There’s going to be hearings about the Los Angeles County fires. Some investigation must be conducted to expose the shambolic response and maybe draft a new plan of attack concerning wildfires in the area before they become massive infernos. This fire is likely to become the costliest natural disaster in American history. It was preventable, but climate change loons and the overall strangeness of California residents prevented the state from enacting common fire prevention protocols; one is clearing brush and dry vegetation in fire-prone areas like under the power lines.
The Santa Ynez reservoir hasn’t been full since last February; this could have been a crucial water source in the still raging and out-of-control Palisades fire. Tens of millions of dollars were cut from the Los Angeles Fire Department despite warnings and its impact on emergency response. LA Mayor Karen Bass’ office also scrubbed a memo about the lack of manpower and deficient training. The funding cuts had to be done because the state is addicted to coddling the homeless, illegal aliens, and climate change. And everyone is now paying for that gross incompetence (via Public):
And now a video released yesterday by NewsNation, which was shot by a former employee of Kamala Harris, shows that it took the LA Fire Department 45 minutes to respond to the Pacific Palisades fire. “It could have been confined,” said attorney Michael Valentine. “It wouldn’t have touched any of the homes.”
[…]
“ By 10:50, the plume had spread considerably, twice as large,” reported Rich McHugh. “Eight minutes later, the size of the fire seems to have doubled yet again. Still nobody fighting the fire. At 11:13 a.m., nearly 45 minutes after Michael's wife called in the fire, you see a chopper come through at 11:23. A helicopter comes in, begins to dump water on it. But at this point, the fire is massive and moving quickly down this ridgeline.”
And now, a second firefighter has come forward to say that “There wasn’t sufficient funding for predeployment and I’m sure that played a role. The fire prevention department has taken huge cuts too and it limited their resources.” Specifically, this person said, “There were not enough mechanics, engines, or fire stations.”
LA has been cutting the budget of the LA Fire Department for years, leading to rising response times.”You’re supposed to be in route in 30 seconds and there in three to five minutes, but now it’s 10 minutes and on the extreme end 30 minutes,” said the firefighter. “The other day they had a cardiac arrest call that took 30 minutes and there was a pediatric call two weeks ago and the station that was available was very far away and it took them a long time to get to the kid.”
The whistleblower said staffing and equipment shortages create two tragedies. The first are unnecessary deaths and the second is the impact on the firefighters. “They just can’t make it to places fast enough and it’s a hazard to the public,” said the whistleblower. “A family member is dying and it’s 30 minutes to show up and then they’re yelling at the firefighters who are trying to do their job but there’s not enough of them. Some of that stuff really affects them.”
The LA Fire Department budget is $820 million and significantly more is needed. The number of calls LA firefighters make in a year has tripled over the last 30 years while staffing has declined by one-third, according to another whistleblower. The LA Firefighters are currently owed significant backpay and have filed a lawsuit against the city.
Said the whistleblower, “Nobody understands why this is going on. Why is there no money? Why can’t we pay people? We’re 80 fire stations short. Why aren’t we building them? Why aren’t we paying firefighters their contracted wages?”
[…]
While California’s firefighting budget rose since 2018, it was, obviously, not enough. And California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office reported that Governor Gavin Newsom slashed funding by $101 Million in the 2024 budget and cut millions for prescribed burns, forest fire monitoring, and $12 million for home hardening.
And the state funding that Newsom cut could have been used to harden homes to fire and reduce vegetation around homes in LA. Bass proposed cutting the Fire Department’s funding by an additional $48.8 million next year.
The priorities of the leaders of California and Los Angeles over the last decade have been homelessness, climate change, and providing services to undocumented migrants,
Since 2019, California has invested $27 billion in homelessness, or about 4.5 billion per year. That amount does not include spending on firefighting, police, or emergency medical services for the homeless. Nor does it include the $40 billion the state spent on affordable housing.
California spends over $30 billion per year to provide benefits and services to migrants who came to the US illegally, according to a recent cost analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The California Budget and Policy Center estimates that they contribute up to $9 billion annually in state and local taxes.
And California will spend over $48 billion on climate programs over the next seven years, or about seven billion annually.
This is the 'fall of Rome' stage in Sacramento and California. Too many years of de facto single-party rule led to this catastrophe. Feelings and moral superiority complex antics also contributed to the mayhem. The LAFD also engaged in DEI nonsense and bias training when they should have been vetting people who wanted to join the department regardless of their race, religion, or ethnicity. No one cares what you are as long as you save their homes and lives from wildfires. There’s no bonus if a black lesbian does it.
The fact that most fires put out by LAFD, around half, are started by homeless people might be a clue as to how and why these latest fires keep popping up in the county. It should be investigated but won’t because the media is afraid to say so.
No one is arguing that if everything was funded, and then some, the current LA fires would’ve been prevented. That’s silly, but the blazes raging out of control as they are likely wouldn’t have happened. There would have been enough personnel, resources like water, and, hopefully, an evacuation plan. The latter is dubious, but resources and enough manpower have plagued the department for years. And enough with the wind, too. Local officials claim they were well prepared—they won’t—but the high winds made things go off the rails because they’ve never seen 100 mph winds before. There were 97 mph gusts recorded in the area in 2011.
Stop lying.