As efforts continue to put out two massive firestorms that are ravaging Los Angeles, officials have started to investigate the cause and origin of the blazes that have killed at least 24 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
Multiple reports have explored a developing theory that the Palisades fire is connected to an earlier fire that was put out in the early hours of new year’s day.
The fire started just after midnight of 2025 in an area similar to where the Palisades fire began. Sources who spoke anonymously to the Los Angeles Times said that investigators are aware that the fire’s origins are close to the site of the new year’s fire.
The area has a trail that is frequented by the public, raising questions of whether the fire has human origins. Investigators are exploring whether the new year’s blaze was caused by fireworks, though officials have not determined a cause for the fire, which was put out at about 4.30am on new year’s day. Wind conditions on that day were much calmer than what the area would see a few days later, when the fires started.
A resident of the area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post that an investigator – who was knocking on doors in the neighborhood after the new year’s fire – suggested that the small fire was caused by people who were on the trail. The resident said that his family heard fireworks in the area where the fire was started on new year’s.
The new year’s fire and the Palisades fire appear to have started in a brushy area of the Pacific Palisades, in Topanga state park. An analysis of satellite images of the area by the Post shows what appears to be a burn scar from the New Year’s fire in the brushy hillside of the Summit, a neighborhood in the Palisades. Early in the Palisades fire, smoke could be seen in the same area as the new year’s blaze.
Fire experts told the Post that rekindling is possible, even days after a fire is put out, because heat can remain trapped in the roots of trees.
“We know that fires rekindle and transition from smoldering to flaming,” Michael Gollner, a fires scientist and professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Post. “It’s certainly possible that something from that previous fire, within a week, had rekindled and caused the ignition.”
In the days before the LA fires began, city officials issued warnings of strong winds that put the region in “major risk” of wildfires. Officials at the time said the winds were particularly dangerous because the region hadn’t seen significant rainfall for months. One meteorologist with the National Weather Service said that plant material in the area were “at near-critical levels in terms of moisture content” and were “a recipe for fire”.
Farther east, residents in the area where the Eaton fire captured images of flames burning around an electrical transmission tower just as the fire was starting. Multiple residents said they first saw a small fire around the tower before the flames spread down the ridge.
The tower’s operator, Southern California Edison, told the LA Times they don’t believe their equipment was responsible for the fire – and that analysis of electrical circuit information from around the time that the fire started showed no anomalies before the blaze started.
In a Sunday press release, the company said that it discovered an incident involving a downed power line at about the same time that the Hurst fire farther north of the city was first reported.
Officials emphasize that they have not determined what started the fires, and an investigation will probably take time since the fires are still active. A specialized team from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is leading the fire investigation, will begin processing the scene in the Pacific Palisades this week, according to the LA Times.
As of Monday morning, the Palisades fire was about 13% contained after burning 23,000 acres. The Eaton fire was 27% contained after burning 14,000 acres. The Hurst fire is 89% contained and has burned about 800 acres.