There should be preventative measures that prevent or reduce the fire danger. The fire danger was all over the news days before the event stated.

The town of Borger, Texas was saved by a prescribed burn from the Windy Deuce fire in February 2024. The burn area acted as a fireproof wall, preventing the fire from spreading into the southern parts of the town.
Why didn't California do something like:
1. Activate the National Guard before the fire started, not after.
2. Ask for mutual aid fire fighters before the fire started.
3. Have a bypass set up to pump RAW water into the mains and declare a Boil Water Notice.
4. Since some of the fires are started by power lines making contact (sparks) due to the high winds, shut down the grid during these high wind events. Better yet, upgrade the power system with better separation or insulated dividers. Cost would be high, but not nearly as high as it is now.

Unfortunately there are 4.5M more Kamala sympathizers in our great state of Texas than there is in ID. Less people equals less problems, almost always.

Did anyone else hear the audio played on AM stations/dfw this morning, of the woman who approached Gavin Newsome live, asking what he's doing to help?
He pretended to be "on the phone with the President," and the distraught woman demanded to hear the phone call.
She wanted to talk to biden.

Newsome lied and said he couldn't get cell service.

What a disgrace...yet, the majority of California residents KEEP voting blue!

...!

but what about the smelt? Those rare (invasive) fish are more important than people and their lives and things.

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.

Saltwater destroys firefighting equipment and can sterilize property, its really not the best thing for fighting wildifres. They are using CL215s, and they are scooping from the ocean, so some saltwater is being used, but all of those fire engines would be rust buckets if they used salt water.

Larry Kurtz of the Orange County Fire Authority “noted that while seawater can be “tough” on firefighting equipment, the risk of corrosion could be mitigated by flushing out the systems. (The National Fire Projection Agency, in a statement to Nexstar, also said that fire agencies using saltwater routinely flush their equipment for this reason.)

Well thats a good one to learn about. it was towards the last quarter of one of the worst years of wildfire in Texas. I don't think you'll meet a wildland firefigher in this country that was working in 2011, that didn't go on at least assignment to Texas.

It started by a power line after forecasted high winds arrived. I don't remember much negative media around that incident at all. Duck, why didnt they just shut the power off and let the wind blow that day? it would have save nearly 2,000 homes from being destroyed.

Oh and by the way, the city of Bastrop was completely blind sided by what happend, they had done almost nothing to prepare for such an event.

One ironic parallel to this story and the one in CA. TX governor Perry was on the presidential campaign trail in SC when the fire started (remember this is essentially when the entire state was in some form of extreme fire danger, and returned 2 days after the bastrop fire started and was criticized for his role in cutting budgets to the Texas Forest Service and Volunteer Departments, the two major players in wildland fire suppression in TX. Sound Familiar?

All im trying to say is, Just pray, thats about all we can do, this is a mess all the way around, there isn't much of a fix.

Thanks for the response and I appreciate it. When we start comparing Texas to California in terms of anything wildfire related, we start comparing apples to oranges. While they both use similar personnel and equipment to put fires out, thats about where the similarities end.

California is night and day more organized with far superior firefighting resources, hands down, it isn't even close in terms of how they respond to wildfires. Nearly half our nation's most elite hotshot crews are based in California. 1 smokejumper base. Multiple helitack crews. Hundreds of engines, many manned with personnel that are trained for both structure and wildland fire. Maybe they could use more help, but last I looked, there aren't many orders for out of area resources to mobilize to California.

When Texas starts getting fires, we are nearly instantly reliant on out of state resources, its just a part of it. I've also worked in Texas, and have alot of pride in the work i've done here, but within the national wildland fire community, texas does not have near the reputation as some other state in terms of maintaining a organized and professional wildfire response. I could shower you with all sorts of examples of things I saw over the years in Texas. Trust me. I love Texas, we are average at best at putting fires out and doing the proper things to prevent them. Creative, i'll give you that.

I agree that California has a lot of problems, and politics that are all over the place. I don't see anything major changes in the horizon. This problem existed well before biden, trump, or newsome and it will continue on like it has for decades. You're best off not living there. If you chose to live there, you had better have enough money on hand to rebuild and be willing to quickly evacuate. Thats that, I don't see a cure to the problem, not more money, not more of anything. If you live on an active volcano you have to accept the fact that one day, you might lose it all. its basically the same thing.

I hope everyone stays safe, and does their part to help reduce the risk of wildfires. Remember what Smokey Bear said.

I don't remember saying anything about cutting power. In case it isn’t clear, you have way more knowledge and experience fighting fires. I have zero, other than putting out a campfire before going to sleep. I’m simply saying many people have been talking about the lack of preparedness in California for years. I’m not making it up. I’m not starting the conversation. The conversation has been taking place locally for a long, long time and has been mentioned nationally at least four years ago.

Also, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that California and LA officials wasted money and other resources or didn’t have a preparedness plan in place. Nothing you’ve said yesterday or today has directly refuted that specific point I’m making.

Could the government have done more to prepare/prevent/mitigate potential wildfire damage? I believe they could have. They’re not even publicly saying they couldn’t have. Not one official in California is saying “we did everything we could to prepare for something like this and it’s just an impossible situation that no one could have predicted would ever be this catastrophic.” Not one official has said that.

That tells me all I need to know.

I heard some homes burned down right along the beach in Malibu, and there is talks they may not be allowed to rebuild. Talk about a kick in the teeth. That’s a serious decrease in your property value. I guess maybe they can still camp out there, I think the kids call it “glampimg” haha