POLITICS: Smoking gun: Newsom’s ‘Plant Police’ linked to deadly LA fire

Eleven months after the Palisades Fire destroyed thousands of Los Angeles homes, we may finally have the smoking gun linking Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to the deadly blaze.

A newly discovered “Wildfire Management Plan,” quietly issued by California State Parks just weeks before the Jan. 7 wildfire, states Newsom’s policy bluntly: “Unless specified otherwise, State Parks prefers to let Topanga State Park burn in a wildfire event” — disregarding the park’s proximity to residential neighborhoods.

The document, prepared in December 2024, was unearthed this week through legal discovery in a civil lawsuit against the state.

Attorney Alexander “Trey” Robinson, who represents thousands of Pacific Palisades residents, says the manual outlines new procedures for fire management.

Those procedures could have barred local firefighters from fully extinguishing an earlier blaze that later re-ignited in high winds. 

Federal investigators say the Palisades Fire was rekindled from the much smaller Lachman Fire on Jan. 1, which was started by alleged arsonist Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, of Florida.

The Lachman Fire began “on land owned by the local Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority . . . and spread onto land owned by California State Parks (Topanga State Park),” according to a federal indictment against Rinderknecht.

Local firefighters put out that fire in the wee hours of New Year’s Day, and came back on Jan. 2 to make sure it was fully extinguished. 

But according to text messages first unearthed by the Los Angeles Times, they were ordered to leave “even though they complained the ground was still smoldering and rocks remained hot to the touch.”

That was likely a fateful decision.

Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives later determined that the fire continued within the root structure of plants “approximately 20 feet south” of the original blaze. 

In the extreme winds of Jan. 7 — a seasonal Santa Ana wind, made stronger by a jet stream at high altitude — the conflagration reignited and spread from the chaparral of the park to nearby homes.

Locals have wondered for months why the firefighters left on Jan. 2, given the high risk that the fire could start again and spread from the state park to homes in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Highlands, just a few hundred yards away.

Some residents — notably reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who lost his home and has been investigating the fire ever since — have claimed that State Parks officials told firefighters they could not use heavy equipment to clear the perimeter of the fire, because doing so would harm engendered plant species.

Newsom has denied any state responsibility for the blaze.

His office has even called residents who are suing the state “opportunistic plaintiffs.”

But one local citizen took a photograph of a California State Parks employee — wearing a jacket with the department’s logo — talking to firefighters working on the Lachman Fire.

And the “Wildfire Management Plan” provides a key piece of evidence linking the disaster to the state’s apparent negligence.

The document defines “Avoidance Areas,” which contain “all sensitive Natural and Cultural Resources,” and where “no heavy equipment, vehicles, and retardant are allowed.”

Shockingly, the document says the public should not be told where these areas are: “Avoidance Areas should be shared with the Incident Command, but measures should be taken to keep the information confidential.”

The document also advises firefighters to use “modified fire suppression” techniques in these areas.

When performing a “mop-up” of an extinguished fire, firefighters are told to “consider allowing large logs to burn out.” 

It adds: “No mop-up techniques are allowed in avoidance areas without the presence of an archaeologist.”

Robinson, who obtained the Wildfire Management Plan on Tuesday thanks to a judge’s order, alleges that the Wildfire Management Plan prevented the Los Angeles Fire Department from fully extinguishing the Lachman Fire.

“We believe this is the reason LAFD was restricted from performing a normal mop-up of the Lachman Fire,” he told The Post. “I suspect State Park ‘Resource Advisors’ shared the avoidance map with the Lachman [Incident Command] and LAFD was forced not to mop up” in those designated areas.

“My personal opinion is that we will learn this is why the fire rekindled,” he added.

“The Plant Police prevented LAFD from doing their job.”

That — and the lack of an archeologist.

Joel Pollak is The California Post’s Opinion Editor. The California Post, a sister publication to The New York Post, will be launching early in 2026.