Eerie new crime scene photo shows ‘exact spot’ where Pacific Palisades fire started

A chilling crime scene photo could mark the exact spot where the devastating Palisades Fire started that has destroyed part of Los Angeles.

A portion of the Temescal Ridge trail near Via Las Palmas and Via La Costa in LA’s Palisades-Highland community was cordoned off with crime scene tape Monday evening.

The tape seemed to surround a burn scar, KTL reported. Fireworks are illegal in LA, but it is feared that teenagers from the Pacific Palisades caused the first small fire by setting off fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

Drought-like conditions and high winds mean that although the initial fire was extinguished, it may have smoldered for six days before reigniting, investigators now believe, according to sources at the San Francisco Chronicle.

“There has been no final determination at this time that arson occurred,” said LAPD Asst. Chief Dominic Choi told the outlet. “But we’re looking from every angle.”

It is the largest of at least six fires that have devastated the Los Angeles area and become the most destructive in California’s modern history.

At least 24 people lose their lives and more than 12,000 buildings burn to the ground. The Palisades Fire has destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades, once a beautiful coastal enclave where the rich and famous lived.

The Los Angeles Fire Department says about 14% of the 24,000-acre fire is under control as of Tuesday morning.

At least eight of the 24 people killed in the wildfires died in the Palisades fire.

Residents have reportedly been complaining to the Pacific Palisades Community Council for some time as local youths began causing gunfights in the bone-dry area.

“There have been issues lately with teenagers and fireworks, and it seems to come up at almost every PPCC meeting,” Sue Kohl, president of the council, told the Chronicle.

Now some are questioning whether more should have been done to prevent the activity, as experts say unusually dry conditions and high winds created a tinderbox-like environment.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) hit the Temescal Ridge trail on Monday to investigate it as a possible cause of the Palisades Fire.

ATF spokesperson Ginger Colbrun confirmed the investigation for now, but said it was too early to say whether the fireworks fire may have played a role.

“ATF-certified fire investigators have conducted an initial assessment of the area, but the investigation is just beginning,” she said Monday. “Additional expertise was added this weekend and the team is only starting to process the situation today.”

“People want and deserve answers,” Colbrun continued, noting that certified wildfire investigators had joined the effort.

‘However, it is still far too early to speculate about the cause and origin. We want to provide accurate answers, so we must have the time to do thorough research.”

While the ATF has been reluctant to blame the alleged fireworks fire for the blaze that destroyed much of the area, local residents say they are confident it is to blame.

Don Griffin, who shared footage of both fires near his home showing them from essentially the same starting point, told the SF Chronicle that he has repeatedly heard of teenagers setting off fireworks and flares in “high-risk areas.”

“It’s a place where kids hang out, drink, smoke weed and break bottles,” Griffin said.

Images shared with the outlet showing teens setting off large piles of fireworks have been a problem for some time, including a massive explosion at the Palisades Recreation Center in February.

“For two years, so many in our community have been trying to track down and prosecute the children who sent them running all over town almost every Friday and Saturday night,” David Serota, a commercial executive who lost his home, also wrote. week on social media.

“We were in the Palisades City Council…meetings about it. The police told us they did not have the resources to go after children with fireworks. Despite the fact that they had already started a fire before New Year’s Eve.’

‘WE ARE SOUNDING THE ALARM. WE SEEN SOMETHING AND SAID SOMETHING,” he concluded the scathing caption.

“Yet here we all sit without a home, without a community, and all the evidence of our lives has been reduced to a pile of ashes.”

It comes as Los Angeles was placed under an unprecedented wind warning amid fears that gusts of 70mph could spark another inferno.

The National Weather Service has issued a fourth “extremely hazardous situation” warning that will go into effect at 4 a.m. Tuesday, warning that winds of up to 75 mph will continue through Wednesday afternoon.

Much of the bone-dry city is under Ventura’s new warning in much of the San Fernando Valley, while areas from San Diego to San Bernadino remain under conventional red flag warnings.

The fourth warning comes after the previous three wreaked havoc in the densely populated area this fire season, including the ongoing Palisades and Eaton fires that have become some of the deadliest in California history.

Much of the area around Malibu and the Pacific Palisades is also under the new warning, where at least 24 people have died and more than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed by multiple fires.

Meteorologists warn that unusual drought-like conditions have turned the city into a potential flashpoint as strong winds pick up.

The last significant rainfall in downtown Los Angeles occurred in May 2024, and only 0.16 inches of rain has fallen since Oct. 1 — compared to a historical average of 5.34 inches by then, the LA Times reports.

Climatologist Bill Patzert told the newspaper that “the past nine months have been among the driest in recorded history dating back to 1900. In my career, I have never seen the severe events in Santa Ana so overwhelming the normal winter rainy season.”