New lawsuits blame suicide, terminal illness deaths on Palisades fire

The wife of a man who killed himself after his home burned down in the Palisades fire is among more than a dozen plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits blaming the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other defendants for causing or hastening the deaths of their relatives.

The lawsuits — the first death-related litigation in the Palisades fire — were brought last month under a pilot law, state Senate Bill 447, that expired Dec. 31 and allowed plaintiffs to sue for the pain, suffering and disfigurement experienced by their deceased relatives. Normally, heirs  filing wrongful death suits can claim only their own loss.

The death-related suits were added to an existing complaint against LADWP, the state parks department, Southern California Gas and other defendants.

Among the plaintiffs is Monique Lasky, the widow of Marc Lasky, who took his own life after suffering for months as a result of the fire, according to the suit. Marc Lasky’s mother had recently died and Lasky became the custodian of her “family heirlooms, meaningful keepsakes and irreplaceable belongings,” which perished in the fire, the suit states.

Also suing are the families of three people who died of illnesses after the Jan. 7, 2025, blaze, claiming the fire hastened their deaths. David Keighley, 77, died of prostate cancer in August; Moshe Bar, 61, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer within four months after the fire and died in October 2025; and Dan Caldwell, 77, died on Jan. 8, 2025, of myelofibrosis after his family evacuated him from their home as the fire approached, the suits say.

Caldwell’s family believed he was dying at the time of the evacuation, but “the pain and discomfort sitting in the car for hours stuck in traffic trying to evacuate the Palisades Fire,” combined with the trauma of losing his home, added to his preexisting myelofibrosis condition, the lawsuit states.

“Our clients’ family members say that after the fire, their loved ones went downhill rapidly and died months after the fire,” said attorney Alexander Robertson. “Family members believe their loved ones would have lived longer had they not suffered the stress and trauma of losing their homes and everything they owned.”

The master lawsuit in the Palisades fire blames several defendants for overgrown brush, toppled wooden power poles, natural gas explosions and a lack of water that all contributed to the mammoth blaze. The actual cause of the blaze is believed to be arson by a former Pacific Palisades resident who allegedly set a small fire on Jan. 1, 2025, that was never fully extinguished and sparked the massive conflagration during a fierce windstorm.

Besides the LADWP, the lawsuit names as defendants SoCalGas, Southern California Edison, Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, three communications companies and others.

Many victims of the fire that destroyed more than 7,000 structures and claimed 12 lives initially sued LADWP after some fire hydrants ran dry as the nearby Santa Ynez Reservoir sat empty. The complaints were expanded to allege that sparking or downed power lines exacerbated the inferno. The suits now are under one master complaint, Grigsby et al.

The suits contend that part of the reason for the dry hydrants is that the LADWP’s 117-million-gallon reservoir in Pacific Palisades had been empty for nearly a year, awaiting repairs.

LADWP responded that “the Palisades Fire was a tragedy — and the loss of life you’re asking specifically about only compounds it. But that does not change the fact that LADWP was not responsible for the fire and the injuries it caused.”

The suit also alleges that SoCalGas operated natural gas lines that caused homes to explode.

With the flames and heat, SoCalGas’s lines failed to purge or shut down, leading to natural gas flowing at high pressure from the lines, helping the fire to spread, the suit said. The explosions caused secondary fires that torched neighborhoods, according to the suit.

Fire safety valves should have been used to automatically shut off the gas flow, the suit said.

Asked for comment, SoCalGas reiterated a previous statement: “SoCalGas continues to support our customers and communities still recovering from the devastating fires. … Since January 7, (2025) SoCalGas has worked diligently, in close coordination with local and state officials, to assess the impacts of the fires on SoCalGas’ infrastructure, make necessary repairs, and safely restore service to thousands of customers.”

The state parks department did not comment on allegations it did not adequately maintain its property.