State sued over claim 'zombie' fire ignited Palisades conflagration

Fire victims sued the state of California on Wednesday, claiming that it allowed the Lachman Fire to rekindle on Jan. 7, the same day the Palisades Fire started. The Lachman Fire started on New Year's Eve in Topanga State Park.

Some attorneys said they have suspected that the Palisades disaster might have been caused by a "zombie" fire -- a wildfire that appears to have been extinguished but smolders for a while before reigniting.

"We suspected very early on, based on the footprint, where it started. Our experts had to systematically rule out other causes," plaintiffs' attorney Alexander Robertson IV said.

Attorneys with Robertson & Associates LLP; Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis LLP; and Gandhi Law Group filed the first amended complaint, adding the state to litigation filed on Jan. 13 against the city of Los Angeles. They say that the filing is the result of a six-month investigation of internal Los Angeles Department of Water and Power emails, analysis of Los Angeles Fire Department radio transmissions, electrical fault data, video surveillance footage and flight radar data for water-dropping helicopters. The case is Grigsby v. City of Los Angeles acting by and through the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 25STCV00832 (L.A. Super. Ct., filed Jan. 13, 2025).

A California State Parks representative said the department does not comment on pending litigation. But the agency is likely aware of the allegations. An attorney for the state of California tuned in remotely at a recent status conference in which plaintiffs' attorneys informed Judge Stuart M. Rice that they were looking at the Lachman Fire as a possible cause.

The filing alleges that the Los Angeles Fire Department did not post a fire watch or use a thermal imager to make sure that there weren't any hot spots or embers after it reported the Lachman Fire contained. It references a CBS News report purporting to show the burn area smoldering on the morning of Jan. 1. Photographs taken by a hiker on Jan. 2 purport to show that there were no firefighters at the scene.

"Plaintiffs are informed and believe that this unprecedented devastation was caused by the combined failures of CA State Parks, which allowed a fire to rekindle in Topanga State Park, compounded by LADWP's empty reservoirs and decision to leave its powerlines energized throughout the firestorm, which sparked additional fires throughout Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025," the filing states.

"Additionally, vacant lots owned by the city were overgrown with flammable brush in violation of the city's own brush clearance ordinances, which caught fire and spread to adjacent homes and structures," it continues.

The initial complaint was filed less than a week after the Palisades ignited. It and others claimed that the lack of water in fire hydrants and the Santa Ynez Reservoir played a significant role in the destruction. The reservoir can hold up to 117 million gallons of water. It was closed in February 2024 for repairs to its floating cover, which was torn.

The first amended complaint says the Department of Water and Power ignored its own inspection schedule in violation of its internal operations and maintenance policies, and state regulations, which allegedly recommend monthly inspections. The last underwater inspection of the cover was conducted in 2021, according to the complaint.

It goes on to say that LA utility officials attempted to rewrite the rules. It quotes an internal email dated Nov. 19, 2024, in which an official with the agency's Regulatory Affairs and Consumer Protection department appears to admit that they had been doing fewer than two inspections per year,

"As discussed and as noted below, the [Operations, Maintenance, and Monitoring Plans] for these reservoirs state that underwater inspections will be done 'at least once a year'. We'd like to revise this to once every three years (two per year)," the filing quotes the email as saying.

"Based on past practice, we have been doing less than two per year. Our 2022 and 2023 floating cover annual reports to [California State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water] note that none were done in either year. We did one in 2021 (Santa Ynez), one in 2024 (Franklin) and plan to do at least one in 2025 (Eagle Rock)."