"What I observed was not simply a difficult fire under extreme conditions, Butler said. It was the predictable outcome of a breakdown in leadership, preparedness and command discipline. Firefighters were forced to improvise without adequate resources, unified command or consistent safety oversight. This was not a failure of effort by firefighters. It was a failure of leadership above them."
"two veteran fire officials said the blaze was the predictable result of leaving an earlier fire unmanaged, failing to predeploy resources ahead of forecasted life-threatening winds, and operating without unified command or consistent oversight."
The Palisades fire stemmed from leadership and governance failures rather than frontline firefighter effort. An earlier Lachman fire was not fully extinguished and later reignited under extreme, forecasted winds. Resources were not predeployed, unified command and consistent safety oversight were absent, and decision-making windows were missed, contributing to escalation. Local after-action findings were reportedly altered. Predictive tools and interagency planning were cited as underused, allowing known risks to compound into catastrophe. Political actors renewed criticism of state and local officials amid moves to shift rebuilding authority, intensifying scrutiny of operational and governance shortcomings.
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