Texts Show LAFD Ordered Out Before Palisades Fire

Text messages reviewed by the Los Angeles Times show LAFD crews at the Jan. 1 Lachman Fire warned their battalion chief on Jan. 2 that the ground and tree stumps were still smoldering but were ordered to roll up hoses and leave. Prosecutors say the Lachman blaze, allegedly started by Uber driver Jonathan Rinderknecht, continued to smolder underground and was fanned by Santa Ana winds on Jan. 7 into the catastrophic Palisades Fire that killed 12 people and destroyed or damaged thousands of structures. Firefighters told colleagues they believed the Jan. 7 inferno was a rekindling of the earlier blaze and said they were upset but felt they could not disobey orders to remain. Mayor Karen Bass later fired Fire Chief Kristin Crowley amid criticism of the department’s wildfire response, while interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva characterized the event as the reactivation of an “undetectable holdover fire” under extreme wind conditions. Federal prosecutors have charged Rinderknecht with arson and related counts, and the newly reported texts have intensified scrutiny and questions about LAFD command decisions during mop-up operations.