Last week, as fires were destroying her neighborhood, Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Christine Crowley saw an opportunity and seized it.
She said in an interview with FOX 11 News on Friday that city leaders have been unable to gain support from voters because the city has been “underfunded, understaffed and underresourced” for years. said.
Crowley has made such claims in the past, but when she told CNN on air last week that $17 million in budget cuts had crippled the department, I wondered about her timing.
steve lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a columnist for the Los Angeles Times since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and was a Pulitzer finalist four times.
As the death toll rises, new fires break out, and fear spreads throughout the region, if you’re watching your home or community go up in flames, your fire chief has the responsibility to focus on putting out the fire on the ground before it happens. I would like you to do that. Let’s start with City Hall.
And now, in the aftermath of Mr. Crowley’s blistering attacks on Mayor Karen Bass and other leaders, questions are being raised about whether LAFD leaders failed to make the most of their resources.
On Tuesday, I spoke with a Cal Fire official who questioned the Los Angeles Fire Department’s dispatch strategy, saying that while it may be true that they can’t fight an inferno on an epic scale, the key is to He said the key is to “take early and strong action” before a situation becomes a problem. hell.
In his opinion, that didn’t happen. And in a Times article published Tuesday night, my colleagues Paul Pringle, Alene Chekhmedian, and Dakota Smith made just that point.
The Altadena hardware was destroyed by the Eaton Fire.
(Colleen Shalby/Los Angeles Times)
Before the fire broke out, LAFD “commanders decided not to allocate approximately 1,000 firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines,” the article said, including many Fire officials questioned LAFD deployment.
“Due to strong winds, fire officials chose not to order firefighters to work double shifts and deployed only five of the more than 40 engines available to fight the wildfire.” continued. “After the Palisades fire got out of control, the fire department began calling in more firefighters and deploying additional engines.”
Crowley and his staff defended their staffing and strategy. One of her chief of staff told the Times that with winds gusting at 90 mph in different directions, more resources might not have made a difference.
To be fair, we live in unusual times, but unfortunately they are only getting more unusual and firefighting calculations are becoming more complex.
Given the proximity of so many homes to wilderness areas and the drought and hurricane-force winds, many of us live in vast death traps. These life-threatening situations will be with us for the foreseeable future. As Times climate columnist Sammy Ross pointed out, there is much more to consider and plan than just the size of a fire station, including where and how to build it. How we contribute to situations that put us at risk.
But that being said, a complete review of what happened in the Palisades is mandatory, keeping in mind how easy it is to second-guess, especially in the early stages of the game, and not an option. there is no. So is the Eaton Fire, which has destroyed much of Altadena and the death toll is rising.
Woodland Hills Los Angeles firefighters are searching for hot spots at homes along Toyopa Drive in preparation for strong winds in the Palisades fire zone on Jan. 14.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)
One thing no one can doubt is the hard work of thousands of firefighters last week in difficult and dangerous conditions. Without their work on the ground and in the air, the devastation and death toll would have been even worse.
Naturally, the path forward is clear for Crowley, who wants to provide more support to the military.
“We know we need 62 new fire stations, and we know we need to double the size of our fire department,” she told FOX 11 News last week, adding that since 2010, He added that the number of calls to police has doubled, while the number of firefighters has increased. 68 decreased.
Perhaps Mr. Crowley thought now was a good time to strike. That’s because Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been politically damaged by her decision to leave town to take office as Ghana’s president, despite warnings of extreme fire risk.
As I wrote last week, it was an unfortunate move on the part of Buss, even though the fire would have been just as bad had it remained in Los Angeles. And it doesn’t help that, as my colleague Julia Wick reports, it turns out the bus was. At a cocktail party on the other side of the world while LA was on fire.
Mr Crowley also knows that we are all concerned about where the next fire will be and finds the pitch for more firefighters very appealing. are.
But some city officials dispute the mayor’s budget claims, arguing that a series of price hikes and the purchase of equipment such as fire engines actually increased fire department expenses.
And how much taxpayers will pay for doubling LAFD’s size, especially considering that more than 85% of calls to the department are for medical services, and many of them are minor rather than fire-related. Is there one?
“Certainly there are reasonable questions to ask about available resources, pre-deployment, and planning, but those questions and answers are best asked when complete information is available, not in this specific moment. It’s the best,” said former member Andrew Glazier. of the LAFD Fire Commission.
He said city officials are asking whether the Los Angeles Fire Department has “adequate resources to balance routine, low-intensity emergencies with infrequent, high-intensity disasters like this fire.” We need to consider whether that’s the case.” Most importantly, as a city, we need to ask ourselves what level of department staffing and infrastructure we are prepared to pay for, not just in the face of hell, but over the long term. is. ”
Once the smoke clears, we’ll have a lot to talk about. And I hope we get there soon.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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