BEVERLY — A woman has been displaced following a fire that broke out Tuesday morning inside her Cape-style home on Putnam Street.
Firefighters were called to 62 Putnam St. shortly before 11 a.m., Beverly Fire Chief Peter O’Connor said. The home’s sole occupant had gotten herself out by then and was uninjured.
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For months after the Palisades fire, many who had lost their homes eagerly awaited the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report, which was expected to provide a frank evaluation of the agency’s handling of the disaster.
A first draft was completed by August, possibly earlier.
In one instance, LAFD officials removed language saying that the decision not to fully staff up and pre-deploy all available crews and engines ahead of the extreme wind forecast “did not align” with the department’s policy and procedures during red flag days.
Instead, the final report said that the number of engine companies rolled out ahead of the fire “went above and beyond the standard LAFD pre-deployment matrix.”
Another deleted passage in the report said that some crews waited more than an hour for an assignment the day of the fire. A section on “failures” was renamed “primary challenges,” and an item saying that crews and leaders had violated national guidelines on how to avoid firefighter deaths and injuries was scratched.
Other changes in the report, which was overseen by then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva, seemed similarly intended to soften its impact and burnish the Fire Department’s image. Two drafts contain notes written in the margins, including a suggestion to replace the image on the cover page — which showed palm trees on fire against an orange sky — with a “positive” one, such as “firefighters on the frontline,” the note said. The final report’s cover displays the LAFD seal.
The Times obtained seven drafts of the report through the state Public Records Act. Only three of those drafts are marked with dates: Two versions are dated Aug. 25, and there is a draft from Oct. 6, two days before the LAFD released the final report to the public.
No names are attached to the edits. It is unclear if names were in the original documents and had been removed in the drafts given to The Times.
The deletions and revisions are likely to deepen concerns over the LAFD’s ability to acknowledge its mistakes before and during the blaze — and to avoid repeating them in the future. Already, Palisades fire victims have expressed outrage over unanswered questions and contradictory information about the LAFD’s preparations after the dangerous weather forecast, including how fire officials handled a smaller New Year’s Day blaze, called the Lachman fire, that rekindled into the massive Palisades fire six days later.
Some drafts described an on-duty LAFD captain calling Fire Station 23 in the Palisades on Jan. 7 to report that “the Lachman fire started up again,” indicating the captain’s belief that the Palisades fire was caused by a reignition of the earlier blaze.
The reference was deleted in one draft, then restored in the public version, which otherwise contains only a brief mention of the previous fire. Some have said that the after-action report’s failure to thoroughly examine the Lachman fire reignition was designed to shield LAFD leadership and Mayor Karen Bass’ administration from criticism and accountability.
Weeks after the report’s release, The Times reported that a battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and leave the burn area on Jan. 2, even though they had complained that the ground was still smoldering and rocks remained hot to the touch. Another battalion chief assigned to the LAFD’s risk management section knew about the complaints for months, but the department kept that information out of the after-action report.
“A full understanding of the Lachman fire response is essential to an accurate accounting of what occurred during the January wildfires,” Bass wrote.
Fire Chief Jaime Moore, who started in the job last month, has been tasked with commissioning the independent investigation that Bass requested.
The LAFD did not answer detailed questions from The Times about the altered drafts, including queries about why the material about the reignition was removed, then brought back. Villanueva did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Bass said her office did not demand changes to the drafts and only asked the LAFD to confirm the accuracy of items such as how the weather and the department’s budget factored into the disaster.
“The report was written and edited by the Fire Department,” the spokesperson, Clara Karger, said in an email. “We did not red-line, review every page or review every draft of the report. We did not discuss the Lachman Fire because it was not part of the report.”
Genethia Hudley Hayes, president of the Board of Fire Commissioners, told The Times that she reviewed a paper copy of a “working document” about a week before the final report was made public. She said she raised concerns with Villanueva and the city attorney’s office over the possibility that “material findings” were or would be changed. She also said she consulted a private attorney about her “obligations” as a commissioner overseeing the LAFD’s operations, though that conversation “had nothing to do with the after-action” report.
Hudley Hayes said she noticed only small differences between the final report and the draft she reviewed. For example, she said, “mistakes” had been changed to “challenges,” and names of firefighters had been removed.
“I was completely OK with it,” she said. “All the things I read in the final report did not in any way obfuscate anything, as far as I’m concerned.”
She reiterated her position that an examination of missteps during the Lachman fire did not belong in the after-action report, a view not shared by former LAFD chief officers interviewed by The Times.
“The after-action report should have gone back all the way to Dec. 31,” said former LAFD Battalion Chief Rick Crawford, who retired from the agency last year and is now emergency and crisis management coordinator for the U.S. Capitol. “There are major gaps in this after-action report.”
Former LAFD Asst. Chief Patrick Butler, who is now chief of the Redondo Beach Fire Department, agreed that the Lachman fire should have been addressed in the report and said the deletions were “a deliberate effort to hide the truth and cover up the facts.”
He said the removal of the reference to the LAFD’s violations of the national Standard Firefighting Orders and Watchouts was a “serious issue” because they were “written in the blood” of firefighters killed in the line of duty. Without citing the national guidelines, the final report said that the Palisades fire’s extraordinary nature “occasionally caused officers and firefighters to think and operate beyond standard safety protocols.”
The final after-action report does not mention that a person called authorities to report seeing smoke in the area on Jan. 3. The LAFD has since provided conflicting information about how it responded to that call.
Villanueva told The Times in October that firefighters returned to the burn area and “cold-trailed” an additional time, meaning they used their hands to feel for heat and dug out hot spots. But records showed they cleared the call within 34 minutes.
Fire officials did not answer questions from The Times about the discrepancy. In an emailed statement this week, the LAFD said crews had used remote cameras, walked around the burn site and used a 20-foot extension ladder to access a fenced-off area but did not see any smoke or fire.
“After an extensive investigation, the incident was determined to be a false alarm,” the statement said.
The most significant changes in the various iterations of the after-action report involved the LAFD’s deployment decisions before the fire, as the wind warnings became increasingly dire.
In a series of reports earlier this year, The Times found that top LAFD officials decided not to staff dozens of available engines that could have been pre-deployed to the Palisades and other areas flagged as high risk, as it had done in the past.
One draft contained a passage in the “failures” section on what the LAFD could have done: “If the Department had adequately augmented all available resources as done in years past in preparation for the weather event, the Department would have been required to recall members for all available positions unfilled by voluntary overtime, which would have allowed for all remaining resources to be staffed and available for augmentation, pre-deployment, and pre-positioning.” The draft said the decision was an attempt to be “fiscally responsible” that went against the department’s policy and procedures.
That language was absent in the final report, which said that the LAFD “balanced fiscal responsibility with proper preparation for predicted weather and fire behavior by following the LAFD predeployment matrix.”
Even with the deletions, the published report delivered a harsh critique of the LAFD’s performance during the Palisades fire, pointing to a disorganized response, failures in communication and chiefs who didn’t understand their roles. The report found that top commanders lacked a fundamental knowledge of wildland firefighting tactics, including “basic suppression techniques.”
A paperwork error resulted in the use of only a third of the state-funded resources that were available for pre-positioning in high-risk areas, the report said. And when the fire broke out on the morning of Jan. 7, the initial dispatch called for only seven engine companies, when the weather conditions required 27.
There was confusion among firefighters over which radio channel to use. The report said that three L.A. County engines showed up within the first hour, requesting an assignment and receiving no reply. Four other LAFD engines waited 20 minutes without an assignment.
In the early afternoon, the staging area — where engines were checking in — was overrun by fire.
The report made 42 recommendations, ranging from establishing better communication channels to more training. In a television interview this month, Moore said the LAFD has adopted about three-quarters of them.
Fancy grocer Erewhon will return to Pacific Palisades in an entirely rebuilt store, as the neighborhood’s luxury mall, owned by developer Rick Caruso, undergoes renovations for a reopening next August.
Palisades Village has been closed since the Jan. 7 wildfire destroyed much of the neighborhood. The outdoor mall survived the blaze but needed to be refurbished to eliminate contaminants that the fire could have spread, Caruso said.
The developer is spending $60 million to bring back Palisades Village, removing and replacing drywall from stores and restaurants. Dirt from the outdoor areas is also being replaced.
Demolition is complete and the tenants’ spaces are now being restored, Caruso said.
