Los Angeles has been horribly exposed as chronically under-prepared for latest inferno
A series of unthinkable decisions have left California’s politicians roasting in what is being described as the state’s very own “Watergate”.
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In the heat of Southern California’s most destructive fire season, Los Angeles residents were left watching helplessly as their city burned.
Firefighters began reporting that they were running out of water barely two days into the crisis.
“The hydrants are down,” came the grim report over the radio. “Water supply just dropped.”
By Wednesday night, the inferno had spread to 16,000 acres with no containment in sight, and more than 1,000 structures reduced to rubble.
A staggering 70,000 residents have evacuated with thousands more fleeing by the hour.
So far, ten lives have been claimed by the disaster and the toll is rising quickly.
The Pacific Palisades fire, a towering inferno fuelled by the hurricane-strength winds, has proven the worst. It swept through over 3,000 acres in a matter of hours, obliterating homes, businesses, and entire neighbourhoods.
With almost 39 million residents, California is the USA’s most populous state. Most would assume Los Angeles, a city surrounded by forests prone to wildfires, would have robust long-term provisions in store to tackle natural disasters it knows well.
But by 3am Wednesday, 114 massive water tanks were empty.
Like a script in a poorly-written movie, a clip of a fireman scooping water out of a pothole with a traffic cone perfectly summed up the dystopian scene.
With hydrants scarce, thousands of people have now been questioning why authorities aren’t pumping water from the nearby ocean into firetrucks en masse.
The issue has become a strong talking point on X overnight, but the answer isn’t entirely clear.
Seawater contains high levels of salt and using it to extinguish fires can lead to environmental and structural damage. Salt can corrode equipment, such as firetrucks, helicopters, and other firefighting gear.
It can also harm plants, soil, and waterways, especially in sensitive ecosystems.
The use of seawater near coastal areas can lead to contamination of delicate ecosystems, particularly marine environments. The runoff from firefighting operations can carry saltwater into freshwater systems, which can harm aquatic life.
Sea planes have been spotted doing water runs to the Pacific to fight the fire, but the use of ocean water throughout the entire firefighting system may lead to millions of dollars in long-term damages.
But at this point, with multiple landmarks and countless homes and businesses destroyed, it may be the only thing left up California’s sleeve.
Given the population and amount of tax generated by the USA’s most populous state, locals are wondering how the government was caught so off-side by the current blaze, given there are roughly 7,500 wildfires in the state per year.
The blame is starting to fall on state administrators for the inadequate water system, with Americans now blaming years of mismanagement for the current state of affairs.
California politicians, fire chief cop it
Amid the crisis, LA mayor, Democrat Karen Bass, was nowhere to be found.
Ms Bass was 11,000km from the flames in Africa and quickly hightailed it back to the US once the heat arrived.
Patrick Soon-Shiong, billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, slammed Ms Bass in a tweet, saying it was “no surprise” Los Angeles is facing another fire crisis after massive firefighting budget cuts.
“Fires in LA are sadly no surprise, yet the Mayor cut LA Fire Department’s budget by $23M,” he wrote in the tweet. “And reports of empty fire hydrants raise serious questions. Competence matters.”
Videos of the city’s first female fire chief Kristin Crowley speaking about the city’s goal to rapidly increase diversity in the firefighting department have also stirred up backlash. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly smashed Ms Crowley for placing virtue signalling as a priority for a department that purely exists to extinguish fires in a crisis.
“In recent years, LA’s fire chief has made not filling the fire hydrants top priority, but diversity,” Kelly said.
Meanwhile California Governor Gavin Newsom has also found himself in the line of fire. Mr Newsom’s office has long been a target of criticism from President-elect Donald Trump for the state’s inadequate fire management and water policies and now the Republicans are having a field day.
Mr Trump has blamed Mr Newsom for not clearing the forests and cutting down dead trees that fuel fires.
Podcaster Joe Rogan has also claimed Mr Newsom “personally ruined” the state in a recent episode with Mel Gibson.
“They spent $24 billion last year on the homeless, and what did they spend on preventing these wildfires?” Rogan said, to which Australian-raised Gibson replied “zero”.
“In 2019, Newsom said he would take care of the forest, maintain the forest and do all that kind of stuff,” the Braveheart star replied. “And he didn’t do anything.”
“I think all our tax dollars probably went for Gavin’s hair gel,” Gibson, 69, joked.
“I dunno but it’s sad, this place is just on fire.”
Originally published as Los Angeles has been horribly exposed as chronically under-prepared for latest inferno
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