How did the Palisades Fire start? Residents point to New Year's Day blaze in same area
Some residents believe the Palisades Fire could have been a re-ignition of a brush fire that occurred New Year's Day.
PACIFIC PALISADES, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- As federal investigators continue their probe into what caused the deadly Palisades Fire, some residents believe the blaze may have started nearly a week earlier.
Investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are narrowing in on a hillside above a neighborhood in the Palisades Highlands area. Officials say the team will conduct an origin and cause examination of the Pacific Palisades fire.
Residents who live nearby believe the destructive Jan. 7 fire could have been a re-ignition of a brush fire that occurred in the early morning hours of New Year's Day.
Jeremy Wineberg, who lives in the Palisades Highlands, says the New Year's Day fire went ignored.
"The story kind of came and went. No one knew about the fire," Wineberg said.
The Jan. 1 fire burned less than 10 acres near Wineberg's home. Wineberg and other residents say the mop-up effort following that fire was quick.
"This was negligence on monitoring that fire Jan. 1 and making sure it was completely burned out to make sure that this didn't happen again," Wineberg said.
Wineberg lives south of the Skull Rock Trailhead and says the smoke from both fires was in the same location.
"Is there a connection? One hundred percent there's a connection," Wineberg said.
"Standing in the exact same x mark, looking in the same direction, you'll see the same cloud of smoke in the exact same spot," he added.
Eric Robertson was one of the first 911 callers on Jan. 7. He was out taking a walk with his wife when he spotted flames. Robertson says he didn't see anyone in the area when the fire started.
Residents heard that New Year's Day fire may have been caused by fireworks.
"We were in the neighborhood in the morning of New Year's, and we were mostly in the neighborhood all day and we heard some fireworks going off around us," Robertson said. "The winds were strong enough to uncover six inches of dirt, certainly, if the previous firefighters had shoveled and if embers were buried, maybe."
Another resident took video of the Jan. 1 burn scar, just 90 minutes before the massive Palisades Fire erupted. That resident told Eyewitness News he thinks the first fire started there as well.
As for Wineberg, his home was destroyed - the only one lost on his block. Wineberg has shared incredible surveillance video with Eyewitness News where alarms are heard going off as the fire burns his home.
The New Year's Day fire burned eight acres and no structures were damaged. The Palisades Fire has burned more than 23,000 acres and has destroyed more than 2,000 structures, according to CalFire.