“It was not a requirement to do that from a scientific standpoint,” he said. “But it was important to me to be able to tell guests that the property is safe and clean.”
Erewhon’s store was taken down to the studs and is being reconfigured with a larger outdoor seating area for dining and events.
When it opens its doors sometime next year, it will be the only grocer in the heart of the fire-ravaged neighborhood.
The announcement of Erewhon’s comeback marks a milestone in the recovery of Pacific Palisades and signals renewed investment in restoring essential neighborhood services and supporting the community’s long-term economic health, Caruso said.
A photograph of the exterior of Erewhon in Pacific Palisades in 2024.
(Kailyn Brown/Los Angeles Times)
“They are one of the sexiest supermarkets in the world now and they are in high demand,” he said. “Their committing to reopening is a big statement on the future of the Palisades and their belief that it’s going to be back stronger than ever.”
Caruso previously attributed the mall’s survival to the hard work of private firefighters and the fire-resistant materials used in the mall’s construction. The $200-million shopping and dining center opened in 2018 with a movie theater and a roster of upmarket tenants, including Erewhon.
“We’re honored to join the incredible effort underway at Palisades Village,” Erewhon Chief Executive Tony Antoci said in a statement. “Reopening is a meaningful way for us to contribute to the healing and renewal of this neighborhood.”
Erewhon has cultivated a following of shoppers who visit daily to grab a prepared meal or one of its celebrity-backed $20 smoothies.
The privately held company doesn’t share financial figures, but has said its all-day cafes occupy roughly 30% of its floor space and serve 100,000 customers each week.
Erewhon has also branched out beyond selling groceries.
Its fast-growing private-label line now includes Erewhon-branded apparel, bags, candles, nutritional supplements and bath and body products.
Erewhon will also open new stores in West Hollywood in February, in Glendale in May and at Caruso’s The Lakes at Thousand Oaks mall in July 2026.
About 90% of the tenants are expected to return to the mall when it reopens, Caruso said, including restaurants Angelini Ristorante & Bar and Hank’s. Local chef Nancy Silverton has agreed to move in with a new Italian steakhouse called Spacca Tutto.
In May, Pacific Palisades-based fashion designer Elyse Walker said she would reopen her eponymous store in Palisades Village after losing her 25-year flagship location on Antioch Street in the inferno.
Fashion designer Elyse Walker announced the reopening of her flagship store at the Palisades Village in May.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
“People who live in the Palisades don’t want to leave,” Walker said at the time. “It’s a magical place.”
Caruso carried on annual holiday traditions at Palisades Village this year, including the lighting of a 50-foot Christmas tree for hundreds of celebrants Dec. 5. On Sunday evening, leaders from the Chabad Jewish Community Center of Pacific Palisades gathered at the mall to light a towering menorah.
A total of 6,822 structures were destroyed in the Palisades fire, including more than 5,500 residences and 100 commercial businesses, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Caruso said he hopes the shopping center’s revival will inspire residents to return. His investment “shows my belief that the community is coming back,” he said. “Next year is going to be huge.”
A car crashed into a Redwood City hardware store on Monday and caught fire, the fire department said.
The business it crashed into was an Ace Hardware in Woodside Plaza, and people were inside the business at the time of the crash.
“We heard a revving noise, and then we looked, and the car went straight through the window. There was a lot of butane where she crashed, so it kept catching on fire and blowing up,” said Ricky Pera, who works at the store. “At that moment, we all got fire extinguishers and helped her get out of the car.”
Fire officials said thankfully, no one was injured, and that the vehicle crashed through glass, so there is no danger to the building’s structural integrity.
Two Brown University students survived previous high school shootings
PROVIDENCE FOR US WITH HOW STUDENTS THERE ARE FEELING TODAY, ALANNA. YEAH, THAT’S RIGHT. SEAN. STUDENTS WE SPOKE TO ARE PACKING UP AND LEAVING. LEAVING THE DORMS LIKE YOU SEE BEHIND ME, OUT OF CONCERN THAT THE SHOOTER IS STILL AT LARGE. AND AS YOU MENTIONED, WE DID LEARN THE NAMES OF TWO OF THE VICTIMS. ONE OF THOSE NAMES IS ELLA COOKE. THE OTHER IS MOHAMMAD AZIZ MERS-COV. IT WAS JUST AFTER 4:00 ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON WHEN THOSE TWO WERE KILLED AND NINE OTHERS INJURED, WHEN A GUNMAN ENTERED A BUILDING THAT HOUSES THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND OPENED FIRE WHILE EXAMS WERE UNDERWAY, AUTHORITIES ARE STILL WORKING TO IDENTIFY THE PERSON IN THIS SURVEILLANCE VIDEO, WHO THEY SAY WAS SPOTTED WALKING AWAY FROM THE SCENE. AUTHORITIES ANNOUNCING LAST NIGHT THAT THE PERSON OF INTEREST THEY INITIALLY FOUND IN A HOTEL ROOM IN COVENTRY, RHODE ISLAND, HAD BEEN RELEASED. WHEN THIS NEWS SPREAD THROUGHOUT THE CAMPUS, MANY STUDENTS BEGAN PACKING UP, CHANGING THEIR TRAINS AND FLIGHTS HOME TO LEAVE CAMPUS. EVEN EARLIER. THIS WAS VERY DYSTOPIAN, TO BE HONEST WITH YOU, THIS IS NOT I’M GOING ABROAD. ALL OF MY FRIENDS WERE GOING ABROAD AND FOR THIS TO BE ONE OF OUR LAST MEMORIES ON CAMPUS, AND ESPECIALLY ALL THE SENIORS THAT WE KNOW LIKE THIS IS IT’S TRULY HEARTBREAKING. THERE IS ALSO A WEBSITE AND TIP LINE FOR ANYONE WITH INFORMATION RELATED TO THE SHOOTING. THE WEBSITE IS FBA, FBI, DOT GOV SLASH BROWN UNIVERSITY SHOOTING AND THAT PHONE NUMBER YOU CAN SEE ON YOUR SCREEN. AND AGAIN AT THIS POINT NO ARRESTS HAVE BEEN MADE. LIVE IN PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND. ALANNA FLOOD WMUR NEWS NINE. ALANNA THANK YOU. LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE TIMELINE OF EVENTS OVER THE PAST WEEKEND. THIS ALL STARTED AROUND 420 SATURDAY AFTERNOON. BROWN UNIVERSITY POSTED AN ALERT OF AN ACTIVE SHOOTER ON CAMPUS ON ITS WEBSITE. STUDENTS WERE URGED TO RUN, HIDE OR FIGHT FOR THEIR LIVES IF NECESSARY. THEN, AROUND 630, OFFICIALS CONFIRMED TWO PEOPLE WERE KILLED AND EIGHT OTHERS WERE IN CRITICAL BUT STABLE CONDITION. LATER, THE MAYOR OF PROVIDENCE ANNOUNCED THAT A NINTH PERSON WAS ALSO HURT. AROUND 11:00 SATURDAY NIGHT. VIDEO OF THE SUSPECT WAS RELEASED. THIS VIDEO HERE AND EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING, A PERSON OF INTEREST WAS TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AND RIGHT BEFORE SIX. THE SHELTER IN PLACE ORDER WAS LIFTED. AND THEN LATE LAST NIGHT, STATE OFFICIALS HELD A LATE NIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE WHERE THEY ANNOUNCED THAT PERSON OF INTEREST WAS RELEASED. NOW, THE MAYOR OF PROVIDENCE, SPEAKING THIS MORNING ON THE THOUGHT PROCESS BEHIND THAT RELEASE. IT TAKES TIME TO RUN THIS EVIDENCE. IT TAKES TIME TO PROCESS INFORMATION THAT WAS COLLECTED AND HARD EVIDENCE THAT WAS COLLECTED. AND AND AS WE CONTINUE TO PROCESS THAT EVIDENCE, IT WAS DETERMINED THAT THIS PERSON OF INTEREST NEEDED TO BE RELEASED. AND AND WE CONTINUE WITH OUR INVESTIGATION. AND MAYOR SMILEY SAYS THAT SINCE TH
Two Brown University students survived previous high school shootings
Two Brown University students are speaking out after surviving a second school shooting. On Saturday, two people were killed and nine others injured when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Police are continuing to search for the suspect after releasing a person of interest who was detained early Sunday morning. Mia Tretta survived a 2019 shooting at her high school in California, where she was shot in the stomach. She continues to experience physical problems years later. “Never in my mind would it occur there was actually a shooting until hundreds of texts started rolling in from everyone,” Tretta said. “When I was shot at my school, they knew exactly where the shooter was within the hour. I didn’t have to deal with this fear for hours on end of where this person is, could they be doing it again.”Zoe Weissman survived a 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. She said she is frustrated to face a second shooting. “Right now, I’m just very angry,” Weissman said. “I think I’m angry that I’ve had to go through this more than once, that now my classmates and my friends also have this experience in common with me.”
