The news conference about the unprecedented L.A. firestorm featured politicos preening before the cameras and issuing forth slogans about unity instead of assuring us of their competency. In short, it started out as a waste of everyone's time until we got to Q and A. That's when things got far more interesting. It appears this fire is a self-inflicted wound.
Since Jan. 7, when a spark in Topanga Canyon grew into a conflagration, fire investigators have been too overwhelmed and conditions too dangerous to begin looking into the cause of the firestorm.
But when a reporter asked about the fire starting in some guy's backyard, my glazed-over eyes widened a bit.
The 17,234-acre fire (as of Thursday morning) has incinerated "thousands" of homes. Authorities have been so busy fighting the fire, fueled by 60 mph winds, that they can't say how many homes and businesses were destroyed.
The fire is "0% contained," according to the L.A. County fire chief.
Related: Where's the Water, Gavin?
At its worst, the fire consumed "five football fields a minute."
The winds, sometimes at hurricane levels, are expected to die down a bit by Friday.
Residents have been told to boil water, because, in addition to not having enough to fight the fires the first day, people can't yet drink the water, either.
Now, interest is centering on a guy who says the fire was already going when flames "appeared suddenly in his backyard."
People Magazine reports that Krishan Chaudry, who lives in Topanga Canyon, said he looked at smoke out the window, and then all hell broke loose.
“This happened just spur of the moment," he said. "We were just looking at the smoke, and then all of a sudden, we saw fire everywhere."
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson Erik Scott said the fire was first reported at about 10:30 a.m. in the 1100 block of North Piedra Morada Drive, according to The CW's KTLA.
Mr. Chaudry believes the fire didn't start in his backyard.
Here's a look at Chaudry's backyard.
And here's the context.
Chaudry lives along a canyon filled with trees.
I reported in my piece entitled, What Started L.A.'s Firestorm? Hint: It's Not 'Climate Change.', that homeless campers have started multiple fires in this and other L.A. areas before before.
In 2021, Topanga Canyon residents were so concerned with homeless encampments and fire danger that they ostensibly "banned" them. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to ban homeless camps because cooking dinner or drugs outside in dry brush is a really dumb idea.
In 2015, The Hollywood Reporter reported that homeless campers started a fire “on same bluffs where hundreds of homeless people reside after police pushed many out of Santa Monica. New signs declaring the hillside brush zone of Palisades Park a ‘very high fire hazard severity zone’ were scheduled to be erected on October 7.”
A homeless count in January 2015 showed, there were "70 homeless tents, 74 in makeshift shelters and 54 in cars/RVs. The total was 198." And the homeless count went down in 2023, they claimed. "Eight years later," Circling the News reported, "there were no tents or shelters reported, and the number of homeless living in vehicles, mostly along Pacific Coast Highway and Palisades Drive, totaled about 30."
The same publication noted that in 2022, a homeless family lived in the brush in a tent in 2022. They were found housing eventually.
And just last July, homeless campers in RVs sitting along the Pacific Coast Highway became a "concern" to Palisades residents because there are only dry trees before hitting the homes on the hill. One camper brought a homemade helicopter with him.
KABC TV headlined its piece, "People living in RVs along PCH causing concern for residents in Pacific Palisades."
Overlooking the ocean on the Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades area is a stretch of parked RVs. Some of the people living in them are homeless and residents in the area want something done about it.
Michael Rachau brought all his belongings, which include a homemade helicopter. He says he is there for now. "I'm like a visitor basically, passing through," Rachau told Eyewitness News. There is concern about people living in these vehicles and dumping their waste into the ocean.
L.A. County's response was to send the homeless task force to counsel the campers in an effort to move them to shelters.
KABC reported:
County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath told us: "The Sheriff's Department's Homeless Outreach Services Team and LAHSA actively engage people living in RVs on this section of PCH to offer housing and services. We are also working with the Coastal Commission and Caltrans on more permanent solutions that require state action."
That's all very nice and empathetic, but empathy and good intentions don't stop wildfires. By the looks of things, they start them.
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