Pacific Palisades Fire

[spaminator]

LA Mayor removes fire chief in fallout from Palisades blaze
Author of the article:Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Sarah McGregor
Published Feb 21, 2025 • 1 minute read

(Bloomberg) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass removed Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, citing failures in the department’s response to the devastating Palisades wildfire.


Bass appointed former LAFD Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a 41-year LAFD veteran, as interim chief while the city launches a search for Crowley’s permanent replacement, according to an emailed statement from her office on Friday.

Bass said Crowley’s dismissal stemmed from key lapses, including sending home 1,000 firefighters on the morning the Palisades fire broke out and refusing to conduct an “after action report.”

“The heroism of our firefighters – during the Palisades fire and every single day – is without question. Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs,” Bass said.

The Palisades blaze exploded on Jan. 7, driven by hurricane-force gusts, ripping through an area almost twice the size of Manhattan, claiming at least 12 lives and destroying 6,800 structures. A second major blaze, the Eaton Fire, which left 17 dead, was in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, outside the city and Bass’s purview.

Economists at the University of California at Los Angeles estimate that total property and capital losses from the fires will be as much as $164 billion.

When contacted for comment from Crowley, LAFD spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz said the department didn’t have an immediate statement.

LA Mayor removes fire chief in fallout from Palisades blaze

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass removed Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, citing failures in the department’s response to the Palisades wildfire.

torontosun.com

 

[spaminator]

Mistrial declared in deadly Los Angeles fire case
Author of the article:AFP
AFP
Published Jun 26, 2026 • 2 minute read

Arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht.
Arson suspect Jonathan Rinderknecht. Photo by U.S. Attorney's Office
Los Angeles (United States) – The trial of a man accused of setting one of the blazes that tore through Los Angeles last year in one of the costliest disasters in U.S. history collapsed Friday when the jury failed to reach a verdict.


Jonathan Rinderknecht had been charged with starting a blaze that eventually rekindled to become the Palisades Fire and laid waste in January 2025 to some of the most exclusive addresses on the U.S. West Coast, including in the city of Malibu.


Firefighters believed they had extinguished the initial blaze, but now say it flared again a week later in strong winds, at the same time as another fire was racing through a different part of greater Los Angeles.

A total of 31 people died in the two fires, which destroyed thousands of homes and upended life across America’s second biggest city.

Palisades Fire
The Palisades Fire was one of two that tore through the greater Los Angeles area in Jaunary 2025, destroying thousands of homes in some of the most desirable real estate on the US West Coast. Photo by Robyn Beck /AFP/File
After a three-week trial, the jury in Los Angeles deliberated for two days before declaring itself deadlocked.

“There is nothing the court can do to assist the jury in their deliberations,” a jury note said Thursday.

“Additional instructions or rereading the testimony would not help in deliberations. Unfortunately we cannot reach a unanimous verdict.”

On Friday morning, U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang declared a mistrial after learning that all but two of the 12 jurors had wanted to declare Rinderknecht not guilty.



Prosecutors had portrayed him as a rideshare driver angry at capitalism and driven by a desire to burn down a wealthy enclave where he had once lived.

His own lawyers argued he was a Good Samaritan who had called emergency services to report the initial fire, maintaining that the blaze had actually been sparked by fireworks.

They also depicted him as a scapegoat whose prosecution was being used to cover up the Los Angeles Fire Department’s failure to extinguish the initial fire.

As soon as the mistrial was declared, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said his office would try again.

“The evidence is strong that Jonathan Rinderknecht is responsible for igniting the fire on January 1, 2025, which eventually became the Palisades Fire,” Essayli wrote on X. “We fully intend to retry this case before a new jury and obtain guilty verdicts on all charged counts.”

Rinderknecht, who faces multiple charges, including arson, could be jailed for up to 45 years if ultimately convicted.

Mistrial declared in deadly Los Angeles fire case

The trial of a man accused of setting one of the blazes that tore through Los Angeles last year collapsed Friday. Read more.

torontosun.com