The crushing defeat for Biden, Newsom, the LAFD and others can no longer be ignored
Paul Driessen
Wildfires near Los Angeles are making Pacific Palisades look like Dresden after World War II bombings. More than 12,000 homes, schools and businesses have been burned, dozens have died, at least 70,000 people have been left homeless, and the fires are still raging.
AccuWeather estimates just two fires can cause $135-$150 in damage billion On property!
It was a doubly terrible tragedy because most of the death and destruction could have been avoided.
California has 33,000,000 acres of federal, state, and private forest lands, equivalent to the state of Wisconsin. As the state's population grows, forests and wildlife increasingly merge with human habitats. Yet federal and state land managers, driven by ideology, activists, legislators and judges, have steadfastly refused to allow clearing of timber, thinning trees or clearing brush, or taking other actions that would reduce the likelihood of fires.
Now, so many trees are crowded together that they lack space, water, nutrients and sunlight. Many people are sick. They are thin matchsticks, ready to burn. In 2022 alone, approximately 36 million trees will die, accounting for only 8% of these forest lands. But even dead and diseased trees are rarely removed.
Rainy fall and winter periods stimulate the growth of trees, shrubs and grasses. The hot summer makes everything dry. The extended drying period allows all these fuels to ignite over a longer period of time.
Lightning, sparks from cars or power lines, campfires, and arsonists can all cause area fires. Dry Santa Ana winds (40-70 mph, with gusts of 120-150 mph) drove the fires into inferno. Depleted and underfunded fire departments often arrive long after they have extinguished initial fires.
Fires create more powerful winds that blow embers, branches and even small trees thousands of feet — often into communities that are unprepared to deal with them.
This was just the beginning of a series of failures by California government that led to recurring fires. Yet state and local politicians deftly avoid responsibility.
Their most common excuse is man-made climate change. They even have a new fear-inducing term: hydroclimate whiplash! Fossil fuel-driven climate change is said to have brought about two unusually wet winters, spurring unprecedented plant growth, and then creating unprecedented drought conditions and unheard-of Santa Ana winds that made these hellish weather impossible. Predicted but inevitable.
It would be too generous to call large-scale, recurring government failures “incompetent.” Willful, callous, destructive malfeasance would be more appropriate. Criminal may be appropriate.
Governor Gavin Newsom wants to call a special session to discuss spending $25-50 million on “Trump-proof” state policies. He wants to use new $10 billion “climate bonds” to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from farms and ranches, improve “equitable access to nature,” build more parks in “disadvantaged communities” and upgrade ports to handle deepwater offshore wind projects, etc.
California is still pouring billions into electric vehicle subsidies, a “clean” energy transition and a $100 billion “bullet train to nowhere.” It spends billions more to support “sanctuary” status for illegal immigrants, maintain gender and DEI programs, and serve the largest population of homeless people in the U.S. — which will now include more than 70,000 people affected by wildfires in 2025 People who have lost everything.
One wonders if they will treat these now homeless taxpayers the same as illegal immigrants.
Legislative restrictions on how companies conduct fire risk assessments and the rates they charge for home insurance in high fire risk areas Causing insurance companies to leave the state or stop issuing new policies. Hundreds of thousands of families are now uninsured, underinsured or dependent on the state's FAIR program, which is only $385 mega In reserve.
California, meanwhile, is investing just $2.6 billion in “forest and wildfire resilience” on all state-managed forest lands, including the site of the fire in Topanga State Park, which abuts what was once the Pacific Palisades. Pacific Palisades), while $14.7 billion was invested in electric vehicles and “clean renewable energy.”
After the horrific 2018 fire at Paradise Camp still brings nightmares, Mayor Karen Bass cut $17.6 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department budget and laid off 100 employees who were not vaccinated against COVID-19 firefighters and attended a party at a reception at the Embassy of Ghana.
Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley (salary: $654,000) has spent millions on DEI programs and hired more women, gays and minorities. Kristine Larson (salary: $307,000), deputy/diversity director, said victims want to see emergency responders who “look like” them, and if she doesn't have enough power to remove your husband from Saved from the fire, he will “take himself to the wrong place”.
Then, as winds picked up before the first bushfire was detected, they failed to put extra firefighters and fire trucks on duty, apparently to avoid paying overtime. That means the Los Angeles Fire Department can't get there before the fire gets out of control.
Exhausted firefighters trying to save multimillion-dollar homes in Palisades are running out of water. One major reason is that Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Executive Janisse Quiñones (salary: $750,000) drained the 117-million-gallon Santa Ynez Reservoir to repair cracks in its bottom. A full reservoir can replenish huge water storage tanks that supply water and pressurize local fire hydrants.
Quinones said her “number one” priority is equity and social justice. Could this explain why the reservoir was drained in February 2024? No contractors are hired until November 2024; and even then, there are no workers, equipment or materials to perform 24/7 repairs?
Equally incompetent, why were there no plans (or actions taken) to utilize the fire boats, tugboats, barges and other vessels at the Port of Long Beach and the San Diego Naval Base? Many come equipped with water reservoirs, pumps, hoses and nozzles. They can spray seawater directly onto coastal homes or run hoses to the shore to connect to fire hydrant systems.
Some salts can remain in the soil and kill some plants. However, the choice should be easy. Some precious vegetation was lost to lingering salt, or precious vegetation, homes, priceless heirlooms and artwork, and everything else were destroyed by raging fires. Homeowners never have to make this choice.
The burning of these forests and communities releases far more greenhouse gases than all the state’s now-shuttered coal and gas-fired power plants have emitted over decades.
To complicate matters, fires send ash and pollutants into the sky and leave behind toxic chemicals — from plastics, paints, batteries, solvents and other materials in homes, buildings and vehicles. They contaminate water and soil, which can lead to long delays in cleanup and reconstruction efforts.
Governor Newsom said he wants to speed up the rebuilding process. But Los Angeles health officials say debris removal and reconstruction are prohibited until licensed officials take a closer look at the site for toxic substances — dangerous levels or barely detectable levels? New fire-resistant building codes? Or is it the owner's requirements for them?
Citizens need to discuss all of these issues at town hall meetings before the next fire breaks out—which is inevitable if proper forest and water management and personnel hiring are not implemented immediately. Simply put, the idiots responsible for this rampant destruction and loss of life must be replaced by people who understand that their first priority is to protect citizens from crime, fires, and other natural disasters.
Mr. Newsom also wants an investigation into the loss of water pressure at fire hydrants. Californians have good reason to suspect that he is simply looking for excuses and scapegoats so that he and his favorite lawmakers can salvage their political secrets.
Golden Staters need to reform their political, bureaucratic, policy and woke systems. They need to rely less on the government and more on themselves, as several of their neighbors at the Getty Villa and Malibu have done, to save homes, wealth, and lives. Otherwise, these unnecessary tragedies will happen again.
Paul Driessen is a senior policy analyst at the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and the author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate and human rights issues.
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