On the first anniversary of the catastrophic Pacific Palisades wildfire, a significant number of fire survivors are set to convene, seeking answers from California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, though their attendance remains uncertain.
According to Breitbart, over 1,000 residents of the Palisades have already confirmed their participation in the January 7 "They Let Us Burn!" rally. This protest aims to hold the administrations of Newsom and Bass accountable for their perceived failures.
"THEY LET US BURN through gross negligence, mismanagement, poor preparedness, lack of infrastructure and protocol. THEY LET US BURN today with gaslighting, lack of transparency, accountability and vision," reads a statement shared on Instagram by the organizing group.
Invitations have been extended to both the governor and the mayor, yet as of Saturday, neither has confirmed their attendance. Governor Newsom is scheduled to be in Los Angeles next week to "visit with fire survivors," but his presence at the rally remains unconfirmed, as a spokesperson informed the New York Post.
"This is a rally. This is a protest," declared Jeremy Padawer, the event's organizer, to the tabloid. Padawer, a homeowner in Pacific Palisades, saw his house and nearly the entire neighborhood reduced to ashes by the fires. He established PacificPalisades.com, a platform chronicling the community's arduous journey to rebuild, which has been painfully slow, leaving behind a landscape of vacant lots and skeletal remains along Sunset Boulevard.
Padawer contends that the fire was not an inevitable natural disaster but rather the consequence of systemic failures and governmental incompetence.
His website highlights several critical oversights, such as unchecked fire hydrants, reports of 33 percent of firetrucks being non-operational, unmaintained dry brush, an empty local reservoir, and a glaring absence of fire prevention measures on what was the windiest day of the decade. Additionally, Padawer's site notes that Mayor Bass was in Africa when the fire erupted, and her deputy mayor, responsible for overseeing the fire and police departments, was suspended amid a federal investigation after allegedly calling in a fake bomb threat to evade a Zoom meeting, as reported by Breitbart News.
As Breitbart News further reported, the wildfires in the Palisades and Altadena have sparked extensive lawsuits, accusing officials of negligence and incompetence, alongside allegations that fire authorities attempted to conceal their errors. A revealing report by the Los Angeles Times, published on New Year's Eve, accused leaders of the Los Angeles Fire Department of engaging in a "campaign of secrecy" to "avoid taking full responsibility" for their mistakes, particularly in an "after action report" that purportedly examined the fire's cause. The accusations made by "They Let Us Burn!" closely mirror the findings of the Times report.
The after action report failed to disclose that fire crews were instructed to abandon a still-smoldering area from a previous arson fire, which reignited when high winds swept the coast on January 7. Both the Times and the rally's Instagram post criticize the government for not addressing questions regarding the absence of crews and equipment and why engines were not preemptively deployed ahead of the high wind event, a practice previously followed.
Padawer told the Post that negligence and mismanagement persist and have only worsened over time. Reconstruction efforts have stalled, families remain displaced, and residents are left uncertain about when or how they will return to the community once known as "Mayberry by the sea."
"People are running out of insurance money," Jessica Rogers, a fire survivor and organizer of another anniversary event, told the Post. "Theyre running out of savings. People are becoming unhoused." Rogers is organizing the White Glove Flag Presentation and Remembrance Ceremony to honor the 12 Palisadians who perished in the fire and to acknowledge those aiding the community's recovery. By the time the fires in the Palisades and Altadena were contained, they had claimed at least 31 lives and destroyed over 16,000 homes, businesses, and other structures across the region.
However, a study by the Boston University School of Public Health suggests that the death toll has been significantly underestimated, with the fires potentially causing as many as 400 fire-related fatalities. Rogers emphasized that the disaster's impact did not cease with the extinguishing of the flames; it evolved into a struggle with paperwork, debt, and displacement.
Both organizers reject the stereotype of the Palisades as merely a wealthy enclave, home to celebrities and entertainment industry elites. "There are a lot of everyday hardworking people teachers, nurses with dependable jobs," Padawer stated. "This is a severely traumatized community," Rogers added. "Youre seeing compounding grief loss of home, loss of stability, loss of identity all at once."
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