The fires in California are called wildland/urban interface fires. The left is claiming that it’s due to climate change and Donald Trump (no, I’m not kidding) and spending most of their day deflecting blame away from themselves.
The fires are now beyond man’s control. With high winds, lack of rain, and humidity below ten percent, these fires are going to burn until they run out of fuel. There is nothing that can be done at this point to get this under control. Any time you are seeing dry winds of 70 mph, firebrands can fly for miles. Combine that with relative humidity below 30%, and there is nothing you can do to stop the fire from spreading.
The real problem here is a lack of forestry and poor personnel management. The fire departments in the area made the news a year ago because the city felt that the fire department contained too many straight white men, too much toxic masculinity, so they began a program of hiring black women. So now the LAFD has an unqualified dyke who, upon accepting the job, stated that her highest priority was promoting DEI in the department.
Creating, supporting, and promoting a culture that values diversity, inclusion, and equity while striving to meet and exceed the expectations of the communities are Chief Crowley’s priorities
How you manage the area before a fire starts matters. Lowering the fuel load by having prescribed burns while fire conditions aren’t conducive to spreading the fire is a key part of it. I blogged on this just a few years ago.
How you manage your biggest resource matters. You need to have people who are qualified and capable, not people who merely check all of the diversity boxes.
How you manage the tools those people will have at their disposal matters. Not refilling reservoirs because of climate change means that firefighters don’t have ammo to fight these fires. LA has been donating fire trucks and to Ukraine for the past two years, and has spent the last three years sending planeloads of firefighting equipment like hoses, nozzles, turnouts, helmets, body armor and other personal protective gear there since at least March of 2022.
Leadership matters. The mayor was in Africa attending the inauguration of the new President of Ghana as the fires grew.
The leftists of California won’t learn from this failure of leadership and failure of government. Instead, they will continue to blame the climate for fire weather conditions that have existed in California since people began settling there, they will blame a man who isn’t even President yet, and will continue to vote for the same failed policies.
California is getting the exact government that it voted for.
32 Comments
J J · January 9, 2025 at 8:44 am
I was just reading the LAFD Chief’s webpage. The only surprise is that she/it is white. Guessing there wasn’t any marginally qualified queer black women to fill the role.
Yep, the people of Los Angeles are getting a great big dose of you reap what you voted for.
Democrats are the masters of hypocrisy, lies, slander and incompetence.
It’s difficult to feel sorry for them.
Himself · January 9, 2025 at 9:24 am
The big issue here is they see these city jobs as a birthright, and not that they are supposed to fulfil a need. These hu-white guys glommed all these plum jobs. It’s not fair! No understanding that responsibilities come with the gig.
And the mayor herself is a DEI hire of sorts. What’s up with these negro politicians acting like royalty, and going to the motherland like they are a tin pot dictator or something? They all do it.
I’m old enough to remember a time when mayors understood that as long as there were good city services – fire, police, trash pickup, street maintenance, one could get away with a lot.
On some level, I feel for the folks in LA. I’ve been there a bunch, and most I’ve met are good people that didn’t vote for this and don’t deserve it.
BTW – Herself the mayor was one of the first to bag on Ted Cruz for being in Mexico during the ice storm here in Texas a few years ago, as if a US senator had anything to do with state run services. She does though.
mike · January 9, 2025 at 12:10 pm
There is a clear pattern, New Orleans DEI Mayor in 2006 ignored levee maint and allowed all city buses to be flooded while parked rather then be used for evacuation. Same city hired a DEI granny as police chief who openly admitted on camera that she was not even aware that the city owned anti vehicular barriers in the French Quarter existed, or that they had been in disuse due to a lack of maintaining them. She had previously presided over the disintegration of law and order in Oakland Calf and considered that resume fodder despite being fired. These people are so stupid they could not even imagine that a terrorist might target city pedestrians with a vehicle attack despite an example of same a week earlier in Germany. Blocking the road with a wooden sawhorse placed there by DPW workers should be enough, right?
There is video this morning of vibrant “homeless migrants” starting fires in the LA brushland and video and audio reports of the same type looting homes in the upscale fire zones.
