What about New Mexico & Texas Panhandle?

Reading comprehension is obviously a struggle for you.

CA is nothing more than a Marxist enclave "led" by useful idiots who wish the entire country to become one.... Sad... Spectacularly beautiful state... Lots of great folks out there....

What about it? Spell it out, Butch.

the word here in Cali is that the power district cut off the power so as not to have the wind blow down electrical lines that could cause more fires ---- not knowing it took power to pump water to the hydrants -- maybe it's just an excuse . Let's assume for now it's true ---if it is ---just imagine the stupidity of Government , municipalities and agencies to make such a stupid decision . Now they are talking about bringing in generators to start pumping water in ---- insane .

No kidding. Have humans made any strides in preparing for/dealing with them since God created the heavens and earth?
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They must have done something or the whole state would burn

Holy moly.

Thank you for proving my point.

Supposedly an arsonist is now in custody in regards to one of the fires.....

For one that was started today. A fire photographer caught a homeless person on camera starting one near the Palisades Monday. That will be the big story from all of this, after the criticism of government incompetence dies down.

First, lets be thankful that there are firefighters from all the various agencies that are willing to respond to these wildfires, and lets pray that they all stay safe while they selflessly work to help save life and property.

Lets not forget that Southern California is the most complex area in the world to suppress wildfires. There is nothing about these fires that are easy. There is no other place in the world where this many homes are threatened by wildfires. The terrain is very challenging, incredibly steep. There are a lot of people in Southern California that choose to live in areas immediately adjacent to a fuel type that is known to be quite volatile. This problem is compounded with a known annual foehn wind, Santa Ana Winds, which have been present on all these fires since they've begun. These are obvious challenges that are incredibly hard to mitigate safely.

Lets address the prescribed fire and hazardous fuels issue first. Prescribed fire implementation always has been and always will be incredibly challenging in Southern California. The fuel type in most of these areas (tall brush mostly manzanita and chapparel) is challenging to achieve enough consumption to mitigate a wildfire risk. Fires spread and consume fuels in this fuel type with higher winds, that obviously makes maintaining control more challenging, and isn't often done with prescribed fire. Now, can the National Forests and other public lands do other things to mitigate the risk? They do. There are many hazardous fuels reductions projects that are on going on public lands throughout California, most California wildland firefighter crews when not assigned to a wildfire are out doing things to mitigate the risk of wildfire on hazardous fuels reduction projects this is done by thinning forest areas and constructing burn piles that are burned, a lot of times under snow cover. Other projects involve cutting and mulching brush. The list goes on. Could there be more, sure, the sky is the limit. There are miles upon miles of fuel breaks that are constructed and maintained in areas that can be used to contain wildfires when they occur, this makes it easier for crews to quickly burn out and indirectly attack wildfires when they occur at locations that are more apt to successfully contain the fire. These have been going on since the CCC crews during the great depression, could more and more be done? the sky is the limit, and by the time you are done, you better keep going because its all grown back in.

The government doesn't have much control over where the public chooses to build their homes on private property. They also don't control what the homes are constructed of and how they are maintained. So when you have essentially an entire massive city that interfaces with hazardous fuels, that seasonally interact with some incredibly strong winds, what happens? To compound the issue, when fire crews respond to a lot of these fires they are confronted with property owners that should already be gone, I understand people wanting to stay behind and try to save their house, but oftentimes them being around hinders the efforts more than it helps. There are a lot of incredibly stupid people in this country, lets be honest, what can be done about this?

I've already addressed some of the challenges with staffing the wildland fire workforce. California has had the most challenges because its quite expensive to live there, how can a GS-4 making less that $20/hr afford to get started in wildland fire? DEI, sure, thats been going on for decades in the government and non government for decades, and will never go away. In terms of making people be wildland fire qualified, the vast majority of municipal fire departments and LA county are very well versed in working within the wildland and wildland urban interface environments, I would give them credit as being the best and most experienced in the world at protecting structures from wildfire.

Fire Season in Southern California usually occurs in October-November, so having this occur in January probably took some by surprise. Looking at the list of available tactical aircraft available in southern California many had gone off contract at the end of November. I'm not sure if this is affecting the suppression efforts. I'm curious to hear more about this. With the wind blowing so strong, odds are aircraft would be grounded of ineffective anyways. Southern California is one of the only places in the world where you will see helicopters working at night to make water drops that are more effective during periods of lower winds.

Its quite a lot to explain what goes into to planning for wildfires but I can attest that wildland firefighting resources across the country are well trained and deployed in a very efficient and effective manner. Training and qualifications are identical no matter what agency or department you work for. The National Wildland Firefighting Coordination Group (NWCG) does an excellent job of this. Wildland Fire respsonders are able to respond to fires anywhere in the country, follow the ICS system, organize into an effective wildland firefighting force quickly and work to suppress fires.

I know a lot of people are skeptical of the government, but I will continue to say that one thing the government has gotten very good at is wildland fire suppression. LA County does an excellent job working in unified command in Southern California with other agencies to do everything they can to save lives and property. I truly do not think that the president, governor, or mayor affects the outcome of a wildfire in any way shape or form. What would they do? When a governor declares a state of emergency, the firefighters on the ground, unless they heard it in the news would never know, what is different? its more of an emergency then? Nothing is different where it matters, is it supposed to be? I fought fires all over the country for nearly 2 decades in states ran by all sorts of different politics, I just don't see any of that affecting what a firefighter does on the ground. Some places are more organized than others, some gets more attention than others, it just is what it is, Unfortunately it usually takes devastation for some people to learn. A lot of people think "this will never happen to us".

If its true that they shut the power off and that shut the power off to the pumps that were filling the water tanks, then thats what that is in that part of LA. Sure, somebody should have known that but Roosevelt told us that any good leader knows that in any of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. If the rumor is true, the winds were high, they were concerned about the powerlines starting more fires, they shut the power off. If the winds are blowing that strong and the houses are burning what will water do anyways? Tell me what that Mayor has to do with that?

I think everyone would be better off separating politics from these disasters. Ive done a lot of work on wildfire here in the state of Texas, and I'm here to tell you, in arguably the most red state in the country there are communities that are at very high risk and little is being done. in fact, in 2011 we saw a lot of that unfold, was politics what was at play there? Did places like Bastrop and PK burn down just because? A whole pile of wildland fire resources were in texas from all over the world in 2011. These are areas that are comparatively operationally simple to suppress wildfires in. The republicans didn't have it right? Personally i'm a republican, but I just don't see the connection between politics and wildland fire suppression. Its an incredibly dynamic environment, and its very easy to point fingers at an undesirable outcome.

City government data also shows that for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Los Angeles budgeted $837 million for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which was roughly 65% the size of the homeless budget of $1.3 billion. An analysis by L.A.'s city comptroller last year found that roughly half the budget for homelessness went unspent.

LA County or City of LA?

Appreciate the concern, but I'm way north of these fires. I've kept my mouth shut for a reason. Southern California gets what Southern California deserves

I think these wildfires are just more fuel for our terrible media's fires, so much unreliable and wrong information out there. All the sudden all of these politicians are instant wildland fire experts.

I think we should just spend more time praying that everyone stays safe and recovers quickly. Pointing fingers isn't doing anything and relying on politicians to solve problems is incredibly fruitless.