An LA firefighter revealed that his concerns about the Palisades Fire were ignored

A firefighter who was assigned to put out the fire that preceded the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles last year said he was under oath to raise concerns that it might start, but was fired by the fire captain.

Firefighter Scott Pike spoke on Jan. 30 in a speech related to a lawsuit filed by the city against thousands of families affected by the Palisades fire last year. The fire ultimately claimed the lives of at least 29 people, more than 18,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged, and nearly tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes.

“I feel like I saw something, I said something and with all my might, I felt like we could have done more,” said Pike while presenting the book.

The video filings were released by attorneys representing residents affected by the Palisades Fire as part of the ongoing investigation into the origins of the Lachman fire, which became the Palisades Fire. This is the first time that LAFD personnel have spoken – in their own words – about the events.

Pike said he was working overtime on January 2, 2025, when he was called to help put out the Lachman fire. He said at that time the fire did not have that name, and he put together the pieces he was working on for that particular fire after that.

He said he was just following instructions to respond to the fire, but he saw many burnt areas in the area.

“Sometimes that goes against the fire for a reason,” Pike said, according to a written statement shared with NBC News by the law firm representing the families in the case. “And I just noticed that it looked like the fire went through there quickly. And there was unburned fuel that had burned.”

He also said that he noticed that the fire was not completely extinguished during the repairs, he remembered at least one ash pit in the middle of the closing line.

“I could feel the heat coming out of it and I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand anymore because it was hot,” explained Pike. “So I just kicked it with my boot to expose it and it was red hot like coal, which I believe was the base of the forest or branches, still smoldering and I heard a crack.”

But when he brought it to the care of another firefighter, he said, he felt “a little blown away.”

He said he then reported to the captain who was in the area – he does not remember his name – that there are still hot spots in the area, which Pike said “is a warning that we should look twice at the whole area, maybe we have to change our tactics.”

“That’s not my job to tell him what to do,” Pike said, explaining that it’s only his job to warn the captain that there are problems. “You earned that rank.”

However, he said he was not listened to. He added that he hasn’t talked much about this day until now because “it’s hard for me that no one listened to me.”

That’s because days later, the Lachman Fire erupted into the Palisades Fire, which burned for weeks and became the most destructive wildfire in California history.

Counsel to LA Mayor Karen Bass, who is facing her own case against the fire chief who fired her during the fire, said the revelations from the position were “very shocking.”

“It’s been over a year since Mayor Bass went public about his request for transparency and accountability to inform about ongoing changes to the Fire Department, and because those affected deserve nothing less,” the statement said.

The case includes multiple defendants, including the State of California and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), said Roger Behle, the attorney representing the families in the case.

Marty Greenstein, a spokesman for California State Parks, assigned responsibility for cleaning up the fire to the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

He said the LAFD saw the Lachman fire contained several hours after it started, which federal investigators determined was “deliberately started in nearby areas,” he said. He added that “the US attorney showed up, firefighters responded and the fire was burning underground.”

Behle called Pike’s appointment a game-changer in a statement to NBC News.

“The truth is coming out now, and it’s proving what we all knew: The Palisades Fire was preventable,” Behle said. “The government has failed the people of Pacific Palisades miserably. This will never happen again and we will see to it that it doesn’t.”