2025 LA Fires - A Reckoning
LA continues to play fast and loose with a state law intended to save lives, leading to chaotic evacuations and unnecessary deaths.
A Lawsuit by the Hillside Federation and SAFRR aims to END the City’s pattern and practice of not enforcing State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations in very high fire hazard areas.
The lawsuit cites 75 permits, each with multiple state violations, approved in defiance of known risks on narrow, dead-end roads that are practically inaccessible to fire apparatus.
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One Year Later: Public Officials Have Not Begun to Reckon with the Real Meaning of LA Fires. Read Case Study
The January 5, 2026, New York Times Opinion Piece titled “Which City Burns Next?” by Davis Wallace-Wells, cites scientists and wildfire experts who define the full set of climate, infrastructure, and public decision-making variables that exacerbate needless catastrophic fire disasters in the southern California region.
Press Release: Lawsuit alleges City of L.A. systematically and unlawfully ignores state fire safety regulations
By maintaining a pattern and practice of not enforcing State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations in very high fire hazard areas, the City of Los Angeles is playing fast and loose with a state law intended to save lives.
On December 23, 2025, Channel Law Group, LLP, representing the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, Inc. and State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations, filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles alleging an unlawful pattern and practice of failing to enforce the State Minimum Fire Safe Regulations. With 75 examples as evidence, the lawsuit alleges the City repeatedly approved multiple developments and issued permits in violation of numerous minimum fire safety standards intended to mitigate the risk of wildfires, facilitate evacuation egress, and ensure fire fighter access. For new developments, the regulations require minimum 20-foot road widths, limits to lengths of dead-end roads, limits to steep grades, strategic fuel breaks, standardized fire hydrants and water sources for firefighting.
Among other demands, the suit seeks to hold the City accountable for failing to ensure responsible and fire-conscious development in the wake of the disastrous January 2025 fires. The filed petition for writ of mandate and complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief can be read here.
“My clients conducted months of extensive research before filing this lawsuit which confirmed that the City has simply disregarded critical state regulations designed to protect human life and public safety,” said Jamie T. Hall, an attorney with Channel Law Group, LLP who is representing the plaintiffs. “Even in the face of the horrific Palisades and Eaton fires costing billions of dollars in property damage and the tragic loss of human life, the City of Los Angeles has refused to comply with the minimum fire safety standards set by the State of California – essentially committing the same mistakes over and over.”
“It’s a travesty that the City has to be sued by its own citizens in order to protect public safety. It really highlights a complete and total lack of leadership at City Hall on this issue. Angelenos deserve better.”
“I urge local leadership to read the Palisades and other After Action Reports and see how subpar roads exacerbate chaotic evacuations,” said Marian Dodge, Chair of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations. “The City’s utter lack of enforcement has put our communities in danger. The January 2025 fires exposed the City’s flaws, and the unwillingness of city officials to follow the state’s minimum requirements for fire safety after such a tragedy pushed us to take legal action.”
“It’s inexcusable that the City of Los Angeles – with its history of large-scale fires – has refused to even do the bare minimum of what the law requires. The City is behaving as if these regulations do not even exist. The City can’t claim ignorance of the law because we pleaded with them to just apply the regulations and were ignored.”
The lawsuit is featured on the front page of the December 31, 2025 edition of the Los Angeles Times. The full article can be read here.
“Following catastrophic wildfires, the legislature adopts ‘tombstone legislation,’ clearly directing local jurisdictions to protect existing communities and new development. Yet these sensible regulations are ignored. Without compliance, the human and economic costs of lost lives and structures in fire-prone communities will continue to occur,” said Marylee Guinon, President of the State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations.
“Resident groups and fire safety watchdogs make natural allies, and we are concerned that housing policies are forcing new development into high fire risk areas. Local governments can’t promote responsible growth with the infeasible state housing mandates based on exaggerated population growth projections, while other state laws eliminate the ability for local jurisdictions to evaluate and use discretion when considering housing development in fire danger.”
Contacts
Jamie T. Hall, Channel Law Group, LLP jamie.hall@channellawgroup.com; phone 512-619-4645
Marian Dodge, Chair - Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations, sm68dodge@gmail.com; phone 323-663-1031
Marylee Guinon, State Alliance for Firesafe Road Regulations (SAFRR https://www.firesaferoadregs.org/) maryleeguinon@gmail.com; phone 926.260.4346
Resources
YouTube.com, Firefighters warn of Kirkwood Bowl fire danger by ABC7 (October 27, 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT1742bQ5oE
L.A. City ignored fire safety as it permitted development in high risk areas, lawsuit alleges. By Noah Haggerty December 31, 2025
Which City Burns Next? New York Times Opinion by David Wallace-Wells January 5, 2026