A friend says:
L.A. from the standpoint of the average citizen runs OK as long as there isn’t an emergency. The fault is that the persons elected to high office believe things will continue to run OK and do not plan for emergencies. As a result the overwhelmingly liberal and democratic electorate doesn’t really vote on competence because most people are not worried about a potentially catastrophic brush fire.
The first time that I realized that our leadership lacked much vision in planning for various exigencies was when the Rodney King riots occurred. The LAPD under Darryl Gates and the city under Tom Bradley., was not prepared. It took Pete Wilson to finally send in the national guard before order began to be restored. You would have thought the LAPD would have learned some lessons from the 1965 Watts riot when William Parker was the Chief of police.
One of the problems which has not been discussed is that neither the state nor the County nor the city is so rich that it can expected to pay for emergency services to be prepared for an emergency like the Palisades fire all the time. The issue is not just the failure to maintain and test the hydrants, and to be sure that when a reservoir is taken off line, that sufficient back up water supply is available, and that there be sufficient personnel to fight the fire, and to be sure that all firefighters are properly trained to fight this sort of fire, and to have sufficient fire stations for a low response time, but what is the purpose of the fire department. Should it provide the EMT services that it does now (which make up the majority of calls they respond to)? Should it emphasize DEI and opportunities for women, minorities and gays, if this has any negative impact on the first duty to fight fires? Should it be immune from the budget battles the other city agencies have to deal with?
A very large portion of the firefighting is being done by the LA County Fire Department, by the State, and by other Fire Departments providing “mutual aid.” You would have to have an extraordinarily large fire department if the entire burden was shouldered by the LAFD. (This is as relates to the fires within LA city limits)
Although I am highly critical of DEI in general, I am not sure that having the two top administrative positions in the department filed by Lesbians has made any difference in the LAFD’s effectiveness. I don’t think women should serve as firefighters in the field, but on the other hand they only make up 8 percent or so of the department, so they are almost always the only woman out of a crew of 15 to 20 and there must be things the can do that don’t require the same strength and agility as male firefighters. I have not heard anyone say that the firefighters were harmed or delayed by female firefighters. If the firemen was darting in and out of burning buildings and carrying humans to safety that would be one thing but I don’t think that happened.
The Palisades fire had some unusual features that don’t usually apply. First, the fire happened in Winter. Although this is not unheard of the prime fire season in California is the late summer through fall. Second, the fire happened in a very affluent area. I realize there have been fires in Malibu before, but those usually hit the areas in the hills in less densely populated areas and less affluent population than the Palisades. Third, this followed extremely wet winters the last two years so there was more brush growth that died off this past summer, fall and beginning of winter. Fourth, the water pressure failed and the reservoirs ran out of water.
I have seen attempts to blame this on the new DWP head. My understanding is that she was hired because of the extreme pressure on LADWP to get its electricity from greener sources. I doubt she knew anything about water. She had worked at PG&E which doesn’t deal with water, only gas and electricity. She did not come up from the department and I don’t think she has an engineering background (although she may). Her salary is of course, appalling, since it was double that of her predecessor. One would think that there would be someone in a subordinate position to hers in charge of water distribution to residential consumers, to commercial consumers, and for emergency purposes to hydrants for fire fighting. This subordinate should have apprised her of the risks of taking the large reservoir (Santa Ynez) of line to repair the roof. The DWP should have positioned many many water tenders that could be driven up hill from the Palisades so that the water would flow downhill from them to the hydrants.
There will be political fallout from the fires. Perhaps the most important is that the L.A. Times owner now says he regrets endorsing Karen Bass for Mayor. This gives cover to others to criticize Bass. It is interesting that the Fire Chief is willing to put Bass in an untenable position with her comments that Bass was warned about a possible conflagration yet ignored the warning. Now it also appears that a memo she sent to the Mayor was removed from the Mayor’s website or files because it would reflect poorly on Bass. Of course Bass’s promise to not travel overseas while mayor is being brought up as well as Bass’s participate in the 1960’s in the Venceremos Brigade cutting sugarcane in Cuba.
Bass is not out of the mainstream as a progressive Black woman democrat, although she will be painted as some sort of radical. I don’t think her policies are any more radical than those of Villaraigosa or Eric Garcetti. But Soon-Shiong wants to make competence an issue. If he can persuade others that the Democrats practice activist and identarian politics and that is inconsistent with pragmatism, then perhaps Karen Bass can be recalled and if not recalled, defeated in the next election.
It is worth looking at how the LAFD (and LACOFD) dealt with the fires after the first day to see what might have been. First the wind made aerial drops impossible, and it was those aerial drops that were most effective in stopping the spread of the fires. Second, it is not at all clear whether if the Fire Department had predeployed both Fire Department Assets and personnel, that those would have been in the Palisades. There are many areas of Los Angeles that contain hills with plenty of fuel for a big brush fire. Third, it does appear that the failure to have more firefighters ready to join in the fight hurt the attempts to save property in the Palisades. Fourth it appears that the failure to repair fire department equipment, which the Chief blamed on budget cuts also may have hurt to effort. There is no question that the problems with water exacerbated the ability to fight fires. Again the inability to tap the Santa Ynez reservoir for water really put a crimp in the ability to put water on the fires, but if the reservoir had to be drained for necessary repair, it makes more sense it was taken off line in January than during the traditional fire season of August through November. The one lesson learned is that if a reservoir is drained, the Fire Department has to pre position water tenders so as to make sure there can be a continuous supply of water.
