In an emotional congressional hearing punctuated by immense frustration, six Pacific Palisades residents on Thursday spoke of family memories lost, an inadequate city response and a burdensome rebuilding process after the deadly inferno that destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people.
The panel of residents urged the federal government to intervene in the process of rebuilding and release funds that would help accelerate restoration of their homes and provide necessary safety improvements to water systems, streets and utilities after January’s Palisades fire.
“The pattern is clear: Local government failed us on Jan. 7 and continues to fail us,” said Jessica Rogers, president of the Pacific Palisades Residents Assn. and a geriatric social worker. “We’ve been forced to lead our own recovery because the city won’t.”
The public hearing — held at an American Legion hall across the street from the burned husk of the Village School, a private elementary school — was the first following a September announcement by Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that they would lead a probe into the fire.
Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), left, and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) hold a Senate field hearing Thursday in Pacific Palisades in an investigation criticized by one City Council member as a “witch hunt.”
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The investigation, they said, is necessary to “uncover and expose the truth” about how the state and local governments responded to the inferno, which broke out amid hurricane-force winds and quickly overwhelmed firefighting resources. Some local officials, such as Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, have characterized the probe as a “witch hunt” by “MAGA Republicans” that was intended to bash Democrats.
Most questions from the Republican senators focused on brush clearance, prescribed burns, evacuations and the allocation of state and local funds. At times, however, the questions reflected a distinctly partisan tone.
While interviewing residents, Johnson asserted that local government was diverting money that should be used for public safety and immigration enforcement.
Panelist John Alle, who manages properties in Santa Monica and the Westlake neighborhood and has been a vocal critic of efforts to address homelessness, blamed diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for the hiring of incompetent people to run the Fire Department.
“I believe the Palisades fire was more than just a horrific tragedy,” Scott said. “It was an unacceptable failure of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.”
The panelists shared stories of a chaotic evacuation process with little direction from the city and the pain of losing a lifetime’s worth of memories. Some described the unique challenges and loss of dignity that seniors have faced while trying to rebuild.
Rachel Schwartz, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, said the funds she’ll receive from her insurance company would cover only about half of what she needs to rebuild her home of 25 years. Many seniors in the Palisades are in the same position, she said.
“Senators, I am not asking for pity,” she said. “I am asking for help. Not just for me, but for everyone who has lost their homes and feels forgotten.”
Tom Doran, 65, a longtime Palisades resident, told the senators that he never imagined at this stage in his life — a time when he expected to be planning for retirement — that he would be dealing with the loss of his home and his in-laws’ house at the same time.
The day of the fire, he said, “there were no sirens, no real warnings, just wind, smoke and confusion.”
After the fire, his mother-in-law survived multiple strokes and needed emergency surgery. The loss of their home and independence aged his in-laws physically, he said.
It also became immediately clear that the process of rebuilding in Los Angeles was a difficult one for the elderly. The online forms, digital portals, endless hold times — it’s all too much, he said.
“Every step of the process was overwhelming,” he said. “And even now, 10 months later, we’re still cataloging every single possession we owned for insurance purposes, every pot, every book, every photograph, line by line, while it’s abundantly clear that it was a total loss — the emotional toll of having to relive what we lost just to prove it is staggering.”
Alle, whose parents also lost their home in the fire, said his 99-year-old father had asked him not to write an obituary when he died because all his friends were already dead. Some perished after the fire — overwhelmed and confused by the trauma.
His 96-year-old mother died about three months ago, sad and adrift after her home of five decades burned.
“It was confusion, it was sorrow — she lost everything,” he said.
Alle criticized Mayor Karen Bass’ decision to fly to Ghana ahead of the red flag warning. He claimed that he had pleaded with her during a phone call not to leave.
He said he told her he was worried about homeless people in MacArthur Park, near where he manages several properties, starting fires amid the strong winds.
Bass’ office said in a statement that the conversation they had in early January about planned public safety efforts at MacArthur Park was “mischaracterized” during the hearing.
The Los Angeles Fire Department’s decision not to pre-deploy engines in advance of the fire, the closure of the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir, the availability of water to fight the massive blaze and fire officials’ failure to extinguish the New Year’s Day blaze that investigators said rekindled to become the Palisades fire have all been the focus of intense public scrutiny.
The Times was the first to reveal that the Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty when the fire broke out — and remained that way as firefighters experienced dry hydrants and water pressure issues — as well as the decision to remove firefighters from the Jan. 1 brush fire even though they complained the ground was smoldering.
As part of their probe, Scott and Johnson have requested a trove of records from half a dozen agencies at the local, state and federal levels related to LAFD staffing, water supply, wildfire preparations and other topics.
Scott said he’d requested information from Bass as part of the investigation. When asked by The Times if she responded, he said: “Some, but not enough.”
Bass’ office said in a statement that the city had already produced many documents to the committee.
“Senator Scott and Senator Johnson did not reach out to Mayor Bass to discuss how they might work with the City of Los Angeles — or advocate for critical federal disaster aid — to support the ongoing recovery in the Palisades,” her office said in a statement Thursday. “Mayor Bass worked in Congress for more than a decade with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. She will work with anyone, no matter their party, to support the Palisades community, and she remains laser-focused on expediting the rebuilding of homes, businesses, and community spaces to get families home — not on political theatre.”
Scott said in an interview with The Times that the investigation was still in the information-gathering phase and had yet to narrow in on specific officials or agencies. Scott declined to disclose whether any of the information they’d received so far had stood out and warranted additional scrutiny.
“We’re clearly getting information that’s not public, and at the appropriate time, we’ll be releasing it,” Scott said. “It is an investigation, and we are trying to do it in an orderly fashion.”
So far, the push from congressional Republicans has focused mostly on the Palisades fire, which broke out Jan. 7 and charged through Pacific Palisades, Malibu and surrounding areas, adding to concerns from the community that the response to the Eaton fire would be brushed aside. Although the senators have requested some records related to that fire, officials say the probe remains centered on the city’s response to the Palisades fire.
Scott and Johnson launched the investigation after meeting with reality TV star Spencer Pratt, whose home was destroyed in the inferno.
Pratt, a staunch critic of the city’s fire response and efforts to rebuild the community, opened Thursday’s congressional hearing wearing a hat that read “Newsom will not be president.”
“As you know, my family and I lost our home and everything we own in the Palisades fire,” he said, his voice catching. “It’s been 10 months, and our government leaders, instead of helping us rebuild, have only served to make the rebuilding process so painful and slow that many just quit and are forced out of their hometown through attrition.”
He added that the loss of locals has made way for “vultures like [Gov.] Gavin Newsom and [state Sen.] Scott Wiener to have a blank slate to remake the Palisades in the vision of their wealthy donors and foreign investors.”
Around the corner from the hearing, taco and hamburger trucks were lined up on fire-ravaged Sunset Boulevard to serve construction workers.
Although there are hundreds of homes now under construction in the Palisades, there are also many vacant lots bearing black placards that read “KAREN BASS RESIGN NOW” — a community’s fury on full display.
