I talked with the guy that did the aar on the Oakland Hills fire and was completely ostracized and smeared by what he wrote. Nothing’s changed much.
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Coming into the anniversary week of the LA Fires, and we’ve learned a lot since then!
Tune into The Lookout YouTube channel tomorrow evening for a conversation between me, Tim Chavez, and Dennis O’Neil. We’ll revisit our May 2025 e-bike tour from Altadena to Palisades, and talk about things we’ve been thinking about regarding the fires since then.
If you’d like to get up to speed on the conversation before tomorrow night, consider binge-watching the five-episode docu-series from our bike trip!
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Here’s my convo with Denny and Tim.
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“Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore admitted Tuesday that the department’s after-action report on the Palisades fire was watered down to shield top brass from scrutiny.”
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Beyond sad & frustrating. Can only imagine how painfull & infuriating these truths are to those who lost everthing and then some in those fires. Cant help but feel like crap for the rank & file who do know what right looks & acts like. 
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(One might say “This is not aging well”. What an ongoing and growing load of BS is being outed.)
"Months after the devastating Palisades fire, the head of the Los Angeles Fire Commission inquired about the Fire Department’s long-awaited after-action report.
"Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva said that a “working draft” had been sent to Mayor Karen Bass’ office, Genethia Hudley Hayes told The Times on Tuesday.
"In the conversation, which took place in mid-August or later, Villanueva said that the mayor’s office had asked for “refinements,” but he did not say what they were, according to Hudley Hayes.
“Hudley Hayes, who was appointed by Bass in June 2023 to serve on the five-member commission that provides civilian oversight of the LAFD, said that in her long career in civic roles, she had learned that words like “refinements” could mean troubling changes to a government report, made for the purpose of hiding facts.”
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Easily watchable at 1.5 speed.
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Moderators, curious why this is still labeled as a LAC incident? It was LFD.
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It’s fixed.
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<I don’t know what to think about this, as I am not a professional fire fighter. I do wonder if not following through to the source(s) of a trail of deliberate deception keeps a corrupt mindset in a place of potential power, to the detriment of effective alteration of reporting practices.>
After admitting last week that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report on the Palisades fire was watered down so as not to reflect poorly on top command staff, Fire Chief Jaime Moore said Monday he does not plan to determine who was responsible.
Moore said he is taking a forward-looking approach and not seeking to assign blame for changes to the Oct. 8 report that downplayed the city’s failures in preparing for and responding to the disaster. But he said his predecessor, interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, ultimately was responsible for releasing the contents of the report.
As chief, Moore said, he will not allow similar edits to after-action reports, which he said are intended to help the department learn from and correct past errors.
“I don’t think there’s really any benefit to me” looking into who made the edits, Moore said in an interview with The Times. “I can see where the original report and the public report aim to fix the same thing. They aim to correct where we could have been better. And it identifies … the steps that are going to be necessary to make those corrective actions.”
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Add in the effort to scapegoat another agency who was minimally involved in the fire suppression.
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WTH a park ranger saw smoke and didn’t call it in, guy with drone footage may or may not have, people walking around the burn taking videos did and didn’t, how many calls did lafd get from the 2nd to the 6th for that area? That dispatch log probably tells a story just need to get it.
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The interim Chief released said report with the changes because (and this is purely supposition) he was ordered to by the Mayors office. It was most definitely reviewed by City leadership prior to release. The current Chief will not investigate who ordered the changes because that would tend to be detrimental to his future employment.
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Bingo! You’ve nailed it.
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Lack of Accountability seems to be the Norm these days?
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SAD BUT TRUE!!!
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At what point will it be better and cheaper for LAFD to pay a WPA to another agency to perform wildland response, including aircraft/fixed wing response?
The longer this goes on, the worse it gets for the agency and the city. These lawsuits have the real possibility of causing the largest municipal bankruptcy in US history.
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I would argue that there may be more accountability these days based off the visibility of wildland fire operations itself. The visibility comes from social media, cell phones, podcasts, camera systems, etc. Wildland fire as a whole (nationwide) was mostly done “behind the scenes” where most members of the public didn’t have a clue to our operations. Outside of fires near metro areas of course. This has all changed over the last 15-20 years.
I don’t disagree that Palisades, Eaton (power company) or any of the other recent “rekindle” is lacking accountability. That’s we’ll documented in this thread. And these are some very extreme cases that need to be catalyst for reform for some. I’m just saying we have more eyes on what we do and don’t do every single day. Both from the public all the way up to the White House (this administration and the last).
I for one appreciate the increased eyes on wildfire operations. Look at the net benefit that is FINALLY occurring for Federal wildland fire agencies and it’s employees.
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