We finally have a good update about the Los Angeles wildfires, which have burned for weeks. The costliest natural disaster in American history, which threatened the city itself at some points, is now fully contained. It caps off a month of anguish for residents, many of whom, especially in the Pacific Palisades region, lost everything. With California’s new regulations, many insurers decided to leave the state. Those matters can be settled later. For now, the fires are over (via NYT):
More than three weeks after the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires broke out in Southern California, state officials on Friday evening said that firefighters had fully contained both fires, meaning that the perimeters of the fires were completely under control.
Evacuation orders had already been lifted, and for more than a week the fires have not posed a major threat. But their full containment closed a chapter on two fires that raged for days, killed at least 29 people, displaced thousands of residents and ravaged many neighborhoods.
Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting agency, updated the data for both fires on Friday night to show 100 percent containment.
The Palisades fire destroyed more than 6,800 structures, mostly in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and Malibu, and burned 23,448 acres, according to the agency. The Eaton fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures, mostly in the Altadena community in Los Angeles County, and burned 14,021 acres.
The Los Angeles Fire Department was knee-capped by budget cuts, some of which Mayor Karen Bass knew could be detrimental to emergency response. The Santa Ynez reservoir, which could have been crucial to fighting the blaze in the Palisades, was empty at the time of the fire. The emphasis on diversity and DEI initiatives led to wasteful spending and supply issues; the city wouldn’t do business with particular vendors during the DEI push.
Gov. Gavin Newsom clipped an elite volunteer firefighting unit days before the blaze and never replaced them, and that led to the National Guard being trained quickly to fill that need when the fires broke out. It took 10 days. There will be an investigation into serial mismanagement and incompetence by LA county and city officials.
It will be lengthy and humiliating for Democrats who are to blame for this shambolic response.
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