On January 7, 2025, the Devil Winds — Santa Ana Winds — hit Southern California with such ferocity that, as predicted, any spark could have set off a conflagration. The fires came.
800 acres of the most expensive property in the United States has just been consumed by the fires and winds in Los Angeles.
— 🇺🇸 Pismo 🇺🇸 (@Pismo_B) January 8, 2025
People are evacuating their homes in massive numbers and running for their lives.
Many ditched their cars and ran to the ocean. 🙏🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/yXmHD6YONE
When the storm was over, half of the Pacific Palisades, parts of Malibu, and parts of the staid old area of Altadena, near Pasadena, lay in ashes.
And the horrors were just beginning.
One year ago today, in an act of stunning criminal negligence by politicians Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom, our brave firefighters stood helpless as the reservoir serving the Palisades was bereft of water. Ultimately 16,000 homes were burned to the ground and 29 Californians died… pic.twitter.com/xBLr6trmDv
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 7, 2026
On January 7, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered that flags be flown at half staff to remember the dead and the devastation of the fires, which, in part, he could have prevented.
Start here: Fire Lies 1: A Flashback to the Spark That Destroyed Pacific Palisades and Trust in Leadership
Palisades resident Wes Nichols, an investment banker, wrote on the day of the inferno:
I just left the hellscape formerly know as Pacific Palisades where I’ve lived for 26 years. I’m mad at what I saw. Our politicians have failed us. Unprepared, unimaginative, understaffed, now overwhelmed. Heads must roll for this disaster. I personally saw 100+ homes fully engulfed. @RickCarusoLA just mentioned water wasn’t working in the fire hydrants- WTF?! (I took this video around Pali High. Total destruction. )
Heres' what he saw...or didn't see.
On Jan. 7, 2025, the Eaton and Palisades fires forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in communities such as Altadena, Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Pasadena. https://t.co/v4O8ZQFnRN
— CBS Miami (@CBSMiami) January 7, 2026
The beginning of the fire in Altadena, otherwise known as the Eaton Fire, in an unincorporated area of L.A. County, appeared to be captured on live video, sparked by high-tension electrical wires that were bowed by the Devil Winds.
Friends of mine who grew up there in the go-go 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s went back to see if their childhood homes were still there.
Block after block after block of utter destruction here in #Altadena from the #EatonFire. I just can’t process yet how destructive this fire was. Neighborhoods are a monochromatic hell scape. Some of the only color I could find were the citrus trees with fruit still hanging on. pic.twitter.com/xqePYcl4WJ
— John Schreiber (@johnschreiber) January 10, 2025
West of Interstate 5, the fire in the Palisades sparked up at about 10:30 in the morning, when the winds hit. As I’ve reported, that fire has been ruled by the feds as having started on January 1, 2025, and is known as the Lachman Fire. This ‘holdover’ fire continued underground for days until the Devil Winds sparked the conflagration west of I-5 in the Palisades and Malibu.
There were no police to direct traffic. There were no fire fighters. There was no water in the hydrants due to water pressure problems. There was no water in the reservoir that years ago was intended to be used to fight a fire such as this.
Developer Rick Caruso, the candidate who lost to Karen Bass in the mayoral election, had positioned his own firefighters, water tenders, and other apparatus to protect his business and shopping development in the Palisades. His buildings survived. His crews even helped L.A. firefighters. It was he who confirmed that there was no water in the fire hydrants in the Palisades.
Get Caught Up: Fire Lies 2: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass's Silence After 'Life Threatening' Weather Warning Says It All
He told reporters that "what is predictable is preventable." And he was appalled at the lack of preparation by the city and county.
Rick Caruso, billionaire real estate developer, called into LA local news:
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) January 8, 2025
“This is like a third world country… there is no water coming out of the fire hydrants. LA Mayor Karen Bass is on a foreign trip to Ghana.”pic.twitter.com/iOjXPkWcko
As this man discovered, the city of Los Angeles, in which the Palisades resides, completely let people down.
I just left the hellscape formerly know as Pacific Palisades where I’ve lived for 26 years. I’m mad at what I saw. Our politicians have failed us. Unprepared, unimaginative, understaffed, now overwhelmed. Heads must roll for this disaster. I personally saw 100+ homes fully… pic.twitter.com/8txvSJEZXd
— Wes Nichols (@wesnichols) January 8, 2025
Electric cars filled with their toxic fumes were left to burn.
LAFD is using a BULLDOZER to clear abandoned cars off Palisades Drive. Unreal. #PalisadesFire pic.twitter.com/sM93Zud3q9
— Scott Murphy (@ScottMurphyInLA) January 7, 2025
Actor James Woods, who fled the Palisades Fire, came back to find his house still standing. He was shocked. In a year-after post, he wrote:
One year ago today, in an act of stunning criminal negligence by politicians Karen Bass and Gavin Newsom, our brave firefighters stood helpless as the reservoir serving the Palisades was bereft of water.
Ultimately 16,000 homes were burned to the ground and 29 Californians died in wildfires that spread to Alta Dena and across the county.
The mayor was hobnobbing on a political jaunt in Africa after announcing the alarming news that Santa Ana winds were expected to threaten the more vulnerable fire areas in the state with unexpected ferocity, and then leaving the next day.
Rebuilding in the damaged areas has ground to a halt, as permit approval and state insurance resolution has been agonizingly slow. Ironically corporate real estate vultures have been buying empty lots worth millions at (pardon the pun) “fire sale” bargain prices.
Governor Newsom has threatened exhausted fire victims with the specter of low income housing scams as a way to get the dispossessed to “sell cheap.”
This same parasite politician lies daily about phantom progress in the affected areas during his relentless photo op press conferences in his bid to become president some day, a reality only in his dreams. Meanwhile Karen Bass has ordered the Palisades reservoir to be emptied yet again during the Santa Ana winds fire season. I guess they missed a few houses.
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