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Bad leaders — not climate change — are the reason the LA fires are burning California
by Jonathan A. Lesser, NY Post.com, January 9, 2025
The scenes from the wildfires devastating Los Angeles are apocalyptic. As of this writing, more than 2,000 homes, businesses and other buildings have been destroyed, and five people have died.
Firefighters have battled, with little success, flames spread by hurricane-force winds from Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica — wealthy areas in western LA near the Santa Monica Recreation Area — to the east in Eaton (near Pasadena) and farther toward the Cattle Canyon Bridge, located near the San Bernardino National Forest.
Though the cause of the current blaze has yet to be established, commentators are already making familiar claims that climate change is igniting more wildfires in California — a thesis with no basis in fact.
JUST IN: Los Angeles Fire Department chief Kristin Crowley turns on Los Angeles leadership, says they failed her.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 10, 2025
Remarkable interview.
Crowley called out the city for having no water in the Santa Ynez Reservoir.
Reporter: "Did the city of Los Angeles fail you and your… pic.twitter.com/fUQPoW32QA
Some state and local officials even argue that high winds themselves caused the wildfires.
Not so: Wind, by itself, doesn’t create sparks that trigger wildfires, though it certainly worsens them once they’ve started, as is happening here.
The most common causes of recent wildfires in the Golden State have been human activities (including arson) and poorly maintained power lines, such as those belonging to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which caused the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people.
Another likely culprit: bad forest management.
Last April, Los Angeles County unveiled its Community Forest Management Plan. The plan is heavy on buzzwords about the need to ensure an “equitable tree canopy” and “environmental justice” but light on strategies to reduce wildfire risk.
Though some good work has been done in that regard, such as by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the latest wildfires demonstrate the ongoing failure of Gov. Gavin Newsom to manage the problem.
In 2019, Newsom issued an executive order to devote more than $1 billion to wildfire prevention. But a 2021 investigation found that the governor had misled the public about the acreage of fuel-reduction projects completed in the state: just 11,399 acres, versus his claim of 90,000.
The lack of water in fire hydrants and failure to refill reservoirs — a shocking state of affairs — has obviously hampered efforts to fight the fires.
🚨 NEW: California Senator Adam Schiff LIES and says the reservoirs were full when the fires started
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 12, 2025
Schiff is totally incapable of telling the truth.
The Palisades reservoir was confirmed to be COMPLETELY EMPTY, leaving fire hydrants with little to no water pressure during the… https://t.co/bor2V0Qqym pic.twitter.com/kIcofLwmxM
One would assume that the Los Angeles Fire Department would regularly check to ensure that sufficient supply was available, especially when Santa Ana winds were forecast.
One would be wrong. Apparently, such a basic task was not considered important by department brass.
Instead, LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley stated that the county and its 29 fire departments “are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster” and that “Mother Nature has been the star of the show.”
Various studies purport to “prove” that wildfires are increasing in number and destructiveness. But the trend since 1987 has been fewer wildfires each year.
The acres burned have climbed upward, though that trend is skewed by the 4.5 million acres burned in 2020 and 2.5 million acres burned in 2021. Acreage burned in 2022-2023 fell to some of the lowest levels in the last 40 years. A longer-running trendline shows that the acreage burned in wildfires peaked in the 1920s.
A graph illustrating the increase in wildfire occurrences in the state of California from 1987-2023.
That the acreage burned is increasing even as the number of wildfires has decreased is not the result of climate change.
Rather it is the combined result of efforts to suppress wildfires and environmentalists’ demands to leave forests undisturbed.
California’s Mediterranean climate, with its historically wet winters followed by months of dry conditions, heightens the likelihood of wildfires. But instead of removing dead and diseased trees and undergrowth, the state, following environmentalist restrictions, has allowed that natural fuel to build up, creating the conditions for explosive wildfires.
Land use restrictions have also forced development nearer wildfire-prone areas, worsening the damage and loss of life.
A 2022 state audit and report found that California electric utilities’ efforts to reduce wildfires were inadequate, and that the state Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety had approved “seriously deficient” wildfire prevention plans.
The utilities, including Southern California Edison, which serves the region around Los Angeles, have been burying their transmission and distribution systems underground, but the costs of doing so far exceed those associated with tree-trimming near power lines.
Satellite image shows all three major fires in Los Angeles, California started at the same time.
— 🇺🇸 Pismo 🇺🇸 (@Pismo_B) January 12, 2025
Arson is not Climate Change!! pic.twitter.com/GtMHwlItfS
As with its singular focus on green energy, California’s wildfire prevention efforts have been costly and impractical, with tragic results. Whether sparked by fireworks, power lines, lightning, homeless encampments or arson, the conflagrations devastating Los Angeles are just the latest result of decades of ill-conceived policies.
LA Mayor Karen Bass is a trained Marxist terrorist who traveled to Cuba dozens of times, praised communist dictators and allied with the literal terror group that bombed the US Capital.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 9, 2025
One has to assume she’s burning LA on purpose. Bass should be in jailpic.twitter.com/4UmSK4Z47p
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