Firefighter reveals two men were caught on camera lighting fire just before Palisades blaze erupted in LA

Two men are said to have been caught on camera dumping gasoline and setting it alight immediately before the devastating Palisades fire broke out, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

A resident of the ritzy celeb-packed area reported the video to a senior firefighter once the flames had started consuming the area.

‘By then we were too busy,’ the firefighter told DailyMail.com. ‘We told him to take the video to the police.’

But what happened to the footage remains a mystery as cops have not confirmed that the uncontrollable blaze, which has caused damage in the billions of dollars, was set deliberately.

News of the video comes amid growing suspicions of arson or foul play after one person was arrested for allegedly starting another blaze, the Kenneth Fire, on Thursday, police said. The man has not been charged.

Two days before that incident, a senior firefighter was one of the first on the scene battling the original Palisades blaze with his crew on North Piedra Morada Drive at the top of the Highlands Palisades neighborhood, when a resident approached him with a shocking claim.

‘We had a resident come to us and said he got a video of two men dumping gas and lighting it off,’ said the LAFD official, who asked to remain anonymous.

The subsequent fire grew to almost 20,000 acres and wiped out most of the elite Pacific Palisades neighborhood.

A resident reported video of two men allegedly lighting a fire moments before the devastating Palisades fire broke out, a senior firefighter told 

Thousands of vehicles – along with businesses and homes have been destroyed in the Palisades Fire

The devastation of the Palisades Fire is seen in the early morning in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, on Friday January 10

Multi-million-dollar houses destroyed by the fire include homes belonging to stars Miles Teller, Anna Faris, Paris Hilton, Eugene Levy, Anthony Hopkins, and Billy Crystal.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department responded to DailyMail.com’s request for comment but failed to answer questions about reports of arson, despite repeated requests.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department told DailyMail.com they ‘have not received any reports of arson’ related to the Palisades Fire. 

Investigators are considering an array of possible ignition sources for the apocalyptic, fast-moving fires, but so far there has been no official indication of arson in the blazes. Sparking utility lines, one of the most common ignitors of wildfires, have not been identified as a cause either. 

Some residents of North Piedra Morada Drive have an alternative theory for what started the devastating blaze – that it was caused by New Years Eve fireworks, which caused a burn that lay dormant for almost a week before reigniting in the high, dry Santa Ana winds.

A brushfire sparked around 12:20am on New Years Day, after residents reported hearing fireworks in the area.

Fireworks are illegal everywhere in LA City, partly due to the fire risk they create.

LAFD rushed to the scene, dumped water from helicopters and extinguished the fire by 3am that night.

Hollywood stars, including actor Henry Winkler, have taken to social media to claim the fires are acts of arson. Winkler’s X post swiftly went viral with some fans pledging their support to him and others lambasting him for spreading panic

Khloe Kardashian also voiced her outrage after LAPD confirmed a man suspected of arson was in custody. ‘You sick mother f**kers!’ she wrote

Residents of the hilltop street where the Palisades Fire began told DailyMail.com they saw it grow on the morning of Tuesday January 7 from the ‘exact’ spot where firefighters extinguished the fire a week earlier, in the early hours of January 1.

It left them wondering whether the fire continued to smolder underground for a week, a common occurrence with wildfires, until low humidity and high winds allowed it a chance to erupt above ground. 

Andrew Hires, a University of Southern California neuroscience professor who lives on North Piedra Morada Drive where the giant wildfire began, heard the fireworks on January 1, and was one of the first to spot the re-emerged fire on Tuesday.

‘We were in bed on Piedra Morada. There were a bunch of fireworks that went off that we could hear,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘Twenty minutes later a fire was called in.

‘I woke back up at 2am and there was a pretty well-involved fire right at the top of the Temescal Ridge trailhead, which is a place where a lot of people hike, and a little spot where people might hang out. The choppers and fire department put it out.

But he said at 8am on Tuesday he and his wife were outside and smelled smoke.

‘I went up there to I couldn’t find any smoke up there. At 9.06am I got some video of the area, rode my bike back down, and took my daughter to the dentist.

‘Then I got a text with a photo of the fire in the exact spot where the fire was on January 1,’ said the 45-year-old father.

‘How did that start? I don’t know. But the precise overlap of the starting locations would suggest that it’s related to the January 1 fire.’

The Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) say they are investigating the origins of the Palisades Fire but have not yet determined an official cause.