As efforts continue to extinguish two massive firestorms ravaging Los Angeles, authorities have begun investigating the cause and origin of the fires that have killed at least 24 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
Several reports have explored a developing theory that the Palisades Fire is linked to an earlier fire that was put out in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The fire broke out just after midnight 2025 in an area similar to where the Palisades Fire started. Sources who spoke anonymously to the Los Angeles Times said investigators knew the fire’s origins were near the site of the New Year’s Eve fire.
The area has a trail used by the public, raising questions about whether the fire was human caused. Investigators are looking into whether the New Year’s fire was started by fireworks, although authorities have not determined the cause of the fire, which was put out around 4:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day. ‘year. Wind conditions that day were much calmer than those the area would experience a few days later when the fires broke out.
An area resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post that an investigator – who was knocking on doors in the neighborhood after the New Year’s fire – suggested the small fire was started by people who were on the track. . The resident said his family heard fireworks in the area where the fire broke out on New Year’s Day.
Both the New Year’s Eve Fire and the Palisades Fire appear to have started in a brushy area of the Pacific Palisades in Topanga State Park. A Post analysis of satellite images of the area shows what appears to be a burn scar from the New Year’s Eve fire on the brushy Summit Hill, a Palisades neighborhood. As the Palisades fire began, smoke was visible in the same area as the New Year’s Eve fire.
Fire experts told the Post that refueling is possible even days after a fire is extinguished because heat can remain trapped in tree roots.
“We know that fires reignite and go from smoldering to blazing,” Michael Gollner, a fire scientist and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, told the Post. “It is certainly possible that something from the previous fire, within less than a week, reignited and caused the ignition.”
In the days before the Los Angeles fires broke out, city officials issued warnings about high winds that put the area at “major risk” of wildfires. Authorities at the time said the winds were particularly dangerous because the region had not seen significant rainfall in months. A National Weather Service meteorologist said plant matter in the area was “at near critical levels in terms of moisture content” and was “a recipe for a fire.”
Further east, residents in the area where the Eaton Fire captured images of flames burning around an electrical transmission tower just as the fire began. Several residents said they first saw a small fire around the tower before the flames spread along the ridge.
The tower’s operator, Southern California Edison, told the LA Times that it did not believe its equipment was responsible for the fire — and that analysis of electrical circuit information from when the fire declared showed no anomaly before the start of the fire.
In a news release issued Sunday, the company said it discovered an incident involving a downed power line around the same time the Hurst fire, further north in the city, was first reported .
Authorities stress that they have not determined what started the fires and that an investigation will likely take time since the fires are still active. A specialized team from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is leading the investigation into the fire, will begin examining the scene in Pacific Palisades this week, according to the LA Times.
As of Monday morning, the Palisades Fire was about 13% contained after burning 23,000 acres. The Eaton Fire was 27% contained after burning 14,000 acres. The Hurst Fire is 89% contained and has burned approximately 800 acres.
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