Arrest made in LA Palisades Fire investigation as authorities set to announce what caused blaze
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Mario Tama
Police have made one arrest in an ongoing investigation into the Los Angeles Palisades fire, law enforcers have confirmed.
The fire started on 7 January in the Palisades Highlands close to where a relatively small brush fire had burned a week earlier.
Shortly before the smaller fire people had reported fireworks being set off for new year.
At present the person who has been arrested has not been made public, and it is not known what charges may be brought against them.
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Sources were not able to confirm if the arrested person was a young man who was previously under investigation earlier this year.
A formal announcement regarding the arrest has been expected from the United States Attorney on Wednesday morning.
As part of their investigations, the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, Fire, and Explosives (ATF) had been trying to establish whether embers from the fire on new year could have reignited a week later.
This may establish a link between that fire and the catastrophic Palisades Fires which started on January 7.
Over 23,000 acres of land in the Los Angeles area was burned in the wildfire, with almost 7,000 structures destroyed in the inferno.
After a struggle lasting more than three weeks involving the deployment of vast resources, firefighters were finally able to extinguish the blaze on 31 January.
According to official figures from the LA county offices, 12 people died as a direct result of the Palisades Fire, while 19 died in the Eaton Fire which started on the same day, with tens of thousands of people also evacuating.
However, a study published later in 2025 suggested that the death toll was much higher when it accounted for additional factors caused by the fires.
This could be the drop in air quality, as well as the delays and disruption caused to hospitals which may have resulted in patients not getting the care they needed in time.
A research letter published in the journal of the American Medical Assn and reported by the LA Times suggested that taking account of these factors the wider death toll when the fires were burning between 5 January and 4 February could be in excess of 440 people.
Andrew Stokes, an associate professor at Boston University, co-authored the letter, and said: “Attributing deaths properly to a wildfire is just almost an impossible task.
“The research highlights the need for these types of modeling efforts to really get at the true burden of these disasters.”
Authorities are expected to provide more information on the arrest in a press conference on Wednesday.