After Public-Safety Missteps in Palisades Fire, Residents Want Answers: A couple’s frustrated attempts to evacuate their Pacific Palisades neighborhood highlight fire-preparedness gaps in Los Angeles

By Jim Carlton, Marc Vartabedian and Brian Whitton of The WSJ. Excerpt:

"The morning of Jan. 7, the city’s fire department chose not to preliminarily position many of its firefighting resources, even in the face of dire warnings of a “life-threatening and destructive windstorm,” according to an internal resource-planning record reviewed by the Journal. While the fire department predeployed some teams, it didn’t station units in the Palisades, where another fire had broken out days earlier after New Year’s Eve fireworks, an internal incident report said.

Fire officials also declined to issue a “limited recall,” which would have kept roughly 1,000 firefighters on duty for an extra shift and could have enabled the department to staff all of its roughly 42 series-200 engines, which are key assets in fighting fires, according to the plans. The department staffed only a handful of those trucks that morning."