Making It Worse

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Jan. 18, 2025

Los Angeles County is not the only thing burning; lots of politicians have their pants on fire, too.

Disasters are instructive if for no other reason than they help us differentiate between those seeking to help and find solutions and those only seeking to assign blame. With the flames still burning and the funerals not yet concluded, too many politicians have chosen the latter approach, making the nightmare even worse.

President-elect Donald Trump couldn’t wait to start the blame game. It was governor Gavin Newsom’s fault or LA Mayor Karen Bass’ fault or California’s Democratic legislature. Some of his supporters were willing to take it another level and blame the LA City Fire Department leadership since the chief and two of her top assistants are women. Yeah, that was the problem, too much diversity, too much equality, and way, way too much inclusion. The critics conveniently left out the fact that LA Fire’s leadership team is 14 members strong and 11 of them are men.

Then there were all the more specific criticisms. Fire hydrants in the impacted areas ran low of water pressure or out of water entirely. There was the reservoir that had been emptied for repairs, the budget cuts to the department, and the fact the mayor was in Ghana when the fires broke out, apparently unable to foresee the cataclysm before she left.

There was also the quite bizarre accusation from Trump that things would have been better had Governor Newsom agreed to sign a “water restoration declaration” so more water from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta would have trickled south to fight the fires. Except no such document ever existed and the good folks in the northern part of the state would like to keep some of their water to help protect the multi-billion dollar sport and commercial salmon fishing industry that supports 23,000 jobs, not to mention an expansive and wildly diverse ecosystem.

Not only was there never any such declaration, the Newsom and Biden administrations actually worked out a deal allowing more Delta water to be diverted south without the environmental damage. So, a criticism over a non-existent document about a refusal to take an action that actually did take place. (Thirsty Los Angeles gets most of its water from the Owens Valley and the Colorado River, not northern California.)

We do not yet know the cause of all the half dozen or so major California fires. We know it wasn’t lightning strikes, the villains in most previous California wildfires. The Pacific Palisades conflagration might have started in a residential area, which likely means there is a human cause, accidental or otherwise.

Inoperative and low pressure hydrants were not helpful, especially early in the battle. It is not clear if any major city in the country has 100 percent of their hydrants working at full capacity all the time, but most such cities are not exposed to wildfire danger.

The budget “cuts” made an excellent target for the finger-pointers and blame-game players and they sounded grim; $17.5 million is a significant cut. Or was it?

According to reporting in the LA Times, the fire department budget for fiscal 2024-2025 actually increased from just under $820 million to more than $896 million. Not much of a cut, with most of the increase due to a new wage and benefit package for firefighters.

Additionally, $10 million of the alleged cuts were administrative, not boots on the ground or equipment. The remaining $7.6 million leaves room for criticism, as it curtails firefighter overtime and some training.

All the criticism aside, no one knows if the hydrants or the reservoir or a bigger budget or any of it would have made a difference. Southern California has not seen significant rain for nearly eight months. Local communities, including LA and their neighborhoods, have done a poor job of mitigating risk particularly with brush removal. Too many individual homeowners have also been remiss by failing to clear any safe space around their homes, making it worse by planting combustible and mostly non-native plants for landscaping and failing to make their homes more fire resistant by taking simple steps like fine mesh screens over vents and fire resistant exteriors and roofs.

It’s entirely possible nothing would have mattered once a single ember ignited a single flame, aided and abetted by 80+ mph winds. Drought is not that uncommon in southern California, which is essentially a coastal desert. Endless drought is a bit different, and when combined with hurricane-force winds, these deadly, uncontrollable fires are likely part of a new normal for the region.

With more than two dozen deaths and counting, some politicians, including our new president, engage in crassly cynical opportunism and vapid criticism. They could have shown some needed leadership with just four words: “How can I help?”