MANCHESTER, N.H. —
Two Brown University students are speaking out after surviving a second school shooting.
Police are continuing to search for the suspect after releasing a person of interest who was detained early Sunday morning.
Mia Tretta survived a 2019 shooting at her high school in California, where she was shot in the stomach. She continues to experience physical problems years later.
“Never in my mind would it occur there was actually a shooting until hundreds of texts started rolling in from everyone,” Tretta said. “When I was shot at my school, they knew exactly where the shooter was within the hour. I didn’t have to deal with this fear for hours on end of where this person is, could they be doing it again.”
Zoe Weissman survived a 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. She said she is frustrated to face a second shooting.
“Right now, I’m just very angry,” Weissman said. “I think I’m angry that I’ve had to go through this more than once, that now my classmates and my friends also have this experience in common with me.”
A large fire burned at a six-story residential building in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District early Friday morning, leaving dozens displaced, officials said.
The fire started at around 3 a.m. at a building on Golden Gate Avenue near Taylor and Market streets, adjacent to the Golden Gate Theatre. The San Francisco Fire Department said the fire started on the top floor and reached three alarms, spreading to the attic and roof of the building. Over 100 firefighters at the scene were able to prevent it from spreading to lower floors and nearby buildings, the department said.
UPDATE- FIRE CONTAINED
Early this morning, shortly after 3:00 AM, San Francisco firefighters responded to a fire at 50 Golden Gate, a six-story multi-residential complex located in the Tenderloin District. The firefighters executed an impressive and aggressive attack on the… https://t.co/iNKRlOQLPPpic.twitter.com/JwrezVyfpy
Multiple people were rescued and self-evacuated, and a total of 45 residents were displaced, but there were no injuries, the department said. Two cats were also rescued, one that was treated by medics at the scene and another cared for by Animal Control.
Evacuated residents were provided temporary shelter at the corner of Golden Gate and Jones Street aboard a Muni bus. The Red Cross and other city agencies were called in to assist the displaced residents, the department said.
The fire was contained by 5:30 a.m., and firefighters remained on the scene for several hours. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
A gas explosion and fire near Hayward and Interstate Highway 238 Thursday morning injured multiple people and destroyed or damaged at least three structures, authorities said.
The incident happened on East Lewelling Boulevard just west of Mission Boulevard and south of Highway 238 in the unincorporated community of Ashland. The area has a mix of commercial and residential structures, including single-family homes.
The explosion scattered debris across a wide area, landing on adjacent rooftops. At least two of the structures destroyed appeared to be contained on the same lot of 867 E. Lewelling Boulevard, which was listed on Redfin as a four-bedroom, 3,957 square-foot home.
Pacific Gas and Electric said at 7:35 a.m., it was notified that a third-party construction crew had damaged an underground gas line while digging on Lewelling Boulevard, and it dispatched crews to the scene. According to PG&E, its workers isolated the damaged line and stopped the flow of gas by 9:25 a.m., but gas had been released at multiple locations, and at 9:35 a.m., the explosion happened.
Security camera video from a neighbor across the street showed construction vehicles in front of the address as a large explosion destroyed much of the main structure. The neighbor told CBS News Bay Area her entire house shook in the blast.
“It looked like a bomb dropped. It just went,” said Brittany Maldonado. “We thought a truck hit the house or something, but no, the neighbor’s house exploded.”
A spokesperson for Alameda County said Redgwick Construction of Oakland is currently working on a project to improve E. Lewelling Boulevard in the area, and the firm lists the project on its website. Documents from the county indicate the work involves new sidewalks, bikeways, and pavement improvements.
CBS News Bay Area has reached out to Redgwick Construction for comment.
Alameda County Fire Department Deputy Chief Ryan Nishimoto said at least three buildings on two properties were “significantly damaged,” and a third property adjacent to the other properties had minor to major damage on the side where the explosion occurred.
“Two of the three buildings look like residential structures, the one in the back of one of the properties looks like a workshop with maybe a living quarters on top,” Nishimoto said.
Six patients were taken to nearby hospitals, Nishimoto said. CBS News Bay Area has learned that at least three patients were being treated at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley with injuries described as serious.
Eight engines and two ladder trucks responded to the three-alarm fire, said Fire Department spokesperson Cheryl Hurd.
Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Roberto Morales said deputies were dispatched to evacuate other residents in the area. It was unclear how many residents were evacuated.
The California Highway Patrol said southbound Highway 238 to East 14th Street and Lewelling Boulevard from Mission to Paradise boulevards were shut down during the firefight and investigation.
Many neighbors in the area questioned why there wasn’t an evacuation in the two hours before the explosion when PG&E knew gas was leaking.
Maldonado said she was never notified of a gas leak, and the only reason she knew anything was going on was because she saw a PG&E crew member checking her gas meter at around 8:30 in the morning.
“And he said that they were turning off the gas because of something with the road crew,” said Maldonado. “So we were, like, okay. So we were even more confused because we were, like, ‘But the gas was off, how did the explosion happen?’”
PG&E said it does not execute evacuations and leaves that process up to first responders.
The Alameda County Fire Department said it did not evacuate the neighborhood because when crews came on the scene, PG&E told them they did not need the department’s assistance.
“PG&E will be conducting an extensive investigation around a potential cause and will support other investigations that may take place,” said spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian.
A natural gas line leak triggered a dramatic explosion that destroyed a Bay Area home on Thursday, injuring six people and damaging several other properties.
At least one person was inside the home before it was leveled in the blast. The individual managed to escape without injury, but six others were hurt, including three who suffered serious injuries, Alameda County Fire Department spokesperson Cheryl Hurd said.
“It was a chaotic scene,” Hurd said. “There was fire and debris and smoke everywhere, power lines down, people self-evacuated from the home. … Someone was on the sidewalk with severe burns.”
The leak started after a third-party construction crew working Thursday morning in the 800 block of East Lewelling Boulevard in Hayward struck a Pacific Gas and Electric underground natural gas line, according to a statement from the utility.
Fire crews were first dispatched to the scene at 7:46 a.m. after PG&E reported a suspected natural gas leak, Hurd said. PG&E officials were already on scene when fire engines arrived, and reportedly told firefighters their assistance was not needed, Hurd said.
Utility workers attempted to isolate the damaged line, but gas was leaking from multiple locations. Workers shut off the flow of gas at about 9:25 a.m., PG&E said in a statement.
Fire crews were called back to the same address less than two hours later, where at least 75 firefighters encountered heavy flames and a thick column of smoke. Surrounding homes sustained damage from the blast and falling debris. Three buildings were damaged on two separate properties, according to fire officials.
Six people were taken to Eden Medical Center, including three with severe injuries requiring immediate transport. Officials declined to comment on the nature of their injuries.
Video captured from a Ring doorbell affixed to a neighboring house showed an excavator digging near the home moments before the explosion. The blast rattled nearby homes, shattered windows and sent construction crews running.
Initially, authorities suspected that two people were missing after the blast. That was determined not to be the case, Hurd said.
“They brought in two cadaver dogs looking to see if anyone was still trapped under the rubble, and the dogs cleared everything,” Hurd said.
Officials with the Sheriff’s Office, PG&E and the National Transportation Safety Board are continuing to investigate the circumstances that led to the explosion.
