As L.A. mayor's race takes shape, Palisades fire is a defining issue

"In some ways, it was just another campaign coffee: Los Angeles mayoral candidate Austin Beutner in a roomful of voters talking about his career and life accomplishments. But this was no ordinary meet-and-greet. Beutner was standing inside a partially rebuilt house - with no doors, no windows and no drywall - in an area leveled by the Palisades fire. In the living room, about a dozen people spoke about what they had been through, from the frantic evacuation to the sight of smoldering ruins to the battle to get rebuilding permits."

"Allison Holdorff Polhill, who owns the home, introduced Beutner - a former L.A. school superintendent - as the civic leader she would turn to first in a crisis. "We were in the worst disaster that L.A. has ever experienced," she told the group. "And we needed a leader that has experience with disasters and emergencies." The catastrophic Palisades fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead, has redefined the L.A. mayor's race, expanding the field of candidates and creating a political minefield for Karen Bass as she seeks a second four-year term."

"The Times found that LAFD officials failed to fully pre-deploy engines to the Palisades amid forecasts of dangerously high winds and that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to leave the scene of a Jan. 1 blaze, even though it wasn't fully extinguished. That fire rekindled a week later to become the Palisades fire."

A catastrophic wind-driven Palisades fire destroyed thousands of homes and killed 12 people, displacing residents and complicating rebuilding. Voters described frantic evacuations, smoldering ruins and prolonged battles to obtain rebuilding permits. Political consequences emerged as the disaster expanded the mayoral field and put Mayor Karen Bass under intense scrutiny for her absence at the outbreak, strained public appearances, and uneven handling of the recovery. An investigation found that LAFD did not fully pre-deploy engines ahead of high-wind forecasts and that a Jan. 1 blaze was left insufficiently extinguished and later rekindled into the Palisades conflagration.

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