A “warts-and-all” fire report got a quiet rewrite — and the edits tell their own story.
The California Post has obtained what it says is the first draft of the Palisades After-Action Fire Report — before it was altered and released publicly.
The outlet says the edits show sweeping changes to the 92-page document, adding pressure on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to explain whether her office played a role in softening language that criticized the city’s response to a fire that killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures.
Bass has said she reviewed an early draft and asked the Los Angeles Fire Department to ensure accuracy on issues such as weather and budgeting. She claims that neither she nor her staff made edits to the report.
The draft report was 92 pages — 22 pages longer than the final version released in January, according to the outlet. Chapter titles were changed, and contentious terms such as “wind” were removed, it reported.
The draft executive summary also states that the report was prepared at the behest of the mayor’s office. That reference is removed entirely from the final document.
One key change involves language acknowledging insufficient resources to “suppress a wind-driven vegetation fire,” with the department attempting to be “fiscally responsible by not fully augmenting and pre-deploying all available resources in preparation for a rare wind event.”
In the final report, the language shifts, stating the LAFD “balanced fiscal responsibility with proper preparation by following its pre-deployment matrix.”
The draft also states: “If the Department had adequately augmented all available resources as done in years past in preparation for the weather event, there would have been a recall of members for all available positions.”
The revised version softens that assessment and shifts responsibility downward, stating: “The initial response dispatched to the Palisades incident lacked the appropriate resources for the weather conditions typically associated with red flag conditions, the department would normally respond with.”
The draft language also stated that crews arriving on scene “lacked clarity regarding the communication protocol.” The final report changes that assessment, stating that “most did not communicate their needs.”
Additional edits include changing an early section title from “challenges” to “successes.”
Repeated references to “wind” and “wind event” appear throughout the draft but are removed in the final report, including language stating that helicopters could not be deployed due to high winds.
A spokesperson for Mayor Bass on Monday denied any involvement in altering the Palisades report.
“There is absolutely no reason why she would request those details be altered or erased when she herself has been critical of the response to the fire — full stop. She has said this for months.”
“This is muckraking journalism at its lowest form. It is dangerous and irresponsible to rely on third-hand, unsourced information to make unsubstantiated character attacks to advance a narrative that is false.”
More over at The California Post:
Exclusive | Inside the extraordinary rewrite of the Palisades Fire report — read the draft the public never saw https://t.co/KApUl5RxVj pic.twitter.com/I94dGJONMI
— California Post (@californiapost) February 10, 2026
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