1 person found dead in north Sacramento fire, officials say
WE BEGIN WITH BREAKING NEWS. AND THAT BREAKING NEWS IS OUT OF NORTH SACRAMENTO. FIREFIGHTERS ARE INVESTIGATING AFTER ONE PERSON WAS FOUND DEAD AFTER A FIRE. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US AT FIVE. I’M ANDREA FLORES. I’M LISA GONZALEZ. FIREFIGHTERS SAY THAT PERSON WAS FOUND IN A SHED OUTSIDE A HOME ON ACACIA AVENUE, JUST A COUPLE BLOCKS FROM RIO LINDA BOULEVARD. KCRA 3’S ANDRES VALLE IS LIVE AT THE SCENE WITH THE NEWEST INFORMATION. ANDRES. WELL, GUYS, WE KNOW THAT ONE PERSON IS DEAD AND I WAS SPEAKING TO THE FAMILY WHOSE OFF SCREEN? RIGHT NOW? OF COURSE WE’RE OUT OF RESPECT. WE WON’T SHOW THEIR FACE, BUT THEY BELIEVE THAT IT WAS THEIR NEPHEW WHO WAS KILLED INSIDE THAT HOME. WE HAVE A FRAME HERE AND SHOW YOU WHAT WE’RE LOOKING AT. AS INVESTIGATORS ARE STILL ON THE SCENE HERE. WE JUST HAVE ONE FIRE ENGINE STILL IN PLACE IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE WHERE ALL OF THIS UNFOLDED. THIS HAPPENED RIGHT AROUND 130 THIS AFTERNOON. THAT’S WHEN FIRE CREWS FIRST CAME OUT HERE. AND THEY SAID THE FIRE STARTED IN THE BACK OF THE HOME. AND THIS TYPE OF SHED, WHICH IS THE BEST WAY TO DESCRIBE IT, WOULD BE CONSIDERED AN ADU. SO THIS IS A SHED THAT WAS ATTACHED TO THE HOME. THAT’S WHERE THE FIRE DID START AND EVENTUALLY SPREAD INTO THE ATTIC OF A TWO STORY HOME OF THAT TWO STORY HOME. BUT THAT CAUSED SOME ISSUES FOR FIRE CREWS. AND THIS IS WHAT SACRAMENTO CITY FIRE HAD TO SAY ABOUT THAT. WE WERE 25 MINUTES INTO THIS OPERATION, AND WE STILL HAD FIRE COMING FROM THAT ATTIC SPACE THAT WE WERE STILL TRYING TO MAKE ACCESS TO. SO THAT SHOWS YOU HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TYPICALLY ON A STRUCTURE FIRE LIKE THIS. WE HAVE KNOCKED DOWN WITHIN FIVE, MAYBE TEN MINUTES. SO WHAT WE WHAT WE HAVE TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT AT THAT POINT AS WELL IS HOW MUCH OF THE ACTUAL STRUCTURE IS LEFT IN THERE SINCE IT’S BEEN BURNING SO LONG, AND WE DON’T WANT TO RISK ANY TYPE OF ROOF COLLAPSE. NOW BACK OUT HERE LIVE. WE STILL HAVE INVESTIGATORS ON THE SCENE HERE. THEY’RE TREATING THIS AS SUSPICIOUS UNTIL PROVEN. NOT THAT STANDARD PROTOCOL FOR THEM. WHEN THEY FIND SOMEBODY DEAD INSIDE A HOUSE FIRE. BUT LIKE I MENTIONED, I SPOKE TO THAT FAMILY. THEY BELIEVE IT’S THEIR NEPHEW. THERE’S THE FIRE CHAPLAIN CURRENTLY SPEAKING TO THEM. AND ALL I HAVE TO REALLY SAY IS OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH THEM. BUT THAT’S THE INFORMATION THAT WE HAVE RIGHT NOW. WE’RE LIVE HERE IN NORTH SACRAMENTO. KCRA THREE N
1 person found dead in north Sacramento fire, officials say
One person was found dead following a fire at a north Sacramento residence on Wednesday, according to the fire department. Crews responded to the home on Acacia Avenue near Branch Street around 1:30 p.m. for the report of a structure fire. The Sacramento Fire Department said one person was found dead inside a shed outside the main home.It’s not clear what sparked the fire. Footage from a KCRA 3 crew at the scene showed Acacia Avenue blocked off as firefighters worked to handle the fire. The person found dead has not yet been identified.This is a developing story. Stay with KCRA 3 for the latest. See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
One person was found dead following a fire at a north Sacramento residence on Wednesday, according to the fire department.
Crews responded to the home on Acacia Avenue near Branch Street around 1:30 p.m. for the report of a structure fire.
The Sacramento Fire Department said one person was found dead inside a shed outside the main home.
It’s not clear what sparked the fire.
Footage from a KCRA 3 crew at the scene showed Acacia Avenue blocked off as firefighters worked to handle the fire.
The person found dead has not yet been identified.
This is a developing story. Stay with KCRA 3 for the latest.
See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it’s safe to do so at kcra.com/upload.
A pro-housing group sued Gov. Newsom on Wednesday over his decision to restrict SB 9, a housing law that allows owners to parcel up their properties, in the wake of the January fires.
YIMBY Law, a San Francisco-based organization, alleges that Newsom’s executive order over the summer allowing cities to suspend SB 9 is a constitutional overreach and violates the California Emergency Services Act, which states that emergency powers can only be used to mitigate ongoing disasters, not potential ones.
It’s the latest chapter in the fight over how much density should be allowed in the rebuilding of fire-stricken communities such as Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
Proponents of SB 9, a 2021 state law that allows homeowners to split single-family lots into as many as four properties, claim it’s a valuable tool to address the housing crisis by adding density. They also claim it’s a resource for fire victims hoping to sell their properties, since land that can be subdivided is more valuable than a single-family lot.
Critics claim that the density afforded by SB 9 would destroy the character of single-family neighborhoods, while also slowing down evacuations in fire-prone areas by packing in more homes and residents.
Newsom sided with the critics in July, signing an executive order allowing L.A.-area governments to suspend SB 9. Many took him up on the offer immediately, including Mayor Bass, as well as officials in Pasadena, Malibu and L.A. County. All are named in the lawsuit along with Gov. Newsom.
“SB 9 adds housing and flexibility,” said YIMBY Law executive director Sonja Trauss. “We want everyone to be able to rebuild, but suspending SB 9 devalues those properties.”
Trauss said many fire victims are underinsured and currently deciding whether it’s financially possible to rebuild. For many, a helpful option would be to use SB 9 to divide the lot into two, then sell one and use the money to build on the other.
She added that the move seemed out of step with Gov. Newsom’s other initiatives in the wake of the fires, including streamlining the permitting process for single-family homes and ADUs.
“If you want to build a 3,000-square-foot house and a 700-square-foot ADU, it’s easier. But if you want to build two homes as a duplex, it’s harder,” Trauss said. “It’s baffling.”
A spokesperson for Newsom defended the move in a statement.
“We will not allow outside groups — even longstanding allies — to attack the Palisades, and communities in the highest fire risk areas throughout L.A. County, or undermine local flexibility after the horror of these fires,” said spokesperson Tara Gallegos. “Our obligation is to survivors, full stop. We will not negotiate that away. If defending them requires drawing firm lines, we will draw them.”
The suit was originally supposed to be filed on Monday, Dec. 8, but was delayed after potential movement from Newsom’s office to restore SB 9 in fire areas, a spokesperson for YIMBY Law said.
An agreement was never reached, and the suit was filed on Wednesday.
As the Eaton and Palisades fires rapidly jumped between tightly packed houses, the proactive steps some residents took to retrofit their homes with fire-resistant building materials and to clear flammable brush became a significant indicator of a home’s fate.
Early adopters who cleared vegetation and flammable materials within the first five feet of their houses’ walls — in line with draft rules for the state’s hotly debated “zone zero” regulations — fared better than those who didn’t, an on-the-ground investigation from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety published Wednesday found.
Over a week in January, while the fires were still burning, the insurance team inspected more than 250 damaged, destroyed and unscathed homes in Altadena and Pacific Palisades.
On properties where the majority of zone zero land was covered in vegetation and flammable materials, the fires destroyed 27% of homes; On properties with less than a quarter of zone zero covered, only 9% were destroyed.
The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, an independent research nonprofit funded by the insurance industry, performed similar investigations for Colorado’s 2012 Waldo Canyon fire, Hawaii’s 2023 Lahaina fire and California’s Tubbs, Camp and Woolsey fires of 2017 and 2018.
While a handful of recent studies have found homes with sparse vegetation in zone zero were more likely to survive fires, skeptics say it does not yet amount to a scientific consensus.
Travis Longcore, senior associate director and an adjunct professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, cautioned that the insurance nonprofit’s results are only exploratory: The team did not analyze whether other factors, such as the age of the homes, were influencing their zone zero analysis, and how the nonprofit characterizes zone zero for its report, he noted, does not exactly mirror California’s draft regulations.
