The city has delayed releasing a report detailing its handling of the Palisades fire so as not to interfere with a federal investigation into the cause of the blaze, the mayor announced Tuesday. <\/p>\n
The U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Central District of California made the request late last week, the mayor said. The city will not release the report until the conclusion of the federal investigation. <\/p>\n
The delay comes more than seven months after the Palisades fire broke out in January<\/a>, killing 12 and largely destroying the Westside neighborhood. <\/p>\n \u201cWe want to see the report. It\u2019s fire season. We need to know what worked and what didn\u2019t,\u201d said Sharon Delugach, who serves on the city\u2019s Fire Commission, a citizen panel overseeing the Los Angeles Fire Department. <\/p>\n Delugach said commissioners had not been shown the report.<\/p>\n Officials believe the Palisades fire was first detected about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7 as high winds sent flames coursing through the mountainous area near the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n Much of the focus of the investigation has been on whether a blaze sparked by fireworks a week earlier \u2014 which firefighters believed they had put out \u2014 might have reignited. <\/p>\n That fire, called the Lachman fire<\/a>, was reported on New Year\u2019s Day, and forward progress was stopped after just a few hours. <\/p>\n Still, investigators have not ruled out whether the fire was sparked on Jan. 7.<\/p>\n Because there are no power poles near the point of origin and the trail area is well traveled, the fire could have been caused by a person. <\/p>\n The city\u2019s report could answer questions about the LAFD\u2019s response to the fire. In the aftermath of the blaze, Bass removed LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley<\/a> from her position, saying the top fire official did not contact her until after the fire broke out, despite worsening wind conditions. <\/p>\n