There is also video of city firefighters trying to put out a fire by running the water over with collapsable rubber pails instead of a fire hose. Ukraine needed the hoses and nozzles more than LA did.
Skippy Bojangles · January 9, 2025 at 10:34 am
Everything the CPUSA (D) touches turns to shit.
Are they going to embalm Jimmeh Carta like comrade Lenin?
Old geezer · January 9, 2025 at 12:52 pm
i concur with your last sentence. with regards to the previous, as a commiefornia native who escaped only a few years ago may i offer an alternative explanation.
these people are not stupid. they know what they are doing. as the software scribes observe, this is not a bug it is a feature.
if you are able to honestly analyze these recurring scenarios this becomes evident. your outlook will significantly change.
“ good people “, in my experience are unable to make this realization. that is another extremely useful parameter used by the other side. the label “ useful idiots “ was derived about a century ago.
observe their stated aims. they are succeeding, not all at once but very steadily and the velocity is accelerating.
who are they ? i call them totalitarian freaks. it is the fire chief, the mayor, the governor, as well as my former neighbors.
it has been said there is a lot of ruin in a nation. the follow on, a culture too stupid to survive won’t.
William Ashbless · January 9, 2025 at 12:54 pm
Decades of giving Cal-Fire more and more money to suppress more and more fires. The amount of fuel accumulated in our wild and even suburban areas is frightening.
Another point is why rebuild in high risk areas with the same technology that failed? Maybe a revision of building codes? Stick framed homes in a high fire risk area?
Of course the lobbying to change the codes won’t work because just think of the tens of thousands of homes that will be rebuilt that run the risk of burning down, AGAIN, and how the construction industry likes having jobs.
This won’t change until building codes are changed and Cal-Fire actually, PROPERLY, manages our forests. Both will be met with resistance and big money to insure the meal tickets for those who really are in charge don’t lose out.
Steve · January 9, 2025 at 12:57 pm
Silent on arrival: LA Mayor Karen Bass refuses to answer questions for her absence as wildfires ravage city.
“Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning? And do you regret cutting the Fire Department budget by millions of dollars, Madame Mayor?” Sky News reporter David Blevins asked as Bass waited to deplane Wednesday following her trip to Ghana.
Link
Dan D. · January 10, 2025 at 7:38 am
David Blevins made all of American media look like Happy Gilmore covering a SpaceX launch. And I bet he wasn’t wearing a gay-ass media branded fireman’s jacket with a clothespin in the back like that punk-ass loser David Muir.
Weetabix · January 9, 2025 at 1:25 pm
Seems like we discuss this every year. But this time, we’ve added giving away equipment. Next year, will they figure out how to INCREASE the fuel load beyond what nature knows?
Anonymous · January 9, 2025 at 2:41 pm
Gee, Florida has one huge year of firestorms and we completely changed forest management and building codes.
Yet other states make fun of us because of “Florida Man,” who usually turns out to be from the very states that make fun of us.
Steve · January 9, 2025 at 2:51 pm
Several years back, a Californian and I had a discussion about what at one time was part of elementary school — the fire triangle. Heat, fuel, oxygen. Take away any of the three and there’s no fire. She was totally clueless. Global warming caused the problem, not all this excess fuel.
I guess it’s at least plausible — higher CO2 would increase the growth rate of the chaparral. But why would a greenie oppose healthier plants?
SoCoRuss · January 9, 2025 at 3:15 pm
MY preferred apocalyptic ending to Cally was always a earthquake and it sinking into the ocean.
BUT, now I’m good with burning that shithole to the ground. Notice how federal help is already on the way to them while Western NC families still sleep in tents.
