By KENNETH SCHRUPP | THE CENTER SQUARE and MUST READ ALASKA
Hundreds of fire hydrants were stolen from the ground for scrap metal in advance of the blazes raging across Los Angeles, highlighting the local government’s challenges in maintaining basic order and infrastructure.
“These fire hydrant thefts are yet another sign of how crime is out of control in Los Angeles County,” said Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman to The Center Square before his November election. “Thieves know they’ll face little or no consequences if they are caught, so they’re willing to risk the public’s safety for a small profit.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has been away on a taxpayer-funded trip to Africa as a member of a Biden administration delegation, recently cut the fire department’s budget by $17.6 million.
Upon her arrival back in the United States, Sky News asked Bass whether she regrets cutting the fire department’s budget, and if she feels she owes citizens an apology for being absent as the city burned.
Bass ignored the questions, her eyes glued to the ground as she proceeded through the airport.
Days before Bass left for Ghana, the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles Bureau warned of “extreme fire weather conditions.”
The day before fires broke out, Bass shared a NWS warning, suggesting she may have been aware of the fire before her departure.
“There is an expected destructive and potentially life-threatening windstorm starting Tuesday morning through Wednesday afternoon,” said Bass. “Stay safe LA!”
On Wednesday, fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades lost their water pressure entirely. All water storage tanks in the area were dry. Water reservoir projects promised by the state government for years have not been built.
As of Wednesday evening the fires are zero percent contained.
Stay up with the Los Angeles Fire Department reports and maps at this link.
Maybe(?), the resident victims of this tragic fire get better care than those in Maui and/or rural North Carolina???
Maybe(?), this awakens taxpayer citizens to the lack of leadership and their useless initiatives???
Maybe(?), this is a rally cry for better leadership that serves the best interest of the tax paying citizens?
Maybe(?), tax paying citizens in California awaken and change their leadership but, in California it’s likely ‘not’ going to happen?
Maybe(?), here in AK907 we can also learn from this tragedy, and this awakens tax paying citizens and we choose better leadership!!!
Maybe(?) humans stop building their homes in unsustainable ways and places.
Explain “building homes in unsustainable ways”, please.
As for unsustainable places, in what locations exactly do you envision the population to reside that in your opinion is sustainable?
So this is how it ends for LA. By Fire! Democrats sure know how to burn their houses down. Oh yeah …… climate change and Republicans driving their pick-up trucks. Burn, baby, burn.
It’s California so it’s no surprise from the land of fruits and nuts.
They got what they voted for
Cut the budget
Fire the workers
Train for wholeness
Don’t manage the water suppy
project 2025 isn’t going to increase services, gonna cut everything. store your peanuts
This is the future of Los Anchorage if the leftist Marxists continue to run the Anchorage government.
This baffles me. Yes, Gavin Newsom loves the smelt more than the taxpayers. But CalFire has more aerial firefighting assets than the rest of the 49 states combined. So why are they not all being used to fight this fire? A competent air boss along with the FAA can keep the traffic moving efficiently and safely. It’s as if California has somehow lost it’s will to do great things. So glad I left in 1973.
Wind
Dont forget the dried fuel stacked up under the sparklers overhead.
Dont be so pessimistic. The mayor of LA not being present prevented her from making decisions that made the fire worse. The lady fire chief just proved the argument that women shouldn’t be firefighters. LA didn’t burn down so DHS doesn’t have an excuse to export Californians all over the country a-la hurricane Katrina.
All in all, it was kinda sad but not bad.
Would it be rude to ask whether Anchorage’s floundering failure LaFrance has something similar planned for Anchorage’s high-rent suburbs so they can be replaced, post Apocalypse, with tiny houses for illegal aliens, bums, LeDoux supporters, and other species of radical Left Democrat “voters”?
How much pain can Californians bear from their totally dysfunctional super majority democrat run government before they have had enough?
What was the huge budget cut to the fire department spent on?
It costs a lot of extra money to be a sanctuary city that caters to illegals running from the law.
Just the huge impact on social services alone can break the bank.
Anchorage ASSembly members need to take a close look at what a sanctuary city looks like during a disaster.
Thankfully LA’s mayor just had a vacation partying it up with the Bidens and is ready to hit the ground running or possibly running away from all the heat she will be taking.
The budget wasn’t cut, it actually increased. The city increased the fire department’s overall budget by approximately $53 million in the current fiscal year.
It raises the question why the LAFD chief wrote a memo in December complaining about $18 million in cuts?
From what I could find the LAFD has a budget of about $820 million.
So let’s put that in perspective, the LAFD has considerable funds, but just 2% in cuts according to the LAFD chief, (as reported by CBS), “have adversely affected the department’s ability to maintain core operations. A $7 million reduction in overtime hours “severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies” and affected their capacity for brush clearance inspections and residential inspections.” Again LAFD spends $745 million on personnel cost, but $7 million halts core operations?
As with all budgets, it comes down to priorities.
Something is weird here.
Another idiot, Affirmative Action mayor. When will they ever learn?
And now, even wildfire can become politicized.
I sure hope those burned out Angelenos don’t move here.
California sure is not being carbon neutral.
Wonder how they will try to blame the rest of us for the climate scam this time.
