A new documentary shows how California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom, the state legislature, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass either sat idly by or actually contributed directly to the conditions that allowed several wildfires to devastate L.A. and the Pacific Palisades in January of 2025.
The documentary, entitled Paradise Abandoned, shows one resident after another testifying on film to the failures of government officials to respond to the fires to save their homes, even though the Pacific Palisades in particular was already identified as “a region of maximum fire risk” and yet no extra fire trucks or resources were deployed or close at hand to respond to the fires.
The film chronicles the many failures that government officials at both state and local levels that directly contributed to the wholesale destruction of the homes and businesses of thousands of voters — a fire that burned more than 23,000 acres, razed nearly 7,000 buildings, and killed 12 people.
Among the many revelations in the film, one in particular was galling.
One man interviewed in the film pointed out that Mayor Bass and Gov. Newsom were seen walking down the street as the Chase Bank Building was burning. Yet none of the firefighters flanking the officials lifted a finger to put the fire out. The Chase building burned to the ground while Newsom held a press conference feet away.
“The mayor and the governor were in the middle of town, doing a news conference. And in the background, you see the Chase Bank building burning to the ground,” the man in the documentary says. “They weren’t doing anything. The whole thing just burned right to the ground, with the mayor and the governor within a block of the place.”
Paradise Abandoned then displays the photos and video from Newsom and Bass’s press conference, unbothered by the Chase building going up in flames.
The film was directed and shot by documentary filmmaker Rob Montz. But Montz isn’t merely an outside party making a film. He is a victim of the fire, too. Montz lost his childhood residence in the fires.
“This film will be a success if the people of the Palisades feel seen by it,” Montz said in a message to Breitbart. “There is not yet the definitive investigation of why a couple embers in some dry brush two miles from my childhood home grew to the point they incinerated the most desirable real estate in Los Angeles.
“This film sets out to do that — to identify precisely what human errors matters on the first day of the fire, and to describe the secret scandal of the second day of the fire, a scandal that’s been missed by all the existing coverage.”
Unfortunately, the failure of officials to respond to this massive destruction continues.
Less than ten percent of the L.A. homeowners have been awarded permits to rebuild on their lots, according to reports, and many property owners have already simply sold their rights away, despondent over their inability to get permission to rebuild their lives.
The film is set to be released soon on Montz’s Youtube account.
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