These pages detail facts pertaining to the 2025 Palisades Fire, written by Michael Kureth.
Fact Sheet
This page presents verified facts about the 2025 Palisades Fire, researched and confirmed by Michael Kureth (Fire Rebuild). All verified facts are publicly available and supported by evidence. No private information, non-disclosure agreement (NDA) materials, or details from private lawsuits are included.
Hot Mic Catches Fire Department Mocking Fire Victims
During the Palisades Community Meeting on January 11, 2025, at 6:30 PM, a hot mic captured Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) or Cal Fire personnel laughing at fire victims.
Fire Department Abandoned And Let It Burn Out
According to testimony from 181 survivors of the 2025 Palisades Fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department received an order to “stand down” around 3 p.m. on January 7, effectively abandoning firefighting operations in Pacific Palisades and Malibu as the fire spread under tropical depression driven winds. Residents say the fire department made no visible effort to protect homes, leaving communities to “burn out” while residents fought the flames themselves.
Fatalities
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner has confirmed a total of 31 direct deaths related to the fires: 12 from the Palisades Fire and 19 from the Eaton Fire.
Standing Ovation
Less than five hours after the Palisades Fire ignited on January 7, 2025, the Los Angeles Fire Department was ordered to stand down, leaving Pacific Palisades to burn. In the weeks that followed, both the 2025 Grammy Awards and the 2025 Oscars staged public standing ovations for the LAFD. For many fire victims who were abandoned, these tributes were not celebrations of heroism but painful reminders of neglect, incompetence, and failure: perceived as insensitive, performative, and profoundly out of touch. The delay between the fire and the ceremonies highlights a missed opportunity to offer a message of genuine respect and solidarity with the devastated community.
No Evacuation Orders as Fire Consumed Pacific Palisades
Los Angeles failed to issue evacuation orders during the Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025, leaving residents to flee on their own as the fire rapidly consumed homes in Pacific Palisades.
Trash Pickup Took Priority Over Emergency Response
Los Angeles prioritized trash pickup over deploying police, firefighters, or issuing evacuations during the Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025, in Pacific Palisades.
FireAid Investigative Report
The 2025 FireAid benefit concert and associated donations raised an estimated $100 million for relief following the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles. Despite the massive sum raised, reports surfaced claiming that none of the individual fire victims from the Eaton or Palisades fires received any direct cash payments from the FireAid fund. Instead, the organization disbursed the money in grants to numerous nonprofit organizations.
False Reporting of Structures Lost
Between January 7 and January 10, 2025, Cal Fire released seven fire perimeter updates and 107 fire status updates on the Palisades Fire, repeatedly publishing conflicting acreage figures and drastically underreporting the number of structures destroyed.
Communication Chaos and Conflict
The January 7, 2025, Palisades Fire exposed deep structural flaws within Los Angeles’s emergency leadership and communication systems. What began as a fast-moving wildfire quickly escalated into an organizational crisis marked by absent leaders, conflicting chains of command, and breakdowns in coordination between city and county agencies. With critical public safety officials unavailable and emergency alerts delayed, confusion reigned among responders and residents alike. The ensuing “communication chaos” revealed not only operational failures on the ground but also systemic weaknesses in how Los Angeles manages crises, failures rooted in years of fragmented authority, political reshuffling, and a lack of experienced leadership at the helm when disaster struck.
Interactive Map
Interactive map of the Palisades Fire.