LA firefighters told to ditch site that turned into Palisades inferno: report

Los Angeles firefighters were ordered to stop putting out a small brush fire that would eventually turn into the horrific Palisades blaze that killed a dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes, according to a report.

A battalion chief told the crew to roll up their hoses and ditch the smoldering area Jan. 2, even as the firefighters complained that the rocks and ground were still hot to the touch, shocking text messages viewed by the Los Angeles Times showed.

“And the rest is history,” wrote a firefighter, who initially warned the boss that leaving the smoldering site would be a “bad idea,” in a text exchange with colleagues.

Earlier this month, interim LAFD Chief Ronnie Villanueva said in a statement that the Palisades fire was “not a rekindle or due to failed suppression but the reactivation of an undetectable holdover fire under extraordinary wind conditions.” 

But the texts between three firefighters and an unnamed third party indicate that the job may have wrapped up prematurely.

The Palisades inferno, which raged for 24 days, grew out of the much smaller Lachman fire, which was deliberately set on New Year’s Day.

In their text messages, the firefighters complained that their superiors had failed to make sure that the mop-up was finished Jan. 2, the LA Times reported.

One firefighter said crews were upset at the directions to pack up and leave but that the group knew they could not defy the battalion chief’s orders.

That firefighter also wrote that he and his colleagues knew immediately that the Jan. 7 fire was a rekindling of the Jan. 1 blaze.

Federal authorities say strong winds stoked the still-burning embers on that morning until they grew into the Palisades inferno, which burned an estimated 23,448 acres.

The LAFD did not respond to The Post’s request for comment on the report, but Villanueva previously told the LA Times that firefighters remained in the Lachman burn area for more than 36 hours and “cold-trailed” it, meaning they used their hands to feel for heat, dug out hot spots and chopped a line around the perimeter of the fire to ensure it was contained.

“As far as we were concerned, the fire was extinguished,” Villanueva said. “Unbeknownst to us, it was still in the rooting system.”

Investigators with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ruled that the Palisades fire smoldered for several days underground “within the root structure of dense vegetation” until heavy winds caused it to surface.

This month, former Pacific Palisades resident Jonathan Rinderknecht was charged with setting the Palisades fire. Officials say he lit the initial Lachman blaze.

The LAFD’s response, or lack thereof, is the subject of a Senate probe led by Republican committee members.