With all the smartest people in America, one would think they would have been better prepared for fire season that California seems to have every year.
Time to cut our losses and toss California into the ocean.
How do you steal a pressurized hydrant?
Wait for the water to run dry.
Should have been a clue right there
Lets see if Eagle River and Anchorage will take note when the governor of California tore down 4 river dams to bring back smelt fish. Sort of the same thing Alaska wanting tear down Eklutna dam to bring back salmon with all the fires Alaska has caused by the black spruce.
So, the MAGA’s who were experts on infectious diseases, vaccines, military withdrawals, the stock market, presidential immunity, firearm forms, SCOTUS reforms, libel law, international shipping policy & interoceanic waterways are experts on wildfires now?
There’s quite a few polymaths on this site. Well done.
Well, Sebastian, I used to live there, I was born in what is now the fire zone. I’m far more familiar with it than you are,with yourcheap snark. That are burns annually with the weather patterns we’re seeing right now that this has been occurring essentially forever, as shown by the presence of plants with seeds that require fire to germinate. Follow the SCIENCE!! As your pals kept spouting I grew up in a household of a member of the US Forest Service who had to go out and work on fires frequently. Yes, I DO know about firearms , I taught classes on them!! As for infectious diseases, ,I majored in Microbiokogy. along with over20 years in health care.So I do know a bit more than your average guy,and I support MAGA
Chucky, the average guy knows enough to put a space after a comma. Maybe start with Strunk and White! Remember hypertension is the silent killer. Chill the h… out!
Stick that pedantry up our Strunk!This is just a comment section, not a formal essay. And you’re not in a place to lecture me about a cursed thing your snark is weak!!
Now listen up Slingblade Clarke – you don’t have the intellectual bandwidth to survive this battle. Quit while you are behind!
It is sad people have so much hate for a group of people who believe in “Making America Great Again”.
They are hellbent on listening to their leader during the last few years when Joe kept preaching to his flock that MAGA is bad and must be stopped.
It is a parasitic condition that spread rapidly during King Obama’s reign and matastasized under Joe’s four years of “transformation”
Yes Andy, aptly phrased “the woke mind virus”.
Andy, I’m all for $2 gasoline and eggs. To think President Trump can make one phone call on January 21st and the Ukraine war will end immediately. Musk will find $2 trillion to cut from the budget and the border will be closed. Happy days are soon here again!
To Sebastian;
knowl-edge
noun
1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
Yes dear one. There are people who have lived in this world and have a mind that allows them to absorb all sorts of experience. They allow themselves to be open to new ideas and have explored the power of their own consciousness. Reality can be observed and opinions formed.
You are the one who seems to be stuck in limited awareness, as evidenced by you associating anything MAGA with stupidity. This limitation is self imposed and can be fixed, if you allow yourself to think outside the box.
There is also what is called an intuitive sense. That ‘gut feeling’. When something doesn’t seem right, it prompts further exploration and analysis which leads to making better decisions in ones life.
There is also pattern recognition. When a pattern presents itself over and over, the observer can start to formulate a reason things occur and the subsequent outcomes. Cause and effect.
Sebastian, you may be scared and think that America is coming to an end under the incoming administration. It is very possible. However, MAGA people in general are some of the kindest, generous and various (dare I say diverse) I have ever met. They are also human, just like you. They have emotions and sometimes they get angry.
Don’t let the division in your mind cause division in your life against your own people.
We all just want to Make America Great. You can too buddy. Don’t give up.
I should add to my comment about American possibly coming to an end. It could, America (as we know it).
I hope that we have a golden age of prosperity. But as we learned in the first term of Trump, there were many wolves in sheep’s clothing that persisted in sabotaging the progress Trump was trying to make. It is possible that even with all good intentions, that corruption and the love of money can take over and the will of the people be damned.
It is up to us, the people of this nation, to work together and get beyond this constant bickering back and forth. For while we fight against each other and remain distracted, the true enemies of humanity glide in uninterrupted and poison the well from within the gates of our garden.
Why thank you, Sebastian!
Yep we are a diverse group with the ability to read, learn from each other, debate respectfully and critically think.
They are getting what they voted for. I don’t feel sorry for them.
Any federal funding to California must stop immediately! When the leftist evil fools are removed the discussions can then begin.
The lack of empathy for what these people are going through from some of the commenters on here is truly staggering. So, let’s say that every single homeless or dispossessed person in the area of the fires is a committed leftist and democrat, and that the reason for the fires is due to DEI hires; does that mean those people deserve the tragedy that they’re enduring? If that’s how some of you feel, then I don’t question your character, I deny its existence.
I find some of the comments disheartening as well.
These are fellow human beings and the jealous vibe of “well they have extra mansions”, “they get what they deserve” or “don’t give them any federal funds” is disturbing to me. Nobody deserved to have their home and possessions burned to the ground.
We always see comments here how the left are deranged and spiteful. Well your comments aren’t any better! You have a right to say it, but it paints an ugly picture.
We need to be better or the divide will only get wider.
The next earthquake or fire is not just a possibility, but a given in this state. Consider that you very easily could be on the other side of such commentary!
Hold individuals responsible and scrutinize their actions, not condemn any and all in a petty “serves you right” diatribe!
That’s A great place for the DOGE to begin