Hikers and outdoor enthusiasts have long been drawn to Skull Rock, north of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.
A relatively short hike on the Temescal Ridge Trail reveals the skeleton-shaped Skull Rock and spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.
Today, that area is under investigation as a potential starting point for the Palisades Fire, which burned thousands of structures last week.
It is unclear where the fire started and an investigation is underway to determine its cause.
The general area was the scene of a small fire on New Year’s Eve that burned for a few hours before firefighters said they put it out with the help of a water-dropping helicopter.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation told the Times that officials were aware of the earlier fire and its general proximity to the Palisades fire. They are investigating whether this could be the cause. Since the area is frequented by the public, sources said it was possible that a new fire broke out there on Tuesday. The earlier fire appeared to have been started by fireworks, authorities said.
As for the Palisades fire, the sources — who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly — said it appears to have human origins, but that the investigation is in progress. They noted that this area is frequented by hikers, teenagers and others.
A specialized team of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrives in Los Angeles and will begin processing the scene on Monday.
Skull rock.
(Matt Pawlik)
After dropping his kids off at school around 8:15 a.m. the day the Palisades fire started, Darrin Hurwitz headed to the area to go hiking.
He hiked a five-mile loop that took him above Skull Rock and examined the burn scar from the New Year’s Eve fire.
“Around the same time, I noticed a slight odor of smoke. I didn’t do much with it. I thought it came from somewhere else or it was the remains of the fire itself,” he told the Times.
He had taken another hike a few days earlier in Malibu, where the Franklin Fire had burned a few weeks earlier, and noticed a “faint smell of ash.” But on Tuesday, near Skull Rock, the smell was stronger, he said, and he wondered if the wind had kicked up ashes.
One of his neighbors also smelled smoke, he later learned.
“This happened about an hour before the fire,” he said. “Now what all this means, I don’t know. Could it be possible that there were still embers that had not been extinguished and that the winds were making them rustle?
The fire was first reported about an hour late at the North Piedra Morada Drive address where Nic Libonati’s family lives. In an interview with The Times last week, Libonati confirmed that he was the first to call 911 and went to alert his neighbors about the fire.
When Libonati and his sister first spotted the fire, he said, it was about two miles from their home. But he knew they were in trouble when he tried to water their plants and the wind blew the water back into his face. Libonati realized the flames were heading in their direction.
The Times listed Skull Rock as one of the best hikes in Southern California, describing it this way: “Enjoy heavily shaded switchbacks beneath oak trees and coastal chaparral hillsides as you climb the Temescal Ridge Trail toward scenic viewpoints that stretch from Santa Monica to the Channel Islands. clear weather. Skull Rock and its rock friends are the midpoint of your geologic journey and a great place for a few rock climbs to a picnic perch.