who or what is to blame for the ca fires?

I have written much about this topic already. There is an entire litany of reasons that have been proposed, some of them outlandish and just not based on facts but even reality and geography. The more outlandish ones have included:

• The leaves in the forest had not been raked

• Water in Northern California would solve the water shortage in fighting the fires. Subsequently by Presidential order water has been released in the north, but there is a mountain range standing in the way of the water getting to Southern California

• Diversity and equity programs lead to poorly trained firefighters and the diversion of funds away from firefighting efforts.

Then there are the more directly applicable factors impacting the fire behavior and the response:

• Extremely high Santa Anna winds

• High drought conditions in the region with little to no rain for many months

• Homes built in the wildland interface area

• Streets too narrow for evacuation and for fire apparatus trying to respond

• Fire hydrants running dry since the water system is meant to support individual homes burning and not an urban conflagration

• Older homes built to a lesser building code with more flammable materials and features

• Homeowners not using Firewise techniques to protect their homes

• Not enough fire resources were mobilized to initially respond to the “potential” for fires

• Warnings to citizens were not always given or were not timely

This article accounts for all of the above, It Was the Big One. Just Not the One L.A. Was Expecting.  We always talked about California having the “Big One” but that was in the past and relegated to earthquakes.

There is another reason why the extent of the damage was as bad as they were—it was a catastrophe! First responder resources are sized for emergencies and lower-level disasters. With the weather conditions that existed there is likely nothing that would have prevented the fire storm from being as destructive as it became.

Where you build, how you build, how you maintain your homes and community planning/zoning are vitally important as climate change becomes more impactful. I’m hopeful that elected officials in California will not repeat the same mistakes of the past in an effort to rebuild as fast as possible. Making that mistake will only ensure that the vulnerability remains for future fires.

One interesting thing to note in the linked article was the fact that 200 Los Angeles firefighters do not live in the region, but commute from other states. Not unusual for a “tri-state” area or for airplane pilots, but the first time I’ve heard of this for first responders.