LAJ ARTICLES

The confusion of political fact during unprecedented LA wildfires

California is on fire, again, just not at a time when you would expect it to. In contrast to the previous two winters with extraordinary rainfalls that pulled the state out of a megadrought, this winter is awfully dry and sunny, especially in Los Angeles. Although last year’s rainfalls were beneficial to replenishing our state’s water reservoirs and temporarily alleviating us from severe droughts, they also nourished vegetation in areas that are usually very dry. The increased foliage acted as bigger fuel for wildfires, causing fires to break out easily and spread faster. Combine that with the Santa Ana winds, which are very strong and dry winds that affect SoCal for up to seven days at a time, and the scene is set for one of the largest wildfire crises ever to have occurred in LA history. 

The wildfires consist of several separate fires, the first of which began on January 7: the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades, the Eaton Fire from the Eaton Canyon, the Hurst Fire in the mountains immediately south of Santa Clarita, the Archer Fire in the same location, the Lidia Fire near Ravenna, and the Kenneth Fire near Calabasas. A smaller Sunset Fire burned 43 acres in the mountains of West Hollywood before being put out within 24 hours. Over 200,000 residents were evacuated, 33,000 acres burned, and more than 10,000 structures destroyed. At the time of writing, ten people have been killed, with the death toll expected to rise. After declaring a state of emergency, Governor Gavin Newsom deployed over 5,500 firefighters from across the state to put out the fires, with further support from neighboring states and even other countries including Canada and Mexico. Currently, the Lidia Fire is the most contained, being 3/4th of the way mitigated. The Kenneth and Hurst fires are just over 1/3rd contained, while the remaining fires are still in the single digits–the Palisades Fire, the largest one having burned over 20,000 acres of land, is less than 10% contained as of writing. 

Needless to say, these fires have wrought destruction across communities in LA, and it will be slow and difficult to rebuild. However, there is assistance from both the State of California and the Federal Government to help displaced people get back on their feet: Governor Newsom has prevented insurance companies from canceling home coverage for wildfire victims, and President Biden has announced that the “federal government will cover 100% of the cost of measures to protect lives and property in Southern California for six months,” long after he will have already left office. However, there has been some controversy over his handling of the LA wildfires in comparison to his previous actions during the Maui wildfire and Hurricane Helene; in particular, Biden has chosen not to cover the full costs of responses in the aforementioned natural disasters. 

When it comes to California, Republicans and conservatives never miss a beat in blaming disasters on Democratic governance or “wokeness”, with DEI being at the top of the list in this crisis. Conservative media was quick to pin the fire on LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, who supposedly “made not filling the fire hydrants [her] top priority, but diversity.” There has been an issue with water pressure, and many fire hydrants in the Palisades had no water, but this had nothing to do with Kristin Crowley being a queer female chief–anyone who spent even a minute looking into the issue would know that the tremendous demand for water, which was “four times the normal demand” led to low water pressure. Unfortunately, this kind of nonsense is mainstream in conservative media, with tens of millions of people believing the same thing.

Furthermore, the blame put on DEI for being responsible for disasters such as these is absolutely abhorrent and reflects the willingness of the Republican Party to utilize every possible situation as a way to put the blame on their political enemies. The sentiment was shared across dozens of high profile conservative pundits, politicians, and news outlets, all of them decrying DEI as the supposed culprit for the wildfires. At a time when misinformation and disinformation are at their highest, these sentiments quickly spread and became the centerpiece of conservative criticism of Democratic governance and LAFD’s handling of the wildfires. Of course, there was not a single mention of climate change causing the environment to get hotter and dryer over time, or the fact that LA hasn’t had rain for eight months straight–potentially better explanations for why the wildfires burned with such intensity as they do, but DEI seems to be a bigger concern to some people.

As the brave volunteers and LAFD firefighters continue to battle the largest wildfires in LA’s history, Californians are continuously under attack on social media for cheap political gains. Aside from federal politics, there have been political disagreements on the local level as well regarding Mayor Karen Bass’s alleged defunding of the LAFD shortly before the wildfire, while increasing the LAPD budget by over $100 million. This sparked controversy amongst left-leaning communities in Los Angeles, who saw this as a mismanagement of city funds that compromised essential social services that could better address the issues of crime and poverty. The LAFD’s own report stated that the FY 2024-25 operating budget was, “…$17.5 million (2%) below the previous fiscal year of $837 million, due to a reduction of 58 civilian regular authorities.” Furthermore, the loss in funds included the removal of one-time expenses, which were planned to be used for purchasing new equipment for firefighters. In a warning made by Fire Chief Crowley, “The decision to cut the department’s budget by nearly $18 million would diminish its ability to prepare for and respond to large scale emergencies,” a warning that came to fruition just a month later. 

On the other side, people claim that the statement that the LAFD was defunded was incorrect, and that both the LAFD and LAPD had an overall increase in budget due to salary hikes, the difference being that “LAFD’s deal just happened after the budget process–LAPD’s was before.” Just last November, the LA City Council approved a $203 million contract with the LAFD union, which far outweighs the $18 million cut from the budget. Alongside the year-over-year salary increases, the contract also included 12 weeks of paid parental leave for LAFD employees, which has been strongly supported by the LAFD union. In response to the infamous graph made by LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia, Hayes Davenport, former Senior Advisor for an LA City Councilmember, argues that the graph represents the LAFD budget before their salary raises, and when accounting for the increase in salary, the graph “would show about a $50m increase, second most of any department.” Whether or not LAFD’s budget was actually cut, or if it was cut specifically to fund LAPD’s payouts, it is undeniable that in crises such as the one we are currently facing, having extra money for our fire department would have been nice.

Update: According to ABC News, at least 24 casulties and more than a dozen of individuals have been left unaccounted for.

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