smoldering embers and a dangerous condition on its property in the days leading up to the Palisades Fire, and yet it did nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Parks employee warned of conditions hours before fire ignited<\/p>\n

Firefighters testified that state parks employee John Ohta assured them the team would patrol the state land for a couple of days. On Jan. 7, in a text with colleagues hours before the fire ignited, a state parks employee wrote: \u201cWow, the burn scar is doing its best Dust Bowl impression. Be safe out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we say, \u2018Until you know for certain whether it\u2019s ash or smoke or something else, you go out and investigate it. It\u2019s your obligation. When you see this, you\u2019ve got to go out, call the LAFD back, call CAL FIRE out,\u2019\u201d Behle said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey don\u2019t want us to see the evidence that proved our case against them. And these text messages proved there were things happening on their land in the days and even hours leading up to the Palisades Fire that, had they acted, the Palisades Fire would not have happened at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement to NewsNation, California State Parks said it \u201chas and will continue to comply with all court orders surrounding discovery in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case is set to go before a judge May 20.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(NewsNation) \u2014 California is accused of failing to turn over text messages and emails to a judge about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,6333,7216,6024,1839,91402,26786,33458],"class_list":["post-315041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-state-parks","tag-lachman-fire","tag-los-angeles-fire-department","tag-palisades-fire","tag-scott-pike","tag-text-message","tag-text-messages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315041","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=315041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}