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The devastating Palisades fire stemmed from a New Year’s Day fire that burned underground before resurfacing on Jan. 7.
The revelations — unveiled in a criminal complaint and attached affidavit Wednesday charging an alleged arsonist, Jonathan Rinderknecht — raise questions about what the Los Angeles Fire Department could have done to prevent the conflagration.
Federal investigators have determined that the wildfire that leveled much of Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7 was a so-called “holdover” from a smaller fire that was set intentionally on New Year’s Day, about a week earlier.
After Los Angeles firefighters suppressed the Jan. 1 fire known as the Lachman fire, it continued to smold