January 11, 2025

Where and how did the Palisades Fire start?

 I am going to go out on a limb here.   There is strong evidence on exactly how and where the Palisade Fire started.  

We know that the fire started around 10:30 AM on Tuesday.  The GOES visible satellite image at that time is shown below and you can see the smoke plume from a single fire.




Using Google Maps we can easily identify that spot, just east of the Summit Community.  Below is a close-in shot of Summit, with the red arrow indicating roughly where the fire started started based on weather satellite smoke plume.


What do we find at the location where the fire started?   Powerlines.   Hung on wood structures.  I have several pictures of the location and the powerlines (see below)

Could these structures have handled the 80-100 mph winds that occurred on Tuesday and Wednesday?



You can see the powerlines extending down to the Summit neighborhood

Not convinced the powerlines did it?    There is other evidence.   The wonderful Ting power sensor network noted disturbances in the electrical power system in the neighborhood just prior to the fire.  

Finally, the fire initiation location does not look like an area where homeless encampments would be located. Encampments where camp fires would be found. 

The big question is why the Los Angeles power authorities did not de-energize all the power lines on the hills.   






No comments:

Post a Comment

Please make sure your comments are civil. Name calling and personal attacks are not appropriate.

Where and how did the Palisades Fire start?

  I am going to go out on a limb here.   There is strong evidence on exactly how and where the Palisade Fire started.   We know that the fir...