The Los Angeles wildfires have laid bare the staggering incompetence of government officials at every level, from state leaders to local authorities. For the past week, we’ve been exposing the gross mismanagement and corruption that not only created but worsened this crisis. The revelations keep coming, each one highlighting new ways in which officials failed to safeguard the lives and property of the people who trusted them to act responsibly.
The latest bombshell comes from the Los Angeles Times, which reveals that despite warnings of critical fire weather, the LAFD prioritized other regions like the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood, leaving the Palisades ill-prepared for the looming disaster.
As the Los Angeles Fire Department faced extraordinary warnings of life-threatening winds, top commanders decided not to assign for emergency deployment roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the fire that destroyed much of the Pacific Palisades and continues to burn, interviews and internal LAFD records show.
Fire officials chose not to order the firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift last Tuesday as the winds were building — which would have doubled the personnel on hand — and staffed just five of more than 40 engines that are available to aid in battling wildfires, according to the records obtained by The Times, as well as interviews with LAFD officials and former chiefs with knowledge of city operations.
The department only started calling up more firefighters and deploying those additional engines after the Palisades blaze was burning out of control.
No extra engines had been placed in the Palisades, where the fire broke out about 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7, officials said. The department pre-positioned nine engines to the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood that were already on duty, expecting that fires might break out there. Officials said they moved more engines “first thing in the morning” to also cover northeast L.A.
This revelation comes in the wake of a report that LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley had issued a dire warning about critical staffing shortages and training gaps within the department, but L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’s administration reportedly ignored or even suppressed her concerns. A memo Crowley sent to city fire commissioners outlined that the department was operating with about half the firefighters it needed, with staffing levels unchanged since the 1960s despite significant population growth. The shortage led to longer response times, with 61% of firefighters failing to meet the national four-minute standard in 2022.
Related: WATCH: Biden and Harris Insult Wildfire Victims During Disastrous Briefing
Crowley also highlighted the department’s inadequate firefighter-to-resident ratio, far below the recommended standards for a city of Los Angeles’s size. Despite her request for a budget increase to address these issues, Mayor Bass approved a $17 million funding cut.
Of course, Crowley has also mismanaged priorities, focusing more on DEI initiatives than on addressing the department’s glaring preparedness deficiencies. Now she’s on defense again.
Fire Chief Kristin Crowley defended her agency’s decisions, saying that commanders had to be strategic with limited resources while continuing to handle regular 911 calls. She said the number of calls doubled Tuesday from a typical day, to 3,000 at the LAFD’s 106 fire stations, as the high winds downed trees and power lines.
“The plan that they put together, I stand behind, because we have to manage everybody in the city,” Crowley told The Times.
A potential cover-up of the facts appears to be unfolding. In recent days, Crowley and other officials have given the Los Angeles Times conflicting accounts about how many engines were actually available to reinforce routine deployments. But the Times reports that an internal planning document reveals that the department chose not to deploy nine additional “ready reserve” engines to fire-prone areas. These engines were separate from the nine pre-positioned in the San Fernando Valley and Hollywood.
Former LAFD leaders contend that the devastating impact of recent fires could have been mitigated if the department had followed time-tested tactics.
But several former chiefs with deep experience in LAFD tactics said most of the more than 40 available engines could have been pre-deployed to fire zones before the Palisades blaze started, while others were kept at stations to help with the increase in 911 calls. Those engines were eventually used to fight the Palisades fire and other blazes or to fill in for other engines deployed to the front line, current LAFD officials said.
What a mess.
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