The full extent of the Palisades Fire report cover-up has been revealed.
The California Post has obtained the first draft of the Palisades After-Action Fire Report — before it was quietly altered and released to the public.
Newly uncovered edits show sweeping changes to the 92-page document that was meant to deliver a warts-and-all account of the disaster, putting more pressure on Mayor Karen Bass to explain whether her office played a role insoftening the language to blunt criticismof the city’s response to a fire that killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
Mayor Bass has insisted she only reviewed an early draft and asked the Los Angeles Fire Department to ensure accuracy on issues such as weather and budgeting. She claims thatneither her or her staff made edits to the report.
At 92 pages, the original Palisades After-Action Review was 22 pages longer than the final version released in January, with chapter titles changed and contentious terms such as “wind” removed.
Notably, the executive summary of the draft states the report was prepared at the behest of the mayor’s office.
That reference is removed entirely from the final document.
One of the most damning edits involves languageacknowledging insufficient resourcesto “suppress a wind-driven vegetation fire,” with the department attempting to be “fiscally responsible by not fully augmenting and pre-deploying all available resources in preparation for a rare wind event.”
By contrast, the final report claims the LAFD ”balanced fiscal responsibility with proper preparation by following its pre-deployment matrix.”
According to the draft, “If the Department had adequately augmented all available resources as done in years past in preparation for the weather event, there would have been a recall of members for all available positions.”
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
