"In the past few weeks, among the yard signs for contractors, remediators, and litigators that fell like a plague on Pacific Palisades after some seven thousand structures were destroyed in last year's fire, a new sign has popped up, with a pointed accusation: "They Let Us Burn." The sign is the work of Jeremy Padawer, a fifty-two-year-old toymaker and toy collector, whose company owns Squishmallows, among other plushie juggernauts."
"Left to smolder unattended for nearly a week, it flared up on a gusty day, when firefighters were ill-prepared to battle it and hydrants ran dry. "It's hard to imagine that a city like Los Angeles would have the ineptitude or gross negligence that would lead to a fire starting at 10:30 A.M. that would then destroy the entire town," Padawer said."
A pointed yard sign reading "They Let Us Burn" appeared among recovery signage after the Palisades Fire destroyed roughly seven thousand structures. Jeremy Padawer, a fifty-two-year-old toymaker and collector who owns Squishmallows, stood amid flood-damaged remnants of his home on the fire's anniversary. The blaze reignited from an earlier allegedly arson-set fire that had not been fully extinguished and smoldered for nearly a week before flaring on a gusty day. Firefighters were ill-prepared, hydrants ran dry, and evacuation plans proved inadequate. The fire killed twelve people and exposed failures in prevention and response.
Read at The New Yorker
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