LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles firefighter testified in a newly released deposition that he told colleagues the ground was still smoldering from a brush fire days before authorities say it reignited into the most destructive blaze in city history.
Scott Pike, a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said he told colleagues the ground was still hot when he was sent in to help clean up a New Year’s Day brush in the hillsides near the scenic Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Pike’s comments came in a sworn deposition taken in a lawsuit that was filed by fire victims. The deposition and those of other fire officials were made public this week after city attorneys had moved to keep it confidential for a month.
“I could feel the heat coming off of it, and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot, so I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it. And there was like red hot, like coals,” Pike said in the deposition. “I even heard crackling.”
Pike said he was working an overtime shift and mentioned it to other firefighters who were out in the field, but they didn’t seem to think much of it. He said he told a supervisor there were still hot spots, but it wasn’t his job to challenge orders.
“I felt like I got kind of blown off a little bit,” Pike said. “I saw something, I said something.”
Alexander Robertson, an attorney for the fire victims, said he obtained a court order to depose a dozen firefighters tasked with mopping up the Jan. 1 fire. Pike was the only one who indicated fire officials had been warned the blaze had not been fully extinguished when they packed up and left the scene, Robertson said.
The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, 2025, killing more than 30 people in all a