Meanwhile, Michael Gollner, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley who studies how wildfires destroy and damage homes, noted that the nonprofit’s sample does not perfectly represent the entire burn areas, since the group focused specifically on damaged properties and were constrained by the active firefight.
Nonetheless, the nonprofit’s findings help tie together growing evidence of zone zero’s effectiveness from tests in the lab — aimed at identifying the pathways fire can use to enter a home — with the real-world analyses of which measures protected homes in wildfires, Gollner said.
A recent study from Gollner looking at more than 47,000 structures in five major California fires (which did not include the Eaton and Palisades fires) found that of the properties that removed vegetation from zone zero, 37% survived, compared with 20% that did not.
Once a fire spills from the wildlands into an urban area, homes become the primary fuel. When a home catches fire, it increases the chance nearby homes burn, too. That is especially true when homes are tightly packed.
When looking at California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection data for the entirety of the two fires, the insurance team found that “hardened” homes in Altadena and the Palisades that had noncombustable roofs, fire-resistant siding, double-pane windows and closed eaves survived undamaged at least 66% of the time, if they were at least 20 feet away from other structures.
But when the distance was less than 10 feet, only 45% of the hardened homes escaped with no damage.
“The spacing between structures, it’s the most definitive way to differentiate what survives and what doesn’t,” said Roy Wright, president and chief executive of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. At the same time, said Wright, “it’s not feasible to change that.”
Looking at steps that residents are more likely to be able to take, the insurance nonprofit found that the best approach is for homeowners to apply however many home hardening and defensible space measures that they can. Each one can shave a few percentage points off the risk of a home burning, and combined, the effect can be significant.
As for zone zero, the insurance team found a number of examples of how vegetation and flammable materials near a home could aid the destruction of a property.
At one home, embers appeared to have ignited some hedges a few feet away from the structure. That heat was enough to shatter a single pane window, creating the perfect opportunity for embers to enter and burn the house from the inside out. It miraculously survived.
At others, embers from the blazes landed on trash and recycling bins close to the houses, sometimes burning holes through the plastic lids and igniting the material inside. In one instance, the fire in the bin spread to a nearby garage door, but the house was spared.
Wooden decks and fences were also common accomplices that helped embers ignite a structure.
California’s current zone zero draft regulations take some of those risks into account. They prohibit wooden fences within the first five feet of a home; the state’s zone zero committee is also considering whether to prohibit virtually all vegetation in the zone or to just limit it (regardless, well-maintained trees are allowed).
On the other hand, the draft regulations do not prohibit keeping trash bins in the zone, which the committee determined would be difficult to enforce. They also do not mandate homeowners replace wooden decks.
The controversy around the draft regulations center around the proposal to remove virtually all healthy vegetation, including shrubs and grasses, from the zone.
Critics argue that, given the financial burden zone zero would place on homeowners, the state should instead focus on measures with lower costs and a significant proven benefit.
“A focus on vegetation is misguided,” said David Lefkowith, president of the Mandeville Canyon Assn.
At its most recent zone zero meeting, the Board of Forestry and Fire Protection directed staff to further research the draft regulations’ affordability.
“As the Board and subcommittee consider which set of options best balance safety, urgency, and public feasibility, we are also shifting our focus to implementation and looking to state leaders to identify resources for delivering on this first-in-the-nation regulation,” Tony Andersen, executive officer of the board, said in a statement. “The need is urgent, but we also want to invest the time necessary to get this right.”
Home hardening and defensible space are just two of many strategies used to protect lives and property. The insurance team suspects that many of the close calls they studied in the field — homes that almost burned but didn’t — ultimately survived thanks to firefighters who stepped in. Wildfire experts also recommend programs to prevent ignitions in the first place and to manage wildlands to prevent intense spread of a fire that does ignite.
For Wright, the report is a reminder of the importance of community. The fate of any individual home is tied to that of those nearby — it takes a whole neighborhood hardening their homes and maintaining their lawns to reach herd immunity protection against fire’s contagious spread.
“When there is collective action, it changes the outcomes,” Wright said. “Wildfire is insidious. It doesn’t stop at the fence line.”
Marion County Fire Rescue said there were no injuries after a large mobile home fire in Ocklawaha on Friday.According to MCFR, firefighters were called out to the 18000 block of SE 105th Lane, Ocklawaha, for a residential structure fire around 7:20 p.m. Friday. Multiple 911 callers said a house and a shed had caught fire. Firefighters got to the scene about 10 minutes later to find heavy fire in both structures.Additional firefighters were called out to the scene as crews worked to deploy hose lines and extinguish the fire.MCFR said the fire was under control by 8:31 p.m. and that no injuries were reported. The family who lived in the mobile home is being assisted by the American Red Cross.
OCKLAWAHA, Fla. —
Marion County Fire Rescue said there were no injuries after a large mobile home fire in Ocklawaha on Friday.
According to MCFR, firefighters were called out to the 18000 block of SE 105th Lane, Ocklawaha, for a residential structure fire around 7:20 p.m. Friday. Multiple 911 callers said a house and a shed had caught fire. Firefighters got to the scene about 10 minutes later to find heavy fire in both structures.
Additional firefighters were called out to the scene as crews worked to deploy hose lines and extinguish the fire.
MCFR said the fire was under control by 8:31 p.m. and that no injuries were reported. The family who lived in the mobile home is being assisted by the American Red Cross.
Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades has raised questions about corruption and negligence in the renovations of the apartment complex where at least 128 people died.
An intense fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong’s northern suburbs Wednesday afternoon, with flames covering seven of the eight towers. The complex was home to some 4,800 residents, some of whom had raised safety concerns about the renovations more than year before the fire.
Police on Wednesday arrested three men from a construction company on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence. They are now out on bail. Authorities then arrested seven men and one woman, including scaffolding subcontractors, directors of an engineering consultancy company and project managers supervising the renovation, in a corruption probe.
Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but documents posted to the homeowners association’s website showed that the Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations. Police have seized boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered Thursday.
Officials also said they were investigating the materials used, both the netting on the scaffolding and the foam panels covering windows, and their role in the blaze.
Firefighters rest in front of the Wang Fuk Court residential estate following a massive, deadly fire that tore through the complex in Tai Po district, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 28, 2025.
Leung Man Hei/Bloomberg/Getty
Residents highlighted safety issues a year before fire
For almost a year, some residents at the Wang Fuk Court complex had been raising safety concerns to Hong Kong authorities about the scaffolding materials being used in the renovation project, according to documents reviewed by the AP, specifically about the netting that covered the scaffolding.
Hong Kong’s labor department in a statement on Saturday confirmed it had received such complaints, adding that officials had carried out 16 inspections of Wang Fuk Court’s renovation project since July 2024, and had warned contractors multiple times in writing that they must ensure they met fire safety requirements. The city even carried out an inspection as late as one week before the fire.
The labor department said it had reviewed the product quality certificate of the netting and that it was in line with standards, but that the safety netting had not been the previous target of inspections.
Preliminary investigations showed the fire started on a lower-level scaffolding net of one of the buildings. It then spread rapidly as the foam panels caught fire, said Chris Tang, the city’s secretary for security. Police also said they had been looking at the highly flammable foam panels.
“The blaze ignited the foam panels, causing the glass to shatter and leading to a swift intensification of the fire and its spread into the interior spaces,” Tang said.
Firefighting efforts at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate following a massive, deadly fire that tore through the complex in Tai Po district, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 28, 2025.
Leung Man Hei/Bloomberg/Getty
The labor department said later on Saturday that three prosecutions were brought against the company over breaches of safety regulations for working at height in the construction and convictions in two of the cases resulted in fines of totaling 30,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $3,850. The company also was fined three times in 2023 for separate violations unrelated to the Tai Po project.
First responders also found that some fire alarms in the complex, which housed many older people, did not sound when tested, said Andy Yeung, the director of Hong Kong Fire Services. He did not specify how many were not working or if any of the others were.
Intense blaze took days to put out
It took firefighters a day to bring the fire under control, and it was not fully extinguished until Friday morning — some 40 hours after it started.
Crews prioritized apartments from which they had received emergency calls during the blaze but were unable to reach in the hours that the fire burned out of control, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services, told reporters.
