The Los Angeles Fires: A Human-Caused Catastrophe Years in the Making

While Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles suffered devastating fires on Tuesday night, LA Mayor Karen Bass was attending the inauguration of Ghana’s new president. The challenger she faced in the 2022 mayoral race voiced criticism on local television about her “incompetent management of the city.”

Real estate developer Rick Caruso harshly criticized both city and county officials, pointing to their negligence in brush clearance over the last several decades, which escalated the wildfire threat.

“What troubles me most is that our firefighters striving to combat this blaze don’t have access to water in the Palisades,” Caruso shared with Fox 11 News. “Fire hydrants are bone dry.” He denounced Bass for being abroad during the city’s crisis.

Bass opted to attend an African event on Jan. 7, despite the National Weather Service in Los Angeles having issued warnings on Jan. 2 of “extreme fire growth” and power outages forecasted for Jan. 7-9.

Prior to her trip, the mayor approved a news release highlighting the city’s “preparedness actions” for the hazardous conditions.

Yet, alarmingly, she did not mandate any measures for locating and removing homeless encampments from fire-vulnerable locations, which are known fire hazards.

Instead, Bass announced that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority would continue “outreach” efforts to those living on the streets in “high fire severity zones.”

The US Supreme Court ruled last summer that cities can enforce anti-camping ordinances, but Los Angeles officials have yet to implement this.

Concerns over homelessness in Pacific Palisades have existed for years. In 2014, local volunteers created the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness to begin “cleaning up abandoned encampments in our fire-prone hillsides.”

The organization claims to have cleaned up 535 encampments last year alone.

What led to the lack of water in fire hydrants? Newly appointed CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Janisse Quiñones, suggested that excessive demand on the system was to blame.

Quiñones, who began her role at a staggering salary of $750,000 along with a housing allowance, was hired by Bass in April. The mayor remarked at the time that Quiñones “possesses the talent and experience necessary to transition the department to 100% clean energy by 2035.”

“I prioritize that all our operations are approached with equity and social justice,” Quiñones stated during a radio interview in July, highlighting the necessity of correcting past infrastructural mistakes.

Is there no one in city government aiming to ensure water supply for fire hydrants?

Hydrants similarly ran dry during the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which devastated nearly 97,000 acres across Malibu and Ventura County, destroyed 1,643 buildings, and claimed three lives. Power outages disabled the pumps responsible for delivering water to the hydrants.

During this disaster, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West resorted to hiring private firefighters to save their property from the fire’s advance.

Given Mayor Bass recently approved a $12.8 billion city budget which includes a $17.5 million cut to the LA Fire Department, more residents might be inclined to consider private fire protection services.

Fire Chief Kristin M. Crowley warned the Board of Fire Commissioners in December that the budget cuts, particularly the $7 million reduction in overtime staffing hours, have “significantly diminished” the LAFD’s ability to address wildfires and large-scale emergencies.

In the same budget, Bass actively supported salary increases for city civilian employee unions, with projections estimating a first-year cost of $316 million, potentially rising to $1 billion annually by 2028.

Why shrink the fire department’s budget? The likely reason is that the California constitution mandates local tax increases require voter approval. Depriving the fire department of resources creates alarming situations that can be exploited to sway voters to approve higher taxes.

This tactic was recently employed in the November election. The union representing LA County firefighters gathered signatures for an initiative proposing a new annual tax of $60 per 1,000 square feet for properties served by the Los Angeles County (not city) Fire Department.

Voters were led to believe that this tax increase would generate $152 million per year for “local firefighter and paramedic emergency response, including wildfires, house fires, heart attacks, strokes, and auto accidents; to recruit and train new firefighters and paramedics, upgrade aging safety equipment, fire engines, helicopters, facilities, life-saving rescue tools, and 911 communications systems.”

This ballot description made it challenging to vote against, yet 45% of voters did, likely due to recognizing the same old ploy. With a $45 billion annual budget, if county officials cannot identify $152 million for fire safety and lifesaving efforts, it raises serious questions for investigation.

Do not attribute the disastrous fires solely to climate change. The alarming fires in Los Angeles County stem from politicians more focused on virtue signaling than on providing essential governmental services.

California residents are suffering the consequences of electing such leaders.

Susan Shelley is an editorial writer with the Southern California News Group and serves as the VP of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. On X: @Susan_Shelley.