L.A. Fires

shecky · January 10

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SORRY TO HAVE TO POST 5 SEPARATE STORIES BUT THIS IS BREAKING NEWS AND EACH STORY HAS UNIQUE FACTS.

shecky · January 10

Asterisk on the Street · January 10

So far we have been fortunate to not be too close to the fires requiring evacuation. A couple of friends had to evacuate, but their homes are still standing. Lots of smoke in the air with ash and soot on the ground and on cars. Stay safe all.

Spunkie · January 10

A few christmasses ago when the moms were packing up all their Xmas gear here, they learned to keep the priceless stuff they dont want to lose handy for when the fire comes.

Merkin Baller · January 10

The planet is becoming less hospitable to our presence on it.... if you're blaming the current politicians in office for these fires, I think you're missing the (burning) forest for the trees.

Loujoe · January 10

True. Super sad that this was arson^^^bad stuff going on. Really hard sometimes but I have to remember to count my blessings.
Take care all

brianlux · January 10

Merkin Baller said:

The planet is becoming less hospitable to our presence on it.... if you're blaming the current politicians in office for these fires, I think you're missing the (burning) forest for the trees.

So true and especially more so in some places than others. Places like Southern California and large cities in dry climates- the greater L.A. basin, Phoenix and Tuscon, for example- are going to have to go through some huge struggles and change in order to adapt to changing climate. I think the obvious biggest issue is populations that are unsustainable for dry regions.

shecky · January 10

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LA fire chief says city failed residents in wildfire prep, budget cuts: 'Screaming to be properly funded'

The fire chief said that staffing shortages and lack of resources have been pressing issues facing the department for years

By Sarah Rumpf-Whitten Fox News

Published January 10, 2025 5:15pm EST

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said that the City of Los Angeles failed its over 100,000 displaced residents who were forced to evacuate from the ongoing wildfire siege.

When asked by Fox News' affiliate, KTTV, if the City of Los Angeles, and its Mayor Karen Bass failed the city, Crowley replied: "Yes."

Crowley said that pressing staffing shortages impacted the department's response time when the blaze began tearing across Los Angeles.

"Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service," she said. "That is a ground truth in regard to our ability. If there's a budget cut, we had to pull from somewhere else. What does that mean? That doesn't get done or that there are delays."

Crowley said that staffing shortages and lack of resources has been a pressing issue facing the department for years. She pointed to a series of memos she sent to the city identifying in detail the needs of the department.

"Since day one, we've identified huge gaps in regard to our service delivery and our ability of our firefighters' boots on the ground to do their jobs since day one," she said. "This is my third budget as we're going into 2025-2026, and what I can tell you is we are still understaffed, we're still under-resourced and we're still underfunded."

When asked about how the budget cuts, which slashed the budget by $17,553,814 from $837,191,237 to $819,637,423, Crowley said that they "did impact our ability to provide service."

"On a normal day, our firefighters are running over 1,500 calls, and they're transporting 650 patients a day – let alone the last three days of what we've had," she said.

The problems facing the fire department "isn't a new problem," Crowley told the local outlet.

"The amount of calls that our firefighters are running today has doubled since 2010, a 55% increase with 68 fewer people. Full transparency. This isn't a new problem for us," she said. "Since the three years that I've been in the seat, I've sounded the alarm to say we need more."

"This is no longer sustainable. So with that, we are now in a position to be properly funded," she said. "We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community."

Crowley said that the department has identified gaps in service and sent recommendations to the city.

"We know we need 62 new fire stations. We need to double the size of our firefighters. The growth of this city since 1960 has doubled and we have less fire stations," she said.

"So when you talk about sounding the alarm and asking and requesting budgets that are easily justifiable based off of the data, real data shows what the fire department needs to serve this beautiful city and the beautiful community that we swore that we would. That's what that is about," she said.

Speaking from the heart, Crowley said: "None of us on the fire department are politicians."

"Firefighters are here to serve them, first and foremost. Again, none of us on the fire department are politicians. We're public servants first," she said. "We took an oath to serve the public before ourselves and even before our families."

"So with that, I want to focus on path forward. I want to focus on what the LAFD needs," Crowley said. "What our people need to do their jobs is to make sure that we can save lives and that we can protect property to the greatest capacity."

"But we need to be funded appropriately," she said. "And that's where my head is at."

Fox News Digital's Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

I TRUST THE OPINION OF L.A.'S FIRE CHIEF, KRISTIN CROWLEY, OVER THE OPINION OF MAYOR KAREN BASS, A POLITICIAN.

F Me In The Brain · January 11

Fuck I hate some people.

Guy Dudebro · January 11

Fox News lol. You could have had an additional 50,0000 overpaid firemen and they wouldn’t have been able to stop these winds. And I’m sure it was Karen Bass’ and Gavin Newsom’s fault that we haven’t had any noticeable rain to speak of in forever.

shecky · January 11

A review of last year's California state budget shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom cut funding for wildfire and forest resilience by more than $100 million.

The budget, signed in June and covering the 2024-25 fiscal year, eliminated $101 million from seven "wildfire and forest resilience" programs, according to a report from Newsweek.

The California fires, responsible for destroying more than 10,000 buildings in the Los Angeles area, are still not contained.

Cal Fire had a $5 million reduction in spending on fuel reduction teams, including funds used to pay for vegetation management work by the California National Guard, the report noted.

Other changes:

$28 million cut from multiple state conservancies that expand wildfire resilience
$12 million cut from a "home hardening" experiment that would protect homes from wildfires
$8 million cut from monitoring and research spending, mostly dedicated to Cal Fire and state universities
$4 million cut from the forest legacy program, which encourages landowners to manage their properties
$3 million cut from funding for an inter-agency forest data hub

Newsom's director of communications, Izzy Gardon, called the budget cuts a "ridiculous lie," in a statement to Fox News Digital Friday night.

"The governor has doubled the size of our firefighting army, built the world’s largest aerial firefighting fleet and the state has increased the forest management ten-fold since he took office," she wrote. "Facts matter."

His office attached statistics that refer to the overall increase in spending and personnel over a number of years since he took office in 2019, as opposed to commenting on the most recent cuts.

Cal Fire did not immediately respond to a request for comment as of 8 p.m. Friday.