Twelve firefighters were among the 79 people injured in the blaze, and one firefighter was killed.
Even two days after the fire began, smoke continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.
People look at flames engulfing a building after a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Wednesday, Nov. 26 2025.
Chan Long Hei / AP
More bodies may be found
While more bodies might be recovered, authorities said, crews have finished their search for anyone living trapped inside.
Authorities said Saturday they need to identify 44 more bodies out of the 128 recovered. About 150 people remain unaccounted for.
The dead included two Indonesian migrant workers, the Indonesian foreign ministry said Thursday. About 11 other migrants from the country who were working as domestic helpers in the apartment complex remain missing, Indonesian Consul General Yul Edison said Friday.
Near the site of the fire, Sara Yu held the hand of her 2-year-old son, Dominic, as they each placed a single white rose into a growing cluster of the flowers in a small children’s playground.
“I brought the kids here because I want them to understand that living in this world is something to be cherished,” she said, holding back tears.
Thick smoke and flames rise as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025.
YAN ZHAO / AFP
Outside a building close to the scene of the fire where family members came to identify loved ones from photographs, people placed bouquets of white roses, lilies and carnations. “More than 128 innocent lives, what did they do wrong?” asked a sign placed among the flowers.
The city lowered flags to half staff in mourning, and Chief Executive John Lee, led a three-minute silence Saturday from the government headquarters with officials all dressed in black.
The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. A 1996 fire in a commercial building in Kowloon killed 41 people. A warehouse fire in 1948 killed 176 people, according to the South China Morning Post.
A small human-caused wildfire was burning Friday near the Turkey Tracks shooting range northwest of Woodland Park, though firefighters were taking an “indirect approach” due to unexploded ammunition in the area, officials said.
The Turkey Tracks 69 fire, located 14.4 miles northwest of Woodland Park, off Highway 67 and Forest Service Road 343, was estimated to be 8 acres in size Friday afternoon.
The Pike-San Isabel National Forests & Cimarron and Comanche National Grasslands posted an alert on social media at 1:52 p.m. that said U.S. Forest Service and local fire departments were on scene.
“Due to unexploded ammunition and a focus on firefighter safety, we are taking an indirect approach for #TurkeyTracks69Fire while utilizing full suppression efforts,” National Forest officials wrote on social media. “Smoke will be visible for the next few days as fuels continue to consume within the fire perimeter.”
The area near the shooting range saw another wildfire earlier this year, burning 128 acres of land that consisted of grass, dead and downed trees and shooting debris.
During that time, officials said hot, dry and windy conditions caused the fire to grow “very aggressively.” The fire burned right up to the edge of Highway 67 near the Teller and Douglas County border.
Investigators also determined that fire was human-caused.
Investigators in north Minneapolis are looking into the cause of a house fire that injured an adult and required a dog to be rescued on Saturday afternoon.
Crews responded to the fire at the one-and-a-half-story home on the 2000 block of Logan Avenue North around 12:33 p.m. They were able to “quickly extinguish” flames they found in a bedroom on the first floor, according to the Minneapolis Fire Department.
Officials said the adult was treated for burns to their hands and the rescued dog was not harmed.
According to the fire department, the home was “deemed uninhabitable” due to damage from the blaze.
The American Red Cross helped two adults and three children after the incident.
Hong Kong — The death toll from a fire that tore through a Hong Kong residential complex climbed to 128 on Friday as more bodies were found in the blackened towers, authorities said. Secretary for Security Chris Tang told reporters at the scene that the search for victims was continuing and the numbers could still rise.
The fire at the Wang Fuk Court complex started Wednesday afternoon and was only fully extinguished Friday morning. Dozens of people, including firefighters, were injured in the blaze.
Firefighters were still combing through the high-rise complex apartment-by-apartment in a final attempt to find anyone alive after the massive fire engulfed seven of the complex’s eight towers in one of the city’s deadliest blazes ever recorded.
Firefighters rest in front of the Wang Fuk Court residential estate following a massive, deadly fire that tore through the complex in Tai Po district, Hong Kong, China, Nov. 28, 2025.
Leung Man Hei/Bloomberg/Getty
Crews were prioritizing apartments from which they had received more than two dozen calls for assistance during the blaze, but which they were unable to reach due to the intensity of the fire, Derek Armstrong Chan, a deputy director of Hong Kong Fire Services told reporters early Friday morning.
“Our firefighting operation is almost complete,” he said.
The fire started midafternoon Wednesday in one of the Wang Fuk Court complex’s eight towers, jumping rapidly from one to the next as bamboo scaffolding covered in netting, in place for renovations, caught ablaze until seven buildings were engulfed.
It took more than 1,000 firefighters some 24 hours to bring the five-alarm blaze under control, and almost two days later, smoke still continued to drift out of the charred skeletons of the buildings from the occasional flare-up.
The final search of the buildings was expected to be complete later Friday, at which point officials have said they will officially end the rescue phase of the operation at the complex in Tai Po district, a northern suburb near Hong Kong’s border with mainland China.
It was unclear how many people could be inside the buildings, which had almost 2,000 apartments and some 4,800 residents. Hong Kong leader John Lee said early Thursday morning that officials had not been able to make contact with 279 residents.
“We will endeavor to force entry into all the units of the seven blocks concerned so as to ensure that there is no other possible casualties,” Chan said.
Wong, a 71-year-old man, was photographed in tears outside the burning building claiming his wife was trapped inside.
Reuters
He said an updated figure on the number of missing people could not be calculated until the search and rescue operation was complete.
The apartments from which a total of 25 unanswered rescue calls were received, which are being prioritized, were primarily on higher floors, where the fire was last extinguished, he said.
More than 70 people were injured in the blaze, including 11 firefighters, and about 900 people were housed in temporary shelters.
Most of the casualties were in the first two buildings to catch fire, Chan said.
Arrests amid investigation into the deadly blaze
The apartment complex housed many older people. It was built in the 1980s and had been undergoing a major renovation. Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency said on Thursday it was investigating possible corruption relating to the renovation project.
Three men, the directors and an engineering consultant of a construction company, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, and police said company leaders were suspected of gross negligence.
Police have not identified the company where the suspects worked, but The Associated Press confirmed Prestige Construction & Engineering Company was in charge of renovations in the tower complex. Police have seized boxes of documents from the company, where phones rang unanswered Thursday.
A body is transferred for identification in the aftermath of a major fire that swept through several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, Nov. 28, 2025.
Peter PARKS/AFP/Getty
Authorities suspected some materials on the exterior walls of the high-rise buildings did not meet fire resistance standards, allowing the unusually fast spread of the fire. There was also word on Friday that fire alarm systems in at least some of the buildings affected may not have been functioning properly.
Police also said they found plastic foam panels – which are highly flammable – attached to the windows on each floor near the elevator lobby of the one unaffected tower. The panels were believed to have been installed by the construction company but the purpose was not clear.
Authorities planned immediate inspections of many housing estates undergoing major renovations to ensure scaffolding and construction materials meet safety standards.
The fire was the deadliest in Hong Kong in decades. A 1996 fire in a commercial building in Kowloon killed 41 people.
The death toll in the Hong Kong apartment complex fire has risen to 94, with dozens still missing, as firefighters make a final push to find survivors on the third day of the blaze.
Deputy director of the Hong Kong Fire Services, Derek Armstrong Chan, told the Associated Press that crews were prioritizing apartments in the seven high-rise buildings where they had received multiple calls for help during the fire but hadn’t been able to reach them immediately.
Why It Matters
The fire is the deadliest to strike the former British colony in more than 70 years. The death toll is more than double that of the 1996 Kowloon fire, which struck a commercial building, killing 41 people. However, the worst fire in Hong Kong’s history remains the 1918 Happy Valley Fire, which killed over 600 people, and the 1948 warehouse fire that resulted in 176 deaths.
A special investigation team has now been established to determine the cause of the fire, Chief Executive John Lee said.
What To Know
Hundreds of people have now been evacuated from the Wang Fuk Court apartments, in the Tai Po district, located in a suburban area in the New Territories, with around 900 sent to temporary shelters overnight.
At least 94 have been confirmed dead, with more than 70 people injured, including 11 firefighters. Hong Kong leader John Lee previously said that 279 people were missing early Thursday after authorities lost contact. There have been no updated figures on how many remain missing.
The final search of the buildings will be completed Friday, at which point crews will officially end the rescue phase.
