Investigators are looking into whether a small blaze was not totally snuffed out and reignited to start the Palisades fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department’s chief said.

“We owe that to you, as a community, to understand where and how this happened, where and how this started,” Chief Kristin Crowley said during a virtual community meeting on Thursday night, Jan 16.

Assistant Fire Chief Joe Everett said firefighters patrolled the area following the New Year’s Day fire for more than 36 hours and kept a hose line on the Pacific Palisades hill.

“That fire was dead out,” he said. “If it is determined that was the cause, it would be a phenomenon.”