It didn't have to be this bad.
The three remaining Los Angeles fires continue to rage with 45 to 70 mph extreme winds hitting the area again on Tuesday. A new fire in Ventura County, called the Auto Fire, has been added to the list and is expected to grow well beyond its current 56 acres because of this new Santa Ana windstorm. Firefighters are deployed all over the L.A. and Ventura Counties battling these firestorms. Thousands of homes have been incinerated. People are dead. And it didn't have to happen this way, according to a long-time LAFD fireman.
While catastrophists blame the fires on climate change, in the week since these Santa Ana wind-driven firestorms started, people in L.A. have gotten an education about what their leadership has done — or, more accurately, not done — to prepare to stop fires and fight fires.
And now L.A. and Ventura Counties are getting hit with another phalanx of extreme winds.
Related: Stunner: Why Was Pacific Palisades Reservoir EMPTY? It Gets Worse.
When the same extreme and dire Santa Ana windstorm prediction came out a few days ago, the mayor left town to go to another continent, Gavin Newsom was probably measuring for drapes in his new $9 million home, and the LAFD was, according to an inside source, doing no planning for what has turned out to be the most costly firestorm in California history.
What would you do if you were the LAFD command when you heard this forecast — something or nothing?
Here's what I reported last week:
One day before Bass left for Ghana to see the swearing-in of the new president, the mayor, who as a congresswoman made a very public point of announcing that she would not be attending Donald Trump's inauguration, was informed by the National Weather Service that there were extraordinary weather events happening the next days.
It looked something like this:
...LIFE THREATENING, DESTRUCTIVE, WIDESPREAD WINDSTORM TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING FOR PORTIONS OF LOS ANGELES AND EASTERN VENTURA COUNTIES-- WITH LONG DURATION OF RED FLAG CONDITIONS INTO THURSDAY-- POSSIBLY EXTENDING INTO FRIDAY... ...RED FLAG WARNINGS IN EFFECT FOR LOS ANGELES COUNTY AND MUCH OF VENTURA COUNTY---SEE TIMINGS IN HEADLINES BELOW... ......Offshore winds are now expected to develop rapidly early Tuesday morning, leading to an earlier start time of the Red Flag Warning for many areas. Confidence is high for a life threatening, destructive, widespread windstorm with dangerous fire weather conditions Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning, especially focused on the San Gabriel mountains and foothills, San Gabriel Valley, San Fernando Valley, Hollywood/Beverly Hills, coastal areas adjacent to the Sepulveda Pass, Simi Valley, and Santa Monica mountains into Malibu. Strong mountain wave wind activity will likely impact many of these areas, resulting in very strong, erratic, and damaging wind gusts, capable of widespread downed trees/powerlines, as well as widespread power outages. This windstorm will likely be as destructive as the 2011 windstorm that impacted Pasadena and nearby San Gabriel Valley foothills. This is a high end Red Flag event. Any new fires will have a high risk for very rapid fire spread and large fire growth, extreme fire behavior, and long range spotting.
These fires have devastated a swath of land that rivals the size of Atlanta. Put another way, the burned area is three times the size of Manhattan, just shy of the acreage of Washington, D.C., and eclipses the size of Paris.
Because the area is so large, the 40-year veteran told independent journalist Michael Schellenberger that the LAFD should have done a gut check, inventory their equipment, and mobilize men, women, and gear around the expansive area. Maybe even double-check to make sure there was enough water to fill the fire hydrants. Since there have been so many fires in these areas, they know where to pre-deploy.
Related: Shock Video: Newsom's 'Answer' to Hard L.A. Fire Questions Is to Censor People Asking Them
The unnamed fire department veteran told Schellenberger's Public Substack, "We don’t have enough engines, and 100 were in the shop” He also said that "Lack of leadership is the problem."
But as fires continue to rage out of control, it’s increasingly clear that the response to the fires by California’s leaders was inadequate. The LA Department of Water and Power had drained the city’s second-largest reservoir of water, which was right near the Palisades fire, and failed to notify the County or City Fire Department. The National Weather Service (NWS) warned of “extreme fire risk” on January 2, the NWS - Los Angeles held a briefing on January 3, and yet Mayor Bass flew to Ghana anyway. Newsom did not call out the National Guard until Friday and did not mobilize national and international help until the last few days.
Schellenberger also reported that an aide to Gavin Newsom told him the governor knew "the mayor’s office couldn’t adequately manage the situation" and "Newsom should have immediately traveled to L.A. to backstop the mayor’s office.”
The fires hit Tuesday, January 7. Newsom called in the National Guard on Friday. Newsom should have done far more before the firestorm hit such as preventative burnings, managing forests, and adequate supplies of reservoir water for openers. He has issued an open invitation to Illegal aliens who have been caught setting fires as I point out in my piece Monday What Will it Be, California: 'Sanctuary State' for 'Flame Thrower' or Citizens? and spent untold billions on drug tourists, who make up most of the homeless population which set half the fires in the county.
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