Overview
- At a Homeland Security investigative hearing, veteran chiefs Patrick Butler and Rick Crawford said failures in preparedness and command—not frontline crews—let the January 2025 blaze turn deadly, resulting in 12 deaths and thousands of homes lost.
- Butler detailed missed pre-deployment windows, an earlier Lachman fire left unmanaged, and the absence of unified command as high winds escalated risk.
- Republican senators Ron Johnson and Rick Scott pledged to compel testimony and documents as the subcommittee reviews tens of thousands of pages already obtained.
- Los Angeles’ after-action report on the fire was revised to soften criticism of leadership, according to disclosures referenced in the hearing.
- A day earlier, President Trump ordered rulemaking to speed rebuilding that could preempt local permits, drawing criticism from California officials as FEMA weighs Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $33–34 billion request.