As four massive fires engulf Los Angeles, critics are blaming the government for putting lives, homes, and businesses at risk.
“Our first priority is the protection of life, which means a lot of times we’re evacuating people and making sure people get out safely,” said Digiovanna, a former fire chief in Monrovia, part of Los Angeles County.
“Yesterday, three fires, beginning with the Palisades fire at 11 a.m., spread rapidly with dangerously high Santa Ana winds,” he said.
“Our biggest fear … was multiple fires breaking out one time,” he said. “No one knows the cause of the blaze. We’re still in a very dynamic firefighting state right now.”
“Let me be clear – I am making sure that we leave no resource untapped. Firefighters are now on scene from across the state, and across the country. I spoke with the President and Governor earlier today and they assured me of full federal and state support.” Bass said.
Fire Hydrants Ran Dry
With so many fire engines deployed, the water tanks that supply the gravity-fed fire hydrants were drained down so low that there was not enough water pressure to fight fires in some areas.“Unfortunately, due to the amount of fire trucks doing structure protection and tying into so many hydrants, we used that water up very quickly,” Digiovanna said. “The water system got low on us—on firefighters—so when they were out fighting the fire, there were times when they had very low water pressure. ”
Pumper trucks are equipped to draft water out of lakes and swimming pools, he said, and more fire-fighting personnel and equipment are being brought in from other counties and states to fight the Los Angeles County fires, Digiovanna said.
“We knew this Santa Ana wind event was coming. We even knew that it was going to be a very powerful Santa Ana wind event. We actually were preparing several days in advance for this by bringing in additional staffing, additional resources, and getting communities prepared for these wind events because we don’t know what to expect with these winds,” he said.
About 1,000 fire trucks were deployed—not enough to protect that many homes, and with such high winds, fire-fighting crews could not launch helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to fight the blaze, Digiovanna said.
With about 40,000 homes threatened by the fires, even with 2,000 fire trucks, 38,000 homes would still be exposed, he said.
“This was beyond the scope of our ability within Southern California and Los Angeles … to handle these fires. It’s just, you know, Mother Nature,” he said.
“So, now we have three major fires burning,” he said. The firefighters are firefighters are doing a “tremendous job,” he said, considering the resources available to them.
While critics say the dry underbrush in the hills around homes should be cleaned out, Digiovanna said a task of that scope isn’t feasible.
“You just can’t go up into the mountains in the forest and start raking and cleaning up brush,” he said.
Fires ‘Absolutely Predicted’
Dr. Houman Hemmati, a fire evacuee whose Santa Monica home is in a high danger zone bordering the Pacific Palisades, told The Epoch Times his house “is threatened, but it hasn’t been lost, yet.”Hemmati, a frequent medical and political commentator on Fox News, blames state and local government for the extent of damage caused by fires.
“This is not something that was unexpected. It’s something that was absolutely predicted that would happen at some point, that we would have a massive fire like this,” he said. “They knew for a few days that we were going to have a high-wind situation that was going to put us in the extreme fire risk.”
Hemmati said that despite a massive fire in Malibu just a few weeks ago, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass went to Ghana for the inauguration of a politician, and Gov. Gavin Newsom waited too long to relocate resources, instead holding a press conference about high-speed rail.
“My problem with both of them and with the entire system is that they have been absolutely negligent … because they’ve known that this is a very likely possibility, and despite that, chose to put their efforts into many, many other things,” Hemmati said. “That’s not leadership. That’s abandonment.”
Los Angeles Fire Budget Slashed
Meanwhile, some critics are citing the Los Angeles City Council’s $17.6 million cut to the fire department budget as cause for alarm.Hemmati said he is concerned not enough of his tax money is going toward fire protection.
“We’re getting absolute incompetence and a government at the state and local level that makes public safety their absolute last priority over homelessness and woke social issues,” he said. “This is something that is absolutely going to have to change because it is destroying communities and destroying people’s lives.”
The city is spending billions of dollars building new homes and renting hotel and motel rooms for homeless people that could have gone to fire prevention and fire mitigation, Hemmatti said.
Rick Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer who ran against Bass in the last election, also blamed the loss of lives, homes, and businesses on the local government.
“I’m watching the small businesses around us go up in flames. This is people’s livelihoods. It’s devastating,” Caruso said. “But what is most concerning to me is our first responders and our firefighters who are trying to battle this. There’s no water in the Palisades. There’s no water coming out of a fire hydrant. This is an absolute mismanagement by the city.”
“We’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning and there’s no resources to put out fires,” Caruso said. “This was a disaster waiting to happen, and what’s predictable is preventable. …We’ll rebuild, but the majority of this community is going to have a tough time rebuilding their lives.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the mayor’s office for comment.
“We are deploying LAPD officers to respond to Hollywood to help alleviate evacuation traffic,” she said. “We are working urgently to close roads, redirect traffic and expand access for LAFD vehicles to respond to the growing fire.”
Earlier in the day, she said, the Los Angeles Fire Department “helicopters are back to dropping water and hundreds of firefighters continue to be on the scene to help respond to” the Palisades Fire and Hurst Fire.
