Why Los Angeles was unprepared for this fire

By Free Republic | Created at 2025-01-11 18:37:16 | Updated at 2025-01-16 03:12:34 4 days ago

Why Los Angeles was unprepared for this fire
The Washington Post ^ | January 11, 2025 9:50 AM EST | Anna Phillips, Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Evan Halper, Joshua Partlow

Posted on 01/11/2025 10:25:36 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

In Los Angeles’s chaparral-covered ecosystem, wildfires in the mountains are an annual ritual. But when those fires leaped into residential neighborhoods earlier this week, killing at least 11 people and destroying thousands of homes, the city suddenly found itself in survival mode.

A critical question became why the largest city in California, a state that has spent years fortifying itself against wildfires, couldn’t stop the fires this time. State regulations required residents in high-risk neighborhoods to create vegetation-free buffers around their homes. California had invested billions of dollars to reduce the amount of woody fuel for fires to burn. It boasted the largest firefighting force in the nation.

Yet within a few days, decades-old communities and beloved landmarks were gone, and residents are left asking why.

Experts said several key factors — including urban sprawl, a resistance to clearing vegetation around homes, and a water system that’s not designed to combat multiple major blazes at once — left L.A. exposed to disaster. As climate change fuels record heat, leaving the hillsides primed for wildfires to grow swiftly into massive conflagrations, these factors led to catastrophe.

“There was a lot that could have and should have been done,” said Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Oregon-based Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. “Decades before we knew about climate change, we knew this kind of urban sprawl was a big risk.”

Sprawling risk

The planning flaws that exacerbated the wildfires have long plagued Southern California. The two communities decimated by fires, Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, were built decades ago at the foothills of mountains that frequently burn. Dotted with single-family homes lining narrow, winding streets, they are difficult to defend and difficult to evacuate.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

TOPICS: Humor
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The MSM-Democrats are beginning to develop and get their storyline together.

2 posted on 01/11/2025 10:26:54 AM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])

To: E. Pluribus Unum

And there it is, the liberals are going to tell us that it’s all because there’s too many people sprawling out and climate change.

3 posted on 01/11/2025 10:28:05 AM PST by Skwor

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Because DEMOCRATS ARE IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING!!!

4 posted on 01/11/2025 10:28:06 AM PST by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

If they keep saying “climate change” over and over again they think they can make it true.

That is classic black magic.

5 posted on 01/11/2025 10:28:20 AM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

If climate change is blamed, I turn them off.

6 posted on 01/11/2025 10:28:30 AM PST by JusPasenThru (We are Free to be Americans Again.)

To: Ann Archy

Well if “The Future Is Female”, you just got a glimpse of the future.

7 posted on 01/11/2025 10:29:45 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)

To: JusPasenThru

Yup—if anyone uses the term “climate change” they are part of enemy occupied territory or enemy sympathizers.

The only nation that gains from this kind of talk is China—which laughs at our eco-freaks.

8 posted on 01/11/2025 10:30:11 AM PST by cgbg (It is time to pull the Deep State out of the mass media--like ticks from a dog.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

DEI and the Peter Principle.

9 posted on 01/11/2025 10:31:05 AM PST by tired&retired (Blessings )

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Click your ruby heels and repeat after me 3 times, there's nothing like climate change.

Now go save the world you heroes.

10 posted on 01/11/2025 10:31:10 AM PST by Kudsman (Hey,, Democrat,,leave them kids alone!)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

The Washington Post? This should be good for a laugh or two.

11 posted on 01/11/2025 10:31:41 AM PST by MAGA2017

To: E. Pluribus Unum

As I predicted, this is the usual scam to force the middle class into "sustainable" tenements, loaded with dangerous illegals.

But that's "social justice" for you, the way they see it.

12 posted on 01/11/2025 10:32:12 AM PST by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

“...As climate change fuels record heat” - Stopped reading.

13 posted on 01/11/2025 10:32:47 AM PST by MAGA2017

To: E. Pluribus Unum

14 posted on 01/11/2025 10:33:17 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Deport that piggie, Marchan!!! NOW!!! Send his butt back to Colombia! He's milked America enough.)

To: E. Pluribus Unum

Stopped reading at: “ … California, a state that has spent years fortifying itself against wildfires … “

15 posted on 01/11/2025 10:33:34 AM PST by KingLudd

To: JusPasenThru

Absolutely!
The mention of “climate change” discredits the entire article.

16 posted on 01/11/2025 10:36:35 AM PST by sjmjax

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