A California fire-safety group’s grant to a local organization to clear flammable brush and tree limbs from 90 acres of canyon land at the edge of Los Angeles was rescinded two days before massive wildfires ignited in area last month, reports the Associated Press.

The nonprofit California Fire Safe Council, which funnels mostly federal funds to fire-safety and fire-prevention groups, allocated $178,000 several months ago for the work in Big Tujunga Canyon. But the money never changed hands. The canyon suffered the greatest concentration of damage in the wildfires.

Margaret Grayson, executive director of the California Fire Safe Council, said her organization “had no choice but to rescind” the grant to the Big Tujunga Fire Safe Council, citing property and procedural issues. The local group’s head was one of 60 homeowners who lost their houses in the blaze.