The key to identifying the cause of the still-raging Palisades Fire lies on a brush-covered hilltop where the blaze broke out just after 10:30 a.m. last Tuesday. Investigators are working to determine what sparked the inferno. Experts say it’s easy to rule out one common cause of wildfires: lightning. The area also appears to be free of power lines or transformers, which rules out another potential cause. That leaves the source of most wildfires: people. Four experts interviewed by NBC News said arson was a possibility, but they thought the fires were likely not set on purpose. “This is what we call inaccessible, rugged terrain,” said Rick Crawford, former battalion chief for the Los Angeles Fire Department. “Arsonists usually aren’t going to go 500 feet off a trailhead through trees and brush, set a fire and then run away.” Fires break out in the wooded areas on the edges of Los Angeles all the time, caused unintentionally by homeless people. The fires almost never grow into a destructive blaze due to the lack of high winds. The combination of ferocious winds and a parched landscape created ideal conditions for the fast-moving fires that have consumed large swaths of Los Angeles.
“You don’t need a gang of arsonists to go out there and be starting fires because nature is taking care of that for you,” said Scott Fischer, a retired federal law enforcement arson investigator. Copycat arson is a known phenomenon, however. The experts said they wouldn’t be surprised if one of the smaller fires that broke out after the Palisades blaze was intentionally set. “When you get a large fire event like this being experienced in Los Angeles, you sometimes trigger people to go out and light a fire,” said Terry Taylor, a retired wildland fire investigator. “It’s a copycat thing. ... It happens from time to time.” It’s unlikely those answers will come anytime soon, as determining arson tends to require a lengthy investigation. Identifying the cause of a fire is a highly specialized and painstaking endeavor, experts say. Things like burn patterns and charred debris can provide crucial clues. The investigators will lay out a grid at the scene, typically with string, and literally crawl around on their hands and knees in search of footprints or other clues. “They’ll go inch by inch by inch, and it will take hours,” said one investigator. “It’s not fun.” The prospect of arsonists torching Los Angeles gained traction on social media when a group of people detained a man they suspected of setting a trash fire. The man was arrested, but there was not enough probable cause to charge him with arson.
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