Posted on 01/11/2025 10:25:36 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
In Los Angeles’s chaparral-covered ecosystem, wildfires in the mountains are an annual ritual. But when those fires leaped into residential neighborhoods earlier this week, killing at least 11 people and destroying thousands of homes, the city suddenly found itself in survival mode.
A critical question became why the largest city in California, a state that has spent years fortifying itself against wildfires, couldn’t stop the fires this time. State regulations required residents in high-risk neighborhoods to create vegetation-free buffers around their homes. California had invested billions of dollars to reduce the amount of woody fuel for fires to burn. It boasted the largest firefighting force in the nation.
Yet within a few days, decades-old communities and beloved landmarks were gone, and residents are left asking why.
Experts said several key factors — including urban sprawl, a resistance to clearing vegetation around homes, and a water system that’s not designed to combat multiple major blazes at once — left L.A. exposed to disaster. As climate change fuels record heat, leaving the hillsides primed for wildfires to grow swiftly into massive conflagrations, these factors led to catastrophe.
“There was a lot that could have and should have been done,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Oregon-based Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “Decades before we knew about climate change, we knew this kind of urban sprawl was a big risk.”
Sprawling risk
The planning flaws that exacerbated the wildfires have long plagued Southern California. The two communities decimated by fires, Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, were built decades ago at the foothills of mountains that frequently burn. Dotted with single-family homes lining narrow, winding streets, they are difficult to defend and difficult to evacuate.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Most of political leaders have never had an actual "produce something" job. They tend to be lawyers or academics of some sort. They talk but have no idea how to produce. So when they hire they look at everything except qualification for actually doing the job.
But the jobs they are hiring for have actual real world requirements. And if you do not have competent people in those positions when the emergency arrives, and it always does, they have no idea how to handle it.
And I am sorry if this hurts people's feelings but statistically the most competent person to handle it will be a straight white male. Because that is the majority of the work force in this country. Just the way it is. And if you are looking for leadership, older straight white male.
Does this mean that a minority sodomite female can NOT do the job? No. But it means that the most qualified person probably does not slot into all of those categories.
Reality is reality and you just have to deal with it.
“Climate change” is a deflection. That way no one is held accountable.
As climate change fuels record heat
...................................
BALONEY!!!!!
It’s noon in LA and 63 degrees (F).
Climate change, which is not even claimed to be even 2 degrees warmer earth surface temperature in the past 144 years, has absolutely ZERO to do with these fires. Nothing.
It’s a slap in the face that they bring it up.
They only do so for religious reasons. Climate change is a major tenet of their religion they wish to force upon us through the government.
Inept and downright criminal negligence by democrat leadership.
Completely invalidating anything in this drivel.
If "climate change" was such a big threat why didn't the RATS give us a better real-time solution? Instead they gave us the 69th Fighting Faggots Fire Brigade...
With limp hoses.
They were prepared. They had already cancelled insurance for many. That’s top notch preparation.
Looks like the old Chicago projects
LA has new idea?.
Actually that was Russia.
Looks the same from 70’s in Chicago may be the same plans who knows?.
Democrats. Single word answer.
“If climate change is blamed, I turn them off.”
Ditto. As Scott Adams said, stipulate that climate change is an actual thing, which it isn’t, but pretend that it is. The disaster would be no less than it is. There were no preparations.
California has Santa Ana wind events every year.
On Jan. 2, Mayor Jemima was warned the Santa Anas would be especially bad this year. She did not prepare. She left the country.
Mayor had cut almost $20 million from the Fire Department budget. (She had proposed cutting three times that much.)
Two years ago, LA Fire Department equipment had been donated to Ukraine. (Ironic that the majority of those who lost homes have an extreme pro-Ukraine mindset. How’s that working out for them?)
At least 100 firemen had been fired for refusing the vaccine.
When FDNY, maybe the best fire department in the world, offered assistance and crews, Mayor said, “No.”
When Oregon sent 60 trucks to help, they were stopped in Sacramento for ‘emissions testing.’ “’They likely won’t pass inspection and won’t be able to help’, per an Oregon firefighter.”
Newsom diverted water to save a fish so there was insufficient water to fight any major fire(s).
Water supply reservoirs were dry — never replenished, so there was no water for hydrants.
TPTB advised residents to boil water before drinking. 1. No water. 2. No power to boil.
In error, TPTB broadcasted screeching emergency cell alerts to evacuate immediately — TO EVERYONE. At least TWICE. Had to walk that back. (Perhaps the crack lesbian team could bone up on technology re how to target specific areas.)
The mayor told people, if they wanted more information, to go to “URL”. Not Earl. URL. (Again — completely ignorant re technology.)
It took four losers at the Washington Compost to write this screed?
I’ll tell you what caused the LA calamity in one word.
Liberalism!
i stopped at “California had invested BILLIONS of dollars to reduce the amount of woody fuel for fires to burn”
Californians consistently vote for unqualified people with a (D) next to their name and no real work experience. Then these losers bring in all their buddies who check the “right” boxes.
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