L.A. firefighter testifies that Lachman fire was not fully put out when crews were ordered to leave

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A Los Angeles firefighter said in sworn testimony that he sounded the alarm about the inadequate mop-up of the Lachman fire — and was blown off by a captain — days before the embers reignited into the deadly Palisades fire.The firefighter, Scott Pike, testified last month in a lawsuit brought by Palisades fire victims against the city and the state.Pike, a 23-year LAFD veteran normally assigned to a station in Sunland, was working an overtime shift on Jan.2 when he was assigned to pick up the hoses from the Lachman fire.

But he said he saw about five areas that were still smoking.At one ash pit, he said, “I didn’t even want to use my gloved hand because it was hot.So I just kicked it with my boot to kind of expose it, and there was, like red hot, like, coals ...

that was still smoldering.And I even heard crackling.”Pike’s dramatic retelling, which city attorneys initially blocked from release along with transcripts of deposition testimony from 11 other firefighters, corroborates previous reporting by The Times that a battalion chief ordered crews to pack up their hoses and leave, despite signs that the earlier fire was not completely extinguished.

Pike testified that when he reported his observations to other firefighters at the scene, “I felt like I kind of got blown off a little bit.”Then he tried the captain.“That’s how I approached him, is like, ‘Hey, Cap ...

We have hot spots in general.We have some ash pits,’” Pike said of the captain on the scene, whose name he did not know.

“That’s an alert to double-check the whole area and maybe we need to switch our tactics.” Pike testified that it was not his job “to overstep and tell him what to do.He earned that rank.”The other firefighters, too, seemed eager to “just get this hose picked up,” Pike said, adding that he was working overtime the day after a holiday “because nobody else wa...