When no excuses work, folks will attribute a tragedy as an act of G-D. And of course that is true after the occurrence, however, that does not absolve us from taking responsibility. There is an important and key saying in, Ethics of Our Fathers which states, “who is wise, he who sees what is being born”. We don’t want to get too philosophical so we will just explain this statement so that the wise person will understand what is coming. I know from reading and understanding the tragedy that is happening now in California as something that could have been averted if the correct action was taken by the higher ups in the government. In this article, we will attempt to explain the reasons why such a massive inferno is burning right now in Los Angeles and other vicinity. The last I heard the fire is so massive and burning in areas as large as two New York Cities! I cannot fail to mention the words to an old song, “it never rains in Southern California” to remind everyone that California is known not only for severe earthquakes but also for devastating wildfires.

Over 12,000 homes have been destroyed in the last two weeks with at least 25 people dying and some still missing due to these unbeatable fires. Along with the physical and human destruction is the toxic smoke that is hanging over all of Los Angeles jeopardizing the health of its inhabitants. Unlike earthquakes and hurricanes, these infernos are caused by human participation such as poorly controlled power lines, water maintenance and shabbily (lack of) management of overgrown forests, poor fire management and criminal arson that still takes place in various venues. The Governor of California soon after taking office in 2019 had agreed to put away over $1 billion dollars to prevent wildfires from happening in his state. He was supposed to have 90,000 acres of brush cleared but only 11,399 acres were actually cleared.

Congressman Tom McClintock from California noted that Santa Ana winds are causing fires annually and this is nothing new to the West Coast. By removing the overabundance of timbers regularly and renting those fields to cattle rangers they were able to control the fires.

During the eighteen hundreds, raging fires were a public problem but by the end of the twentieth century the government of California put into effect programs of fire prevention and land management that reduced occurrences by a substantial amount.

Water Maintenance

I don’t know about you but I have never heard of a fish called the Delta smelt. According to certain political groups this fish species is being blamed for the Los Angeles wildfires. How so? You ask, Certain groups are concerned about this endangered species of fish and will not allow excessive amounts of water to be pumped out of the fish’s home which is in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Governor Newson of California may have had good intentions for this tiny fish called smelt but not at the price of the lives of people and the destruction of their homes because of the lack of water circulating in fire hydrants. To keep the fish in enough water to survive the Governor sacrificed the people and properties of his state. “This is the fish Gavin Newson burned California down in order to save”, is a quote from Republican Roger Stone.

Millions of gallons of water could not be routed to the dry and burning areas of Los Angeles because the Delta smelt fish would not have the right environment to survive. Critics of Newson claim he could have had the water reservoirs filled to normal capacity if he would not have been influenced by those conservationists. Other pro Newson people claim that the reservoirs were adequately filled but that does not explain why the fire hydrants were empty. Critics claim that the water pipes of the Los Angeles fire system need to be renovated and enlarged. Even though the municipality sent water trucks when the hydrants ran dry it was not fast enough to control the spreading of the fires.

Lack of Management of Overgrown Forests

When Governor Newson took office in 2019, he pledged to assign over a billion dollars for the prevention of wildfires after the catastrophic fires of 2018. Two years later in 2021 the public found out that he did not use all that money he allocated for brush clearing initiatives and cleared only 11,399 acres instead of the 90,000 he claimed were cleared. Conservationists unfortunately were against the clearing of trees and bushes to prevent forest fires because they did not want any natural resources destroyed.

Poor Fire Management

The Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass recently reduced the fire department’s budget by $17.6 million in spite of the head of the fire department’s warning that there would be insufficient protection to fight large fires if G-D forbid they would occur. With all types of court lawsuits by private individuals stemming from insufficient street lighting, broken sidewalks as well as lawsuits against the police department caused the mayor to cut the fire department budget so that she would not have to declare a fiscal state of emergency. She also was obligated to increase city employees’ wages since she increased the minimum wage for city employees from $20 to $25 causing a major budget crisis.

Not only was the Mayor of Los Angeles at fault but much of the blame goes to the Governor of the state of California, Gavin Newson, who had no answers to basic questions on the lack of water to put out the fires. These fires engulfed luxury homes in the Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods of Los Angeles completely destroying huge homes. One reason that was given was when the fire engines finally got near these properties and attached their fire hoses to the fire hydrants there was no water coming out.

Poorly Controlled Power Lines

Actually several years before these raging fires the town of Paradise in Northern California was destroyed by fires because of poorly maintained power lines. Their power company, Pacific and Electric Company, could not maintain their power lines and when the power lines failed fire erupted due to not only the failure of the power company but due to the powerful Santa Ana winds which were again blowing during this month’s fires. The 2018 fire killed 85 people and destroyed over 18,000 properties.

Climate Change

Yes, each and every time there is an environmental emergency it is blamed on climate change by conservationists. They advocate leaving the forests to their natural growth instead of removing the access brush that the government used to do before the liberals took over the government. Builders acquired properties in those dangerous areas and developed housing without the removal of access brush.

I doubt if anyone in the east has heard of this new phrase, “hydroclimate whiplash” which assigns the blame for the wildfires to climate change. They put none of the blame on the government’s lack of adequate water supply, forest supervision and elimination of access growth. Instead, they recall the wet California winters of 2023 and 2024 blaming the rain for the excessive growth of vegetation. Then came the recent dry spell to which this new vegetation fueled the wildfires. These activists completely ignore the fact that there was a severe water shortage and put up their hands as if there is nothing to be done, it’s all the fault of climate change.

Final Words

We have been writing about the tragic rampant wildfires in Los Angeles and the vicinity. We are all trying to find out how it happened and how it can be prevented in the future. But, what about the present? People are suffering in so many ways, emotionally, physically and financially. We don’t know at this time how many homes had adequate insurance or if their insurance companies can pay for multimillion-dollar homes to be rebuilt. Families are stranded with little to wear and if they are lucky enough, they have relatives or friends who can put them up.

In spite of financial worries, what about the health of the citizens of Los Angeles? How is their health impacted by the horrible air quality in the city that already has a problem with smog? The windblown ash that is in the air is too large to be identified by the regular air quality monitors. This windblown ash contains air toxins that cannot be adequately monitored. Monitoring agencies are advising people to reduce their exposure to inferior air quality but for those people who don’t have any homes how are they able to limit exposure? While the high winds continue to carry this ash from place-to-place folks and their children are breathing in the windblown ash. What will be the future consequences from these raging fires on the health of the citizens of Southern California?