Inside the attempt to find out what started the fires in Los Angeles

The hiking trail through Temescal Canyon in West Los Angeles is a local favorite.

Towering over the winding roads and manicured houses that make up the Pacific Palisade, city-goers looking for an escape from America’s famously cul-de-sac city have a great view of the pristine waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Now the green, bushy path in the canyons is gray and scorched as far as the eye can see.

Yellow police tape surrounds the track all the way to the trailhead. The police guarding the area call it a “crime scene” and have prevented BBC reporters, including myself, from approaching.

It was there, according to investigators, that the deadly fire that destroyed so many homes in the area could have started.

A similar scene plays out in the northern part of the city. There, the community of Altadena was destroyed by another fire that broke out in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Researchers at both locations are clearing canyons and trails, and examining rocks, bottles, cans — any debris that may hold clues to the still-unknown origins of these fires.

That’s the one thing devastated Angelenos desperately want to know: How did these fires start?

With no answers, some in fire-prone California are filling in the blanks themselves. Last week, fingers were pointed at arsonists, power companies or even the Pacific Palisade fire, which was extinguished but may have reignited due to Santa Ana winds blowing at 80-100 mph (128-160 km /hour).

Investigators are testing all of these theories and more. They are following dozens of leads in the hope that clues in fire patterns, surveillance footage and testimony from first responders and witnesses can explain why two of the deadliest fires in U.S. history broke out in Los Angeles on Jan. 7. 27 people. people and destroying more than 12,000 homes and businesses.

But solving this tragic mystery will take time – perhaps a whole year.

“It’s still too early,” Ginger Colbrun, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles division of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), told the BBC.

“Everybody wants answers, we want answers, the community wants answers. They deserve an explanation. It just takes time.”

The first signs of the Palisades Fire may have been spotted by Kai Cranmore and his friends as they hiked Temescal Canyon, a trail frequented by both nature lovers and California rock enthusiasts.

It is not uncommon for visitors to bring alcohol and music with them to relax in nature near Skull Rock, the iconic rock formation along the trail.

A series of videos posted online show Mr Cranmore and his friends running through the canyon on the morning of January 7. His first videos show a small cloud of smoke rising from the hill as they make a desperate escape through bushes and rocks. Panting, they comment that they smelled fire before they saw smoke.

In later clips, this small cloud becomes darker, and flames can later be seen on top of a hill.

“Dude, that’s right where we were standing,” exclaims one man in the video as flames roar in the distance. “We were literally right there,” chimes in another.

The hikers’ videos are being examined as part of the official investigation into the origin of the Palisades fire, Ms. Colbrun of the ATF confirmed, saying their experiences are just one of many clues and potential leads that have been flagged by authorities.

“Investigators are talking to everyone,” she said.

Some online were quick to blame the group for the fire, noting how close they were to the fire when it broke out. Even actor Rob Schneider wrote about the tourists, asking his followers to help identify them.

In an interview with the American media, members of the marching group noted how scared they were when people started Internet attacks. One of the men said he had deleted his social media accounts.

“It’s scary,” one of the group told the LA Times. “Just realizing the fact of our experience that we didn’t do it, but then seeing the number of people who have different theories is mind-boggling.”

Ms. Colbrun said investigators were also talking to firefighters who had put out a fire days earlier that had broken out nearby in the same canyon. The persistent theory is that a small fire that broke out on January 1 was never fully extinguished and reignited six days later when the wind picked up.

The Palisades fire is believed to have started around 10:30 a.m. local time on January 7, but several hikers told US media that they smelled smoke earlier in the morning while walking along the trail.

A ranger working near the trail told the BBC he had seen smoke or dust for several days in the area. On the morning of the fire, he was patrolling the neighborhood bordering the canyon and called firefighters when a column of smoke formed.

But Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marron dismissed speculation that the two Palisades fires, which occurred nearly a week apart, could be linked.

“I don’t buy it. Personally, I don’t,” he told the BBC. “I think a week is too long to rebuild a fire that wasn’t completely contained.” He admitted that such cases do happen, but they are rare.

While Chief Marrone’s agency is not investigating the Palisades fire, he said investigators are also looking into the possibility of arson.

“We’ve had multiple fires almost simultaneously in the Los Angeles County region, which leads us to believe that these fires were intentionally started by humans,” Chief Marron said.

About half of the wildfires the agency typically responds to are intentionally set, he adds.

Chief Marrone was mostly focused on the other side of town, putting out the Eaton fire that had engulfed most of Altadena. It razed entire neighborhoods, destroyed blocks of businesses, and killed at least 17 people.

The agency is working with Cal Fire, California’s state fire agency, to investigate the cause and location of this fire.

The Eaton fire broke out shortly after sunset on January 7 – hours after firefighters found themselves overwhelmed in the Palisades.

Geoffrey Koo took what may be some of the earliest footage of a fire.

A Ring doorbell camera at his home captured the moment his wife arrived to pull him outside. “Hey baby, I need you to come out here right now,” she tells him as her hair blows in the fierce wind. “We have a very big problem.”

– Yes, no! Mr. Koo can be heard saying as bright orange flames light up the sky.

At that time, the fire was still small. It was burning under a large metal tower on the mountainside.

In a series of videos, Mr Koo documented how quickly it spread – each update carrying more anxiety in his voice as he and his wife gathered what they could to leave.

“Please, God, please, God, save us, save our home. Please, God, please,” he says in one word – the whole sky now glows yellow-orange. Sirens sound around him.

The large metal utility tower that Mr. Koo recorded is now the focus of fire investigators.

Utilities have been blamed for some of California’s biggest wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. In 2019, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) agreed to a $13.5 billion (£10.2 billion) settlement with victims of the Camp Fire and other wildfires in the state.

In the week since the Eaton Fire, at least five lawsuits have been filed against Southern California Edison, the power supplier that operates the tower seen in Mr. Ku’s video.

The company says it has found no evidence that its equipment was the cause of the fire and is looking into the lawsuits.

It said in a statement that a preliminary analysis of power lines through the canyon showed “no outages or operational/electrical anomalies 12 hours before the reported time of the fire and more than an hour after the reported time of the fire.” “.

Additionally, the company said its distribution lines west of Eaton Canyon “were de-energized well in advance of the reported time of the fire” as part of a fire safety shutdown program.

Chief Marrone told the BBC that investigators were looking at all possibilities, including whether the tower could have been ignited by a spot fire – meaning the initial flames could have started elsewhere but then spread to the tower through flying embers.

He explained that the tower where the fire was seen was not like those seen in the surrounding area. Instead of a wooden pole with a small easily blown transformer or thin wires, it was a massive metal transmission tower with high voltage lines as thick as a fist.

These types of lines don’t usually cause fires because they’re computerized, he said, and the system automatically shuts off power when there’s a problem.

However, he noted that investigators are looking into whether Southern California Edison’s systems were operating properly that night and shut off the power.

Cal Fire cautioned against assigning blame so early in the investigation.

“We want to make sure we don’t point the finger in any direction because we’ve seen what happens when someone is falsely accused,” Deputy Chief of Operations Gerry Magagna told the BBC.

“It causes chaos.”

Additional reporting by Hannah Green and Emma Pengelly