An American flag waves on a flagpole in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire. Firefighters are performing mop-up activities in the burn area, though the fire continues to burn, in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 9, 2025. Photo by Ted Soqui for CalMatters
No single failure explains the devastation of the Palisades and Eaton fires that burned through Los Angeles County in January 2025, a new report concludes. Instead, the blazes exposed weaknesses across a system never designed to combat a wind-driven conflagration that spread from structure to structure at sweeping scale.
The 723-page report dropped Friday morning. Commissioned by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it lands during his last months in office and just days after California’s Legislative session concluded. The report doesn’t pin the disaster on a single agency or decision. Its authors caution against seeking one culprit or one magic fix.
As a result, the report, which completes an analysis of some of the most deadly, destructive and costly fires in state history, raises a harder question: If responsibility is spread across an entire system, who is responsible for fixing it?
A governor-ordered review
The Fire Safety Research Institute’s first report, published last November, offered a detailed timeline beginning…