But never fear,the feds will come in with pallets of cash and rebuild all those multi millions dollar celebrity With a little bit to the Big Guy of course……
TRX · January 9, 2025 at 3:41 pm
[wrings hands] “O, woe! Who could possibly have predicted this would happen after we fired too many experienced firemen, gave away too much firefighting equipment, failed to re-contract private fireplanes, disallowed preventive burns, failed to prosecute known arsonists in previous years, and didn’t prioritize refilling the reservoirs? [/wrings hands]
[outrage]Obviously, the Trumptards are behind all this!” [/outrage]
Slow Joe Crow · January 9, 2025 at 4:58 pm
It’s the Paradise Fire all over again. For all its screw ups and left wing domination Oregon at least gets forest fire prevention right. The power companies are allowed to clear rights of way and because most fires are away from population cities rarely get incinerated. The 2020 fire season was a rare outlier. In contrast LA burns every year.
J J · January 9, 2025 at 7:13 pm
WTF? Remember when Biden said there was no more money to send to states devastated by the hurricane? Now he’s committing unlimited federal money to California for wildlife response – for 180 days!
Divemedic · January 9, 2025 at 7:37 pm
The hurricane states vote Republican
Bob · January 9, 2025 at 7:19 pm
You say:
“LA has been donating fire trucks”
Your link says they donated “a truck.”
You say:
“has spent the last three years sending planeloads of firefighting equipment”
Your link references “a planeload” of firefighting equipment.
I’m not not taking exception to the premise of your post. But inaccuracies such as this make me wonder if I can trust anything you have to say.
Bob
Divemedic · January 9, 2025 at 7:38 pm
I can’t link to every story. Don’t like it? The content is free.
Rick T · January 9, 2025 at 8:13 pm
99% likely the gear that was donated was end of life but still in inventory. With the old stuff gone they could buy new shiny things. Same with the ‘donated’ fire truck…
Divemedic · January 10, 2025 at 7:03 am
Pure supposition
Aesop · January 9, 2025 at 9:44 pm
What you cite, albeit true, is maybe 1-2% of the problem, if that.
It’s a problem, sure (because it’s dumb policy), but not the problem in this instance.
Controlled burns? Brush clearance?
Most of that area is federal land in a national recreation area. Tell me again who runs FedGov?
Lack of some equipment (in agencies where 90% of all calls are for medical emergencies, not fires), or weak female firefighters, while a problem for some things, aren’t really the problem here.
Lack of proper infrastructure going back decades, narrow streets, 10,000 water main breaks unrepaired for decades, and libtards building homes in jackassically fire-prone areas without any assumption of risk or proper mitigation measures for a host of reasons are the lion’s share of the problem.
And btw, the adjacent interface lost 88% of the brush only 5 short years ago. In a massive wildfire. Almost like that land is going to burn every few years no matter what you do.
Crazy, right?
And who knew it would all grow right back after a couple of wet years?
And then burn down again once it’s hot enough, dry enough, and windy.
Like it’s done for literal millennia.
Predicting that problem is like a clairvoyant superpower, no?
Burning those entitled @$$holes out is probably the greatest blessing that could befall the region. The only greater one would be if they had been at home when it happened, but we’re not that lucky.
Not letting them rebuild there, ever, exactly because building there is jackassically stupid, would be a good second act.
Requiring potential builders and future residents to post an escrow bond equal to the total property value, refundable on selling, and assessing property owners attempting to build in that area the actual cost of wildfire suppression and prevention per annum, would be a reasonable request if we’re going to allow repeated stupidity, because reasons.
Can’t come up with millions of spare dollars, and tens of thousands in annual fees? No permit for you. Too bad, so sad.
This fire didn’t happen because wimpy firechicks ran out of hoses and nozzles.
It happened because civic idiots let the entitled class build mansions inches from metric fucktons of fireload, in a zone that’s going to burn to the ground two years out of every five. And does. Again and again and again.
Maybe this will finally be the wakeup call to stop subsidizing such stupidity.
The insurance companies have tapped out (huzzah!), the state is beyond bankrupt, and FEMA spent all their relief funds on illegals.
Boo frickin’ hoo.
Bulldoze all of it, add it to the national recreation area, and pay owners $1/acre.
If the nation will sit still for it, give them a one-time partial write-off on their taxes. (I’d give that a thumbs-down, but put it to a vote if you must.)
Just take building houses in those areas off the menu going forward, forever.
Then go after the idiots with homes in the surf zone next.
There are some areas that shouldn’t have structures on them, ever.