“Our firefighting operation is almost complete,” Chan said.
Chan said that the fire had spread “exceptionally fast” while falling bamboo scaffolding and debris made it difficult for emergency vehicles and firefighters to reach those trapped by the blaze. More than 1,000 firefighters were brought in to tackle the blaze, and even now, the buildings continue to smoke from small flare-ups.
Three men, between the ages of 52 and 68, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the fire. They included two directors and an engineering consultant from a construction company, which has not been named.
“We have reason to believe that those in charge of the construction company were grossly negligent,” said Eileen Chung, a senior superintendent of police.
Police on Thursday also searched the office of Prestige Construction & Engineering Company—the firm in charge of renovations for the apartment complex—and seized multiple boxes of documents. AP’s calls for comment went unanswered on Thursday.
Authorities suspected some materials used on the exterior walls did not meet fire safety standards, which may have accelerated the spread of the fire. The building, which was undergoing renovations, was also surrounded by bamboo scaffolding. Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency has now launched a corruption probe into the renovation project.
Deadly fire likely to accelerate ending use of iconic bamboo as scaffolding
The housing complex, built in the 1980s, was undergoing a major renovation and was covered in bamboo scaffolding when it caught fire on Wednesday. Officials said the blaze started on the external scaffolding and quickly spread across the bamboo and construction netting to the inside of the building, before spreading to the other buildings. In all, seven of the eight 32-story towers, which include around 2,000 apartments for about 4,800 residents, went up in flames,
City officials have already been planning a shift from the 1000-year-old bamboo construction technique to metal scaffolding in public works. The tragic fire, which has already claimed dozens of lives, is only likely to accelerate that shift.
Eric Chan, the Chief Secretary for Administration, told AP that the traditional bamboo was inferior to metal for fire safety.
“While we know that bamboo scaffolding has a long history in Hong Kong, its flame retardancy is inferior to that of metal scaffolding. For safety reasons, the government believes that a complete switch to metal scaffolding should be implemented in suitable working environments,” he said.
Hong Kong authorities have also launched immediate reviews of other housing estates in the city, undergoing renovation work, to ensure the buildings and scaffolding meet safety protocols.
What People Are Saying
Deputy director Chan said, “We will endeavor to force entry into all the units of the seven blocks concerned so as to ensure that there is no other possible casualties.”
Resident Lawrence Lee, waiting in one of the shelters where evacuated residents gathered overnight, told the Associated Press his wife was trapped in their apartment: “When the fire started, I told her on the phone to es cape. But once she left the flat, the corridor and stairs were all filled with smoke and it was all dark, so she had no choice but to go back to the flat.”
A spokesman for Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) told the South China Morning Post: “In view of the immense public interest involved, the ICAC today set up a task force to launch a full investigation into possible corruption in the grand renovation project of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po.”
What Happens Next
The death toll is likely to rise. Officials are continuing to investigate the cause of the blaze.
A man is in serious condition after being rescued from a house fire on Thursday evening.
The Minneapolis Fire Department was called to 36th and Garfield Ave South around 4:30 p.m. When crews arrived on scene, they rescued an adult from the second floor. The man is in serious condition and was taken to a local hospital.
At least 13 people have been killed by a blazing fire that has engulfed a high-rise housing complex in Hong Kong, authorities said, with others reportedly still trapped inside.
The Director of Fire Services, Andy Yeung, said a firefighter is among the dead. In a press release, Yeung said the 37-year-old had been a firefighter for nine years. “All of our colleagues are deeply saddened by the loss of such a devoted comrade,” he added.
Wong, a 71-year-old man, was photographed in tears outside the burning building claiming his wife was trapped inside
Reuters
The raging fire sent up a column of flames and thick smoke as it spread on bamboo scaffolding that had been set up around the exterior of the complex in the city’s Tai Po district. Live video from the scene showed firefighters aiming water at the intense flames from high up on ladder trucks as the dusk skies darkened, with smoke billowing from windows and red-hot embers falling to the ground.
The blaze was first reported mid-afternoon and has since been upgraded to a No. 4 alarm fire, the second highest level of severity, the Fire Services Department said.
Thick smoke and flames rise as a major fire engulfs several apartment blocks at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on November 26, 2025.
Yan ZHAO /AFP via Getty Images
Police have said they have received multiple reports of people trapped in the affected buildings. Records show the housing complex consisted of eight blocks with almost 2,000 apartments housing about 4,800 people.
Lo Hiu-fung, a Taipo District Council member, told local TV station TVB earlier Wednesday that most of the residents trapped in the fire were believed to be elderly people.
“Nearby residents please stay indoors and close doors and windows and stay calm and avoid going to areas affected by fire incidents,” the Hong Kong Fire Services Department wrote on Facebook.
Tai Po is a suburban area in the northern part of Hong Kong and near the border with the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
Dozens of Topanga residents gathered in the town’s Community House to hear Assistant Fire Chief Drew Smith discuss how the Los Angeles County Fire Department plans to keep Topangans alive in a fierce firestorm.
In the red-brick atrium, adorned with exposed wood and a gothic chandelier, Smith explained that if a fire explodes next to the town and flames will reach homes within minutes, orchestrating a multi-hour evacuation through winding mountain roads for Topanga’s more than 8,000 residents will just not be a viable option. In such cases, Smith told attendees at the town’s Oct. 4 ReadyFest wildfire preparedness event, the department now plans to order residents to shelter in their homes.
“Your structure may catch on fire,” Smith said. “You’re going to have religious moments, I guarantee it. But that’s your safest option.”
Wildfire emergency response leaders and experts have described such an approach as concerning and point to Australia as an example: After the nation adopted a similar policy, a series of brush fires in 2009 now known as Black Saturday killed 173 people, many sheltering in their homes.
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Some in the bohemian community of nature lovers, creatives and free spirits — who often pride themselves on their rugged, risky lifestyle navigating floods, mudslides, wildfires and the road closures and power outages they entail — are left with the sinking realization that the wildfire risk in Topanga may be too big to bear.
Water tanks called “pumpkins” are available to helicopters to be used during a fire at 69 Bravo, an LAFD Command Center along Saddle Peak Road in Topanga.
They see the shelter-in-place plan as a perilous wager, with no comprehensive plan to help residents harden their homes against fire and no clear, fire-tested guidance on what residents should do if they’re stuck in a burning home.
“Do we need to have some way of communicating with first responders while we are sheltering in place? Would the fire front be approaching us and we’re just on our own?” asked Connie Najah, a Topanga resident who attended ReadyFest and was unsettled by the proposal. “What are the plans for helping people through this season and the next season while we’re waiting to have widespread defensible space implementation?”
No fire chief wants to face the scenario of a vulnerable town with no time to evacuate. But it is a real possibility for Topanga. Smith, speaking to The Times, stressed that the new guidelines only apply to situations where the Fire Department has deemed evacuations infeasible.
“If we have time to evacuate, we will evacuate you,” Smith said.
Emergency operations experts say not enough has been done in their field to address the very grim possibility that evacuating may not always be possible — in part because it’s a hard reality to confront. It’s not a small problem, either: Cal Fire has identified more than 2,400 developments around the state with at least 30 residences that have significant fire risk and only a single evacuation route. Topanga is home to nine of them.
“We’re pretty isolated. We’re densely populated. Fuel and homes are intermixed. It’s an extremely dangerous area.”
— James Grasso, president of the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness
Recent fires, including the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise and Woolsey fire in Malibu, have made the issue too hard to ignore.
In Topanga, Najah has a ham radio license so she can stay informed when power and cell service inevitably go down. The elementary school relocates out of town during red-flag days. A task force including the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness, the Fire Department and other emergency operations agencies publishes a Disaster Survival Guide and distributes it to every household.
“The survival guide was born out of necessity,” said James Grasso, president of TCEP, who also serves as a call firefighter for the county Fire Department. “We’re pretty isolated. We’re densely populated. Fuel and homes are intermixed. It’s an extremely dangerous area, particularly during Santa Ana wind conditions.”
The guide had instructed residents to flock to predetermined “public safe refuges” in town, such as the baseball field at the Community House or the large parking lot at the state park, to wait out fires. If residents couldn’t make it to these, there were predetermined “public temporary refuge areas” within each neighborhood, such as street intersections and homes with large cleared backyards, that provide some increased chance of survival.
