The investigation into the worst wildfire raging in Los Angeles is zeroing in on a popular hiking trail — where another fire broke out just six days earlier, soon after fireworks marked the start of New Year’s Day.
A cul-de-sac close to the Skull Rock trailhead in the Palisades was closed off with yellow caution tape Monday as cops helped federal agents and scientists meticulously examine the popular hiking trail area.
Lead investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that they are examining possible connections to the Palisades Fire and a smaller one in the same area that started minutes into 2025.
Law enforcement officials investigate a potential ignition point of the Palisades Fire near the Skull Rock trailhead on Jan. 14, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, California. Getty Images“We’re looking at every possibility, going down every rabbit hole, and examining video footage from residents in the area,” local ATF spokesperson Ginger Colbrun told the paper.
Photos showed that both fires started in almost the same part of the trailhead, which links to popular trails in Temescal Ridge in the Santa Monica Mountains.
In the first fire, locals had shared footage of the flames rising before 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day — soon after some raised fears that fireworks being set off there would start such a blaze, the WSJ noted.
Then six days later, people on the same WhatsApp chat reported flames there on Jan. 7.
“Same spot!!” one neighbor wrote — a minute before the official start time given for the Palisades Fire, the WSJ noted.
Police tape is seen on the ground at Skull Rock as police investigate the Palisades Fire, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 14, 2025. REUTERSNeighbors were alerted to it being a “possible reignition” from the earlier fire, which Scott Sweetow, a retired ATF agent and arson expert, told the WSJ would be a key part of the ongoing investigation.
However, he doubted the extinguished fire could have simply been rekindled, given that they were six days apart.
Investigators will be looking for any embers from a cigarette or a flame from a lighter, with dogs hunting the hills for traces of gasoline or other flammable liquids, Sweetow added.
Stay up to date with the NYP’s coverage of the terrifying LA-area fires
- A timeline of the LA Fires — from early weather warnings to rampant blazes
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- Trump anticipates rising death toll in LA wildfires: ‘We’re gonna find many bodies and many more, many more dead’
- Deadly Palisades Fire set ‘maliciously’ by Florida firebug Jonathan Rinderknecht, feds say
The three fires still burning in LA as of Tuesday — Hurst, Palisades and Eaton — and the acreage they have burned. New York PostOfficials have previously said it likely had “human origins,” without detailing exactly what.
The light of a firefighting helicopter illuminates a smoldering hillside as the Palisades Fire grows near the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood and Encino, California, on Jan. 11, 2025. AFP via Getty ImagesUnlike the first blaze, which was quickly extinguished, locals say it took at least 45 minutes for firefighters to arrive last Tuesday, which critics say likely allowed the Palisades Fire to grow uncontrolled.
It also emerged Tuesday that more than 1,000 firefighters and 40 water-carrying trucks were reportedly kept out of the action in the first few critical hours of the blaze.
Just five fire engines were sent to battle the Palisades Fire, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Several fires have been raging in the greater Los Angeles area for over a week, killing 25 people and destroying more than 12,000 structures.
An area the size of Brooklyn has been ravaged as multiple wildfires, driven by powerful Santa Ana winds, have torn through neighborhoods.
After the Palisades Fire, the second-biggest has been the Eaton Fire in the northeastern suburb of Altadena.
