State and local authorities failed to clear the brush ahead of the devastating Palisades Fire — but the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) is still sending notices to owners of destroyed properties to clear their own.
One property owner, Larry Larson, a partner in the partnership that owned 111 Marquez Place, received a notice from the LAFD warning him about the need to comply with brush clearance regulations, and reminding him that “brush clearance is a year-round responsibility” (original emphasis). The LAFD also notified the building manager, separately, of the need to renew the building’s fire prevention certification.
The building burned down on January 8, the second day of the fire, according to the building manager — largely due to the lack of water in the hydrants for the LAFD to use.
Larson wrote to city officials, as well as the L.A. County Fire Department:
Perhaps you didn’t hear, but the LA Fire Department failed to inspect the brush in the hills in Pacific Palisades. As a result of the Fire Departments’ negligence, coupled with the City’s lack of water in the fire Hydrants, our 47 unit apartment building, Pacific Gardens, burned to the ground. Approximately 100 tenants were displaced.
Therefore, there is nothing to inspect and no inspections are due or required.
Larson told Breitbart News: “You don’t send inspectors out after the fact, after everything’s gone. … The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
He said that the city wanted to clear brush on land that was now mostly debris. And he alleged that the city had neglected to inspect brush clearance in the years before the fire.
Also destroyed in the fire that destroyed 111 Marquez Place were the last remnants of the Bernheimer Gardens, a Japanese garden that was popular in the early 20th century but was gradually destroyed by landslides, and was closed due to strong anti-Japanese sentiment at the outbreak of the Second World War.
The last remaining structure linked to the gardens, a bonsai shed, was consumed by the Palisades Fire.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
