Wild Fires In LA

[Terrel L. Shields]

Communities do not set out to deliberately uner prepare.

I think that is debatable. They have some very misguided ideas about priorities and as a result, are deliberately under-prepared and, are either blithely ignorant of the consequences or crossing their fingers hoping nothing bad happens. In fire prone areas, there is a pressing need for action a priori. And it was no secret. In 2018 Trump was in California and stated the obvious. Fire management needed to happen. But, of course, if Trump said snakes might bite you, half of California would jump into a snake pit.

He wasn't expressing any big truth. It's been obvious from forest managers for literally decades. And ignored by politicians for the same length of time. They'd rather spend fire resources on DEI, gay parades, than to budget sufficiently that they could get their equipment repaired quickly, and most importantly, to cut fire breaks, maintain the water reservoirs, and train and pay auxiliary fire fighters. And the city knew... and did nothing about it. This is entirely upon the politicos, be they democrats or republicans. And the community elected those who neglected them.

​

1 day ago — The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) chief warned a month ago that budget cuts had plunged it into "unprecedented operational challenges"​

​

They knew.

 

[J Grant]

I think that is debatable. They have some very misguided ideas about priorities and as a result, are deliberately under-prepared and, are either blithely ignorant of the consequences or crossing their fingers hoping nothing bad happens. In fire prone areas, there is a pressing need for action a priori. And it was no secret. In 2018 Trump was in California and stated the obvious. Fire management needed to happen. But, of course, if Trump said snakes might bite you, half of California would jump into a snake pit.

He wasn't expressing any big truth. It's been obvious from forest managers for literally decades. And ignored by politicians for the same length of time. They'd rather spend fire resources on DEI, gay parades, than to budget sufficiently that they could get their equipment repaired quickly, and most importantly, to cut fire breaks, maintain the water reservoirs, and train and pay auxiliary fire fighters. And the city knew... and did nothing about it. This is entirely upon the politicos, be they democrats or republicans. And the community elected those who neglected them.

​

1 day ago — The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) chief warned a month ago that budget cuts had plunged it into "unprecedented operational challenges"​

​

They knew.

They knew, but did the voters approve more funds for them?

 

[DTB]

They knew, but did the voters approve more funds for them?

They don't need more funds just spend it in ways that HELP, not some feel good joyful way.

 

[Charles West]

Defending policies that misallocate scare resources is just dumb. Professionals understand the need to use forest management techniques in fire prone areas to mitigate disaster and they also understand Mother Nature doesn't care who gets in her way. The politicians who made the decisions to ignore that truth and all the ramifications that go with it are undeniably quilty of negligence.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

but did the voters approve more funds for them?

I don't think they asked for more funds. They simply juggled the budget for last year and allocated more for homelessness. Ironically, they barely spent half of the budget last year for homelessness according to one news report.

“Let me be clear. The $17 million budget cut and elimination of our civilian positions like our mechanics did and has and will continue to severely impact our ability to repair our apparatus,” Crowley said on CNN, adding that more than 100 fire apparatuses are out of service.​

​

“Having these apparatus and the proper amount of mechanics would have helped,” she said on CNN.​

Los Angeles County Sets Out Priorities in $45.4 Billion Recommended Budget – COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

lacounty.gov

Los Angeles County’s 2024-25 Recommended Budget—which doubles down on an accelerated response to homelessness and underscores the role mental health services play in multiple County strategies—will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 23 by Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport.​

​

Despite slowing revenue growth from property taxes, the Recommended Budget continues to fund the vast social safety net of health and social services that make up the core function of County government while also supporting new investments in innovative programs that help local residents. The budget includes jobs programs, expands food resources, supports foster families and continues to allocate 10% of locally generated unrestricted revenues to direct community investment and alternatives to incarceration through Care First Community Investment.​

 

[J Grant]

Civilians in our nation are the ones under-prepared, but leaders want to coddle them and deny reality to their constituents.

Who is there to help in a storm or disaster? YOUR NEIGHBORS or YOUR FAMILY.

