As authorities investigate the cause Palisades Fire In Southern California, investigators have concentrated Their focus was on a popular Los Angeles-area walking trail where another fire had burned six days ago,
CBS News analysis of satellite imagery and photos shared by local residents indicates that the Palisades Fire likely started near the same location as a second fire, called the Lachman Fire, on January 1.
While the Lachman Fire was limited to eight acres and did not destroy structures, the Palisades Fire exploded on the morning of January 7. Santa Ana winds More than 23,000 acres of land were burned and at least eight people died, according to cal fireEven after a week has passed, only 17% of the fire has been controlled.
Authorities have not determined a cause for the Palisades fire. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Said On Monday it deployed 15 investigators to work with local, state and federal agencies to determine the cause and origin point.
Planet Labs satellite imagery from January 5 shows the first traces of scorched land from the Lachman Fire.
Additional Sentinel-2 satellite imagery taken on January 7 shows smoke rising again from the same area around the Temescal Ridge Trail.
Pacific Palisades residents told CBS News they saw the fire burning near the Skull Rock trailhead on the morning of January 7. Temescal Ridge Trail At Topanga State Park. Jerry Del Colliano, whose home was three blocks from where the Palisades Fire likely started, snapped a photo of flames rising from the driveway.
jerry del colliano
David Henson evicts his elderly mother from her home Santa Ynez Reservoir Jan. 7 in Pacific Palisades. Hansen said his mother's neighbors told him that a fire had broken out in the Palisades near where the Lachman Fire was contained. On January 7, around 2:30 p.m., they took photos from the 1200 block of Piedra Morada Drive of the Palisades Fire. Piedra Morada Drive is located about seven blocks from where the Lachman fire occurred.
“A thousand percent, it was the same place,” Hansen said.
david hansen
david hansen
Zane Mitchell, who hiked the Temescal Ridge Trail on the morning of January 1, told CBS News that parts of the ground near the Lachman Fire's burn scar were “still smoldering” and that a team of firefighters “are still extinguishing hotspots.” And was trying to clean “up.”
Mitchell shared photos with CBS News of smoke still rising from the ground during his visit, hours after the L.A. Fire Department reported the fire was under control by 4:46 a.m.
zane michelle
zane michelle
Los Angeles Times informed There is a historical precedent for fires in Southern California, including the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, which destroyed more than 2,500 structures.
Other recent fires including August 2023 fire on the Hawaiian island of Maui, and a december 2021 fire Boulder County, Colorado, has also become free from a long-standing hotspot again.
Describing the flames in his community while out with elderly residents in his car, Del Colliano said: “It was like a scene from 'The Terminator.'
