Republican Reps. Kevin Kiley (CA) and Jim Jordan (OH) launched an investigation this week into how a California charitable organization spent a $500,000 grant meant to support victims of the Palisades and Eaton Fires.
The investigation follows several other federal investigations into the fatal infernos aimed at determining whether local officials prepared sufficiently for the emergency and what was done in the immediate aftermath.
Kiley and Jordan sent a letter to the head of the California Volunteers Fund asking for financial records related to money it received from FireAid, a disaster-relief charity that raised $100 million for fire victims through benefit concerts in January.
“It is not publicly known how the California Volunteers Fund distributed this $500,000, or what individuals or entities received funds,” said the letter to Dave Smith, the fund’s chief executive. “It is also unclear whether the state-based California Volunteers, run out of the Governor’s Office, received any of the FireAid-originated funds via the California Volunteers Fund.”
The Republican lawmakers want to review all of the documents and communications related to the fires between the California Volunteers Fund and California Volunteers, which is housed within Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
Kiley claims that FireAid has “come under scrutiny for diverting donations to nonprofits instead of providing direct relief to fire victims.” Some of the complaints around FireAid are that it gave money to organizations involved in political advocacy.
The California Volunteers Fund said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported the story, that although it was considered for a grant, it did not accept any funds from FireAid.
“The inclusion of California Volunteers on the FireAid website was an error on their part and has been corrected,” Cristina Valdivia Aguilar, a spokeswoman for the organization, said.
Newsom’s office also claimed that it had no role in FireAid and that “any implication otherwise by these Republican stooges is an asinine conspiracy theory.”
Separately, calls have been growing for investigations into failures in reignition management and other aspects of the firefighting response to the deadly 2025 Palisades Fire. The scrutiny comes after the arrest of Jonathan Rinderknecht, who is accused of setting a smaller blaze six days earlier that authorities say sparked the larger inferno.
Even though Rinderknecht was charged with the crime, fire experts told the Washington Examiner that mismanagement by firefighting crews and questionable tactics putting out the smaller Lachman Fire contributed to the Palisades Fire.
PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR INVESTIGATIONS INTO MISMANAGEMENT OF LACHMAN AND PALISADES FIRES
Residents have also questioned why fire officials didn’t make sure the entire blaze was out before leaving the scene and why they didn’t pre-deploy trucks to the Palisades area ahead of a strong wind forecast.
Newsom said that a report examining the preparedness for the fire and the response to it will be released the week of Oct. 20.