They are the ones actually there and around, and if an area is affected, it can take days or weeks to send help. First responders do not answer calls during the worst of an event. In FL, they send messages out, after X time today, first responders will not respond to a 911 call

During the storm, I helped neighbors, and they helped me. We share food, water, etc. After a storm 8 years ago, when the power went out, my neighbor across the street ran over and saved me from severe injury when he saw what was happening and ran over to help storm my garage door from crushing me ( the power was down and i wanted to open it to get the car out and the springs malfunctioned.) My two friends, after Andrew, were hospitalized for different reasons - myself from going into an anaphylacti shock from some weird insect that crawled out after Andrew and bit me. Creatures lose their habitat and are on the loose after a disaster -snakes, bugs, etc. More death and injury can occur in the months following a disaster than during it,

I took a CPR class last year. there were TWO civilians in the class and 16 nurses and medical professionals there because they have to resort every year. Shouldn't all of us learn CPR? Learn some basis emergency medicine? Have flotation devices at home in case of rising waters? Why do we believe some magical person or agency will swoop in just in time or blame a leader for not showing up?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

the springs malfunctioned.

Our senator's (John Boozman) brother was an eye doctor too. He died when a garage door spring broke and the door hit him on the head breaking his neck.

it can take days or weeks to send help.

That's why the priority has to be preparedness. Storing food and water in a hurricane or earthquake for individuals, but pre-planning prevents pee-poor performance. And that's the job of the city. The horrific fires could be tamped down. More goats on the hillsides reducing the underbrush, fire breaks, and full reservoirs. That's on the city leaders.

 

[J Grant]

I don't think they asked for more funds. They simply juggled the budget for last year and allocated more for homelessness. Ironically, they barely spent half of the budget last year for homelessness according to one news report.

“Let me be clear. The $17 million budget cut and elimination of our civilian positions like our mechanics did and has and will continue to severely impact our ability to repair our apparatus,” Crowley said on CNN, adding that more than 100 fire apparatuses are out of service.​

​

“Having these apparatus and the proper amount of mechanics would have helped,” she said on CNN.​

Los Angeles County Sets Out Priorities in $45.4 Billion Recommended Budget – COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

lacounty.gov

Los Angeles County’s 2024-25 Recommended Budget—which doubles down on an accelerated response to homelessness and underscores the role mental health services play in multiple County strategies—will be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 23 by Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport.​

​

Despite slowing revenue growth from property taxes, the Recommended Budget continues to fund the vast social safety net of health and social services that make up the core function of County government while also supporting new investments in innovative programs that help local residents. The budget includes jobs programs, expands food resources, supports foster families and continues to allocate 10% of locally generated unrestricted revenues to direct community investment and alternatives to incarceration through Care First Community Investment.​

Stop blaming the fire department -.
My point was the citizens don't want to pay taxes to fund anything, including emergency services. The RW are the folks who bitchs the most about that and are into tax evasion - and the citizens deny the funds, whether or not the fire dept asked.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Stop blaming the fire department -.

I am not. I am blaming the city. Although a strong management from the fire department might get more money. Something about the squeaky wheel getting the grease.

 

[Charles West]

Stop blaming the fire department -.
My point was the citizens don't want to pay taxes to fund anything, including emergency services. The RW are the folks who bitchs the most about that and are into tax evasion - and the citizens deny the funds, whether or not the fire dept asked.

That's about as dumb as it gets. The correct take is RW citizens don't want to pay for frivolous programs like sanctuary policies and DEI programs to the exclusion of basic prepardness. The Santa Monica Canyon area hasn't been cleared in decades, a practice that would have prevented this catastrophe from happening in the first place. Certain interests in CA have not supported forest management techniques nor the establishment of adequate water supplies near these impacted areas required to mitigate disasters of this type. Interestingly though, the same politicians that are responsible for this misallocation of resources have billions for high speed rail and other questionable projects. The upshot being excusing their own incompetence by hiding behind nonsense like climate change is not going to cut it going forward.