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‘Cover-up is developing’: Man who lost home in Palisades fire
HOST: Well, it’s been almost one year since the devastating Southern California wildfires, and the Los Angeles Times is out with an alarming new story. The author of the LA Fire Department’s after action report, a top-ranking battalion fire chief, refused to sign off on the final version because of edits that were made to that document, edits that he could not agree to. Our next guest says it’s not about the blame game, but about what steps can be taken to prevent the next catastrophe. Gene Cameron lost his home in the Palisades fire, and Gene joins us now live. Gene, thank you for being here. Appreciate your time.
GENE CAMERON: Thank you, Jackie.
Uh, thank you for covering this story.
We, it’s critical that we get this message out because, uh, our individual firefighters have been terrific, we love them, but it looks like the management of the department is a total chaos and a total cover-up is developing.
Um-
It- we’ve had 3, uh, appointed fire chiefs in just this year alone, as Mayor Bass tries to find a fire chief who will cover for her failures, uh, and, a- and, and cover for Newsom’s failures.
Uh, we need to get the truth out and, and have the tr- truth d- describe the issues-
HOST: Mm-hmm.
GENE CAMERON: that were overlooked, and sometimes intentionally, uh, led to the conflagration of the fire.
HOST: Yeah, this, um, LA Times report is pretty disturbing.Uh, I wanna read our audience just a piece of it.headline is-
GENE CAMERON: Please.
HOST: “The author of the LAFD Palisades Fire Report declined to endorse the final version, calling it ‘highly unprofessional.'”
Here’s a quote:
“The most significant changes involved the LAFD’s failure to order firefighters to stay on duty for an additional shift and to fully pre-deploy engines in high-risk areas before the January 7th fire as the wind warnings became increasingly dire.
It is unclear exactly who directed the revisions to this report.”
Now, when you read something like this, as a person who, you know, has lived in this community for, what, 50 years before losing your home-
GENE CAMERON: Yes.
HOST: um, does it make it difficult to have any confidence that this could not happen again?
GENE CAMERON: This, the story is unfolding, and yes, we have a great lack of confidence in the fire department’s management, not the individual firefighters, but the management.
The management withdrew firefighters from the hotspot where the fire began.
They didn’t deploy, uh, fire engines.
Uh, but the problem is, is larger.
Uh, it, it, the trail always goes to the LADWP, Department of Water and Power.
No water was available after 4:00.
Um, it goes to Mayor Bass, who has been cutting the fire department budget year after year, uh, and who happened to be off at a cocktail party in Ghana at the time of the fire.
And it even extends to, to Governor Newsom, who has tried to say this was a result of climate change, which is ludicrous, because it’s not climate change, it’s p- personal, human failure.
HOST: What, what is the reason for the redactions?
Um, Mayor Bass’s office has said that she did not demand them. Um, that is her claim.
But who else could have ordered that? And who else would have had oversight of this report?
What would be the reasons why they would try to burnish their reputation, as the LA Times put it, other than maybe avoiding legal liability?
GENE CAMERON: Well, it’s, uh, there’s legal issues, but it’s just, it’s just a cover-up because of their lack of responsibility.And I think it, it goes to the higher level of the LAFD, all the way up to the fire chief.
He is ultimately responsible for this report.
HOST: Is it acceptable, is it acceptable to you for the LA Fire Department to be investigating itself, I guess is the bottom line?
HOST: Can they be trusted to do this?
GENE CAMERON: From the beginning, I have demanded that we have an open-forum investigation with citizens, residents of the Palisades, taking testimony from pe- fire department people, fire department management, the office of the Mayor Bass, uh, and even Governor Newsom, to get at the issues.
There were a, a hundred fire engines under repair-
HOST: Mm-hmm.
GENE CAMERON: not being worked on-
HOST: Mm-hmm.
GENE CAMERON: because there wasn’t a budget to repair them.
They would have made a huge difference in, in the fire situation.
So, we have a, a string of problems here tha- that really trace to the management-
HOST: Yeah.
GENE CAMERON: of the administrators and our politicians who have failed us.
I- it-There’s gonna be a rally on the, on the 7th in the Palisades, and, um, I would encourage people to take a look at the YouTube b- video, uh, it’s called-
HOST: Yeah.
GENE CAMERON: the f- “The Palisades Fire They Gave Up.” It’s incredible video that describes what-
HOST: Okay.
GENE CAMERON: really went on.
HOST: We’re, we’re out of time, Gene.I really appreciate talking to you.
Thank you for that.
It’s a terrible tragedy, um, it has to be prevented from happening again.And, um, people like you have to continue to raise your voice, uh, because when you have folks who are covering up an after-action report that is supposed to outline ways to prevent this from happening again, that’s a really disturbing thing.
Thank you-