But when the Fire Department determined the spaces were not capable of protecting the town’s entire population from the extreme radiant heat, it pivoted to sheltering in place — the last and most dangerous option listed in the old guide.
Connie Najah, a 16-year resident of Topanga, points out photographs from the Topanga Disaster Survival Guide of places that were once considered “public safe refuges” to be used during a fire.
The survival guide’s old plan was consistent with what emergency response experts and officials have argued across the globe, but it failed to meet typical safety standards for such an approach.
The report argued that, due to tightly packed combustible structures amid an accumulation of flammable vegetation, “nearly all” communities are “unsuitable” for sheltering in place.
David Shew, a trained architect and firefighter who spent more than 30 years at Cal Fire, said that for a shelter-in-place policy to be viable, a community would need to undertake significant work to harden their homes and create defensible space — work that has not been done in most California communities.
It’s “not really safe for people to just think, ‘OK, I’ve done nothing but they told me to just jump in my house,’” he said.
And once a house ignites, suggestions that Smith offered up at ReadyFest like sheltering in a bathroom are of little use, said Mark Ghilarducci, a former director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
“Under certain circumstances, your home could potentially provide a buffer,” he said. But if a house is burning and surrounded by fire in the wildlands, “you’re in a position where you are essentially trapped, and your bathroom’s not going to save you.”
Smith said, however, that the Fire Department had done its own analysis of the Topanga area and determined that the fire dynamics in the area are too extreme for Topanga’s proposed public shelter spaces to be effective.
“There is no way that we can 100% eliminate the fire risk and death potential if you live in a fire-prone area.”
— Drew Smith, assistant fire chief at the Los Angeles County Fire Department
During hot, aggressive fires like the Woolsey, Franklin and Palisades fires, Smith said, “for 30 to 100 people, you need a minimum of clear land that’s 14 acres, which is 14 football fields.” Many of the safety areas in the survival guide, such as an L.A. County Public Works water tank facility, are barely larger than 1 acre.
The department argues sheltering in place, although far from guaranteeing survival, eliminates the risk of residents getting trapped on roadways, unable to see, with almost no protection.
“There is no way that we can 100% eliminate the fire risk and death potential if you live in a fire-prone area,” Smith said.
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1.Topanga resident James Grasso, president of Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness, walks toward a baseball field that was once declared a public safe refuge to escape to during a fire at the Topanga Community Center.2.Connie Najah stands on a portion of Peak Trail that was at one time considered a public temporary refuge area during fires in Topanga.
Regardless of what residents (or emergency response experts) think of the department’s approach, the safest thing residents can do, experts say, is to always, always, always follow the department’s orders, whether that’s to evacuate, find a safety zone or shelter in their homes. The department’s plan to keep residents alive depends on it.
Still, the history of shelter-in-place policies — and their more aggressive companion, “stay and defend,” which involves attempting to actively combat the blaze at home — looms heavy.
After more than 100 bush fires swept through southeast Australia in 1983, killing 75 people in what became known as Ash Wednesday, Australian fire officials adopted a “stay or go” policy: Either leave well before a fire reaches you, or prepare to stay and fend for yourself. If you’re living in a high fire hazard area, the philosophy goes, it is your responsibility to defend your property and keep yourself alive amid strained fire resources.
Around the same time, California considered the policy for itself after dangerous fires ripped through the Santa Monica Mountains, Ghilarducci said. State officials ultimately decided against it, choosing instead to prioritize early evacuations. Cal Fire’s “Ready, Set, Go!” public awareness campaign became the face of those efforts.
In 2009, an explosive suite of brush fires broke out, yet again, in southeast Australia and seemed to confirm California’s worst nightmare: 173 people lost their lives in the Black Saturday tragedy. Of those, 40% died during or after an attempt to defend their property, and nearly 30% died sheltering in their homes without attempting to defend them. About 20% died while attempting to evacuate.
Afterward, Australia significantly overhauled the policy, placing a much greater emphasis on evacuating early and developing fire shelter building standards.
Nearly a decade later, California confronted its own stress test. The Camp fire ripped through Paradise in the early morning on Nov. 8, 2018. The time between the first sighting of the fire and it reaching the edge of town: one hourand 39 minutes. The time it took to evacuate: seven hours.
Among the miraculous stories of survival in Paradise were the many individuals who found refuge areas in town: a predetermined safety zone in a large, open meadow; the parking lots of stores, churches and schools; a local fire station; roadways and intersections with a little buffer from the burning trees.
But the same day, the intensity of the Woolsey fire in the Santa Monica Mountains — similarly plagued with evacuation challenges — unsettled fire officials. It’s in these conditions that Smith doubted Topanga’s refuge sites could protect residents.
Stuck without many options, the Fire Department began slowly thinking about refining the policies that proved disastrous for Australia. The Palisades fire brought a renewed urgency.
Just a month before ReadyFest, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone stirred anxiety among emergency response officials when he appeared to endorse a stay-and-defend policy,telling KCAL-TV, “We’ve always told people that when the evacuation order comes, you must leave. We’ve departed from that narrative. With the proper training, with the proper equipment and with the proper home hardening and defensible space, you can stay behind and prevent your house from burning down.”
The department later clarified the statement, saying the change only applies to individuals in the Santa Monica Mountains’ community brigade who have received significant training from the department and operate under the department’s command. (The brigade is not intended as a means for members to protect their own homes but instead serve the larger community.)
Now, residents worry the policy to shelter in place is coming without enough preparation.
A worker stops traffic that has been reduced to one lane on a portion of Topanga Canyon Boulevard for underground cable installation Nov. 19.
A Times analysis of L.A. County property records found that roughly 98% of residential properties in Topanga were built before the state adopted home-hardening building codes in 2008 to protect homes against wildfires.
However, a significant number of Topangans have opted to complete the requirements regardless. Various fire safety organizations in the Santa Monica Mountains have visited more than 470 of Topanga’s roughly 3,000 residential properties to help residents learn how to harden their homes. These efforts are, in part, why the National Fire Protection Assn. designated the mountain town as a Firewise Community in 2022.
There are some relatively simple steps homeowners can take, such as covering vents with mesh, that can slightly reduce the chance of a home burning. But undertaking a comprehensive renovation — to remove wood decks, install noncombustible siding and roofing, replace windows with multipaned tempered glass, hardscape the land near the house and trim down trees — is expensive.
A report from the community development research nonprofit Headwaters Economics found a complete home retrofit using affordable materials costs between $23,000 and $40,000. With high-end materials that provide the best protection, it can cost upward of $100,000.
“We’re not the only rural community. All over the state, people are having to deal with this.”
— Connie Najah, 16-year resident of Topanga
Many Topangans have taken up the challenge, anyway. Grasso, who lost his home in the 1993 Old Topanga fire, has slowly been hardening his property since the rebuild. He’s even built a concrete fire shelter against a hillside with two steel escape doors and porthole windows.
Researchers have found comprehensive home hardening and defensible space can reduce the risk of a home burning by about a third, but not bring it down to zero. (Albeit, none have tested Grasso’s elaborate setup.)
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1.Nancy Helms stands on top of “dwarf carpet of stars,” a succulent plant that surrounds a large area of her home as a fire prevention method on Rocky Ledge Road in Topanga.2.Ryan Ulyate uses metal sculptures of plants and cactus outside his home in Topanga. He has eliminated any brush or flammable plants near his home and surrounds it in gravel to prevent his home from catching fire.3.Ryan Ulyate shows a vent opening that he covered with metal filters to prevent embers from entering his home if a fire occurs in Topanga.
Wildfire safety experts hope the state someday adopts building standards for truly fire-proof structures that could withstand even the most extreme conditions and come equipped with life-support systems. But any such standards are years away, and the L.A. County Fire Department has to have a plan if a fire breaks out tomorrow.
For Grasso, fire risk is a risk like any other, like the choice to drive a car every day. In exchange for the beauty of living life in Topanga, some folks will learn to accept the risk and do what they can to mitigate it: Harden a home, fasten a seat belt. Others — especially those unable to take the drastic steps Grasso has been able to — will deem the beauty of life in Topanga not worth the risk of getting trapped by flames.
“The amount of money it takes to get to this point is too cost-prohibitive for us at this moment,” Najah said. “It’s really a tough place to be in. … It’s not going to be easy, and we’re not the only rural community. All over the state, people are having to deal with this.”
Times assistant data and graphics editor Sean Greene contributed to this report.