And if anyone thinks they should be allowed, then charge them dearly and appropriately for the risk and the privilege, and force those owners to assume all liability in those Red Zones.
Otherwise, tell them to get over themselves, and give it back to everyone, in a way that won’t have everyone else subsidizing such retarded building plans year after year.
Two fire claims in a decade or two? Permanently removed from the roster of buildable land.
All building permits suspended in perpetuity.
Problem solved.
Wilderness is going to have wildfires, just like coastal communities are going have storms and hurricanes, and the Mississippi Valley is going to flood. Minimize the impact, by not trying to fight Nature in a lopsided dick-measuring contest that Nature always wins. Last I looked, they don’t allow building houses on the rims of active volcanoes either.
Tell all the Hollyweirdoes they have to buy a mansion in the flatlands, or get townhomes on the Sunset Strip, instead of building firetraps on the local hillsides. Cost to everyone else: $0. Ever.
If they like the hillside views, they can hike in Griffith Park. Parking is free. Bear spray for coyotes, mountain lions, and homeless miscreants is optional. 😉
Divemedic · January 11, 2025 at 11:49 pm
“Controlled burns? Brush clearance?
Most of that area is federal land in a national recreation area. Tell me again who runs FedGov?”
I don’t buy that. Florida has a large amount of Federal land (Everglades, Ocala National Forest, Apalachicola National Forest, Ocala National forest) and the land here is properly managed with prescribed burns outside of fire season by the state forestry service without Federal interference.
Aesop · January 12, 2025 at 1:07 pm
That’s not how it works here.
Since pretty much ever.
Divemedic · January 12, 2025 at 1:21 pm
Isn’t that the problem? It isn’t the Feds, it’s the enviroweenies in your state.
Aesop · January 13, 2025 at 7:19 pm
You act as if there’s a difference between those two groups, in either personnel or philosophy.
That’s the flaw.
My latest post was a series of links to one of PJMedia’s columnists, who’s been flogging the idiots responsible to death multiple times daily for the last week.
More than one of them highlights that the government, state and federal, are the exact tree-hugging touchy-feely enviroweenie hippies you’re thinking are responsible.
Work with me for a second: who’s been running fedgov for 12 of the last 16 years, and which party makes up the overwhelming bulk of civil service employees from janitors to agency directors, anywhere, anytime, in 50 states and 7 U.S. territories?
It’s not like the government is cowed by hippies in the streets. The problem is, the hippies are government employees now.
You were a public school teacher; you know what I’m telling you in your bones.
They don’t picket and protest. That just gets you tear-gassed and ridiculed.
They’ve subverted from the inside going back to the 1970s.
Anonymous · January 9, 2025 at 10:16 pm
And now that the ground cover has been burnt to root, we’ll be inundated by news of the landslides come the spring rains. I took a 100-level geology course at a big-10 university and California was a case study for the mismanagement of natural fuel. This was back in the 1980s. No one should be surprised at the outcome.
JaimeInTexas · January 10, 2025 at 6:08 pm
At what point starting lighting the combustible vegetation (backfiring, I think it is called) around the property should be considered, if at all?
Divemedic · January 11, 2025 at 11:46 pm
In conditions like that, where the humidity is low, brush is thick and dry, and the wind is blowing, a backburn is a recipe for disaster.
lynn · January 10, 2025 at 9:09 pm
Plus the people in charge of the fire hydrants drained the high altitude 120 million gallon water tank for repairs and never filled it back up. So much for those DEI hires running Los Angeles.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-01-10/as-flames-raged-in-palisades-a-key-reservoir-nearby-was-offline
oldvet50 · January 11, 2025 at 8:47 am
Since 2020, I am skeptical of the adage ‘getting what you voted for’. Yes, I am an election denier. When no ID is required for voting, there is no assurance of the people’s will being effected.
Danny · January 11, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Arson – there is no other explanation. They are afraid the public will panic (even more then now) if the fact is spoken.
Aesop · January 12, 2025 at 1:09 pm
There are dozens of explanations.
This region had wildfires every year before any people even lived in it.
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by sheer gob-smacking stupidity.“