1). “The Los Angeles wildfires are climate disasters compounded: Conditions for a January LA firestorm have not existed before now, writes a meteorologist and climate journalist”, Jan 9, 2025, Eric Holthaus, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
world/2025/jan/09/los-angeles- wildfires-climate-disasters >. 2). “California wildfires live updates: nearly 180,000 people evacuated and at least 10 killed”, Jan 10, 2025, Amy Sedghi (now) with Kate Lamb & Petra Stock (earlier), The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
us-news/live/2025/jan/10/la- fires-live-updates-california- los-angeles-wildfires-fire- map-latest-news >. The article cited above is the top entry in a series of short entries and articles on related subjects 3). “As wildfires rage in Los Angeles, Trump doesn’t offer much sympathy. He’s casting blame”, Jan 9, 2025, Colleen Long, AP News, at < https://apnews.com/article/
trump-newsom-wildfire-los- angeles-california-hydrants- water- 3d20474ceb25f163adff4456a54efb f2 >. 4). “As wildfires devastate LA, Republicans point fingers at Democratic California leaders:Trump and Maga allies are using the fires to attack leaders like Newsom – possibly foretelling power struggles ahead”, Jan 10, 2025, Robert Tait, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
us-news/2025/jan/10/ california-wildfires-trump- republicans-democrats > 5). “US right wing fans misinformation fires as firefighters battle Los Angeles blazes: A similar campaign of rumors and lies was seen after the North Carolina hurricane, with DEI a primary target”, Jan 10, 2025, Rachel Leingang, The Guardian, at < https://www.theguardian.com/
us-news/2025/jan/10/rightwing- misinformation-los-angeles- fire >. 6). “Wildfire response threatens to end Karen Bass’ extended honeymoon: The Los Angeles mayor returned home from Ghana on Wednesday and said she was in 'constant contact' while abroad”, Jan 8, 2025, Melanie Mason & Alex Nieves, Politico, at < https://www.politico.com/news/
2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens- karen-bass-extended-honeymoon- 00197228?nname=playbook&nid= 0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf- 5f46b7bd0000&nrid=dc17af68- fbd6-4816-b542-880b5b9516f9& nlid=630318 >.
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista: The continuing decline of U.S. Capitalism and its growing incapacity to deal with socioeconomic and environmental problems is once again shown by the horrific fires in Southern California. It is true that the conditions that made this series of horrific fires possible is a new situation. The occurrence of two wet years, followed by an extremely dry period (with only 2% of normal precipitation and extremely warm weather); and the extremely high speed and strength of the Santa Anna Winds this year, made fire conditions very dangerous. Of course the Republicans, as led by Donald Trump and his lieutenants have made all kinds of wild disinformation claims. These claims were refuted by various sources, but the MAGA type operatives have kept repeating and embellishing them. Of course the Democrats were not exactly perfect political leaders, the Mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, was even in Ghana when the fires broke out and did not return as quickly as possible. Still comparing Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass to Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and others who claimed that the disaster occurred because, Newsom did not let water flow from Northern to Southern California and that the LA Fire Department gave equipment to Ukraine. In reality the reservoirs in Southern California are already full. The lack of water to fight the fires occurred when high winds kept helicopters from making water drops, and the water system inside the city is built to allow 1 or 2 fires to be controlled, but does not function when huge areas are burning.
The simple fact is that climate change has created newly dangerous conditions and not just for wildfires, but also for increased hurricanes and other storms with too much water and flooding disasters. The solution is to bring Greenhouse Gas Emissions under control and to stop developing land in areas prone to various types of disasters. This latest set of fires is relatively unique in that it burnt up some high-dollar real estate. The neighborhood of Pacific Pallisades is where many of California's elite live. The wildfires have burned the homes of several celebrities including Billy Crystal, Carey Elwes and Paris Hilton, reports the Associated Press (AP).
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The Los Angeles wildfires are climate disasters compounded
Conditions for a January LA firestorm have not existed before now, writes a meteorologist and climate journalist
An exceptional mix of environmental conditions has created an ongoing firestorm without known historical precedent across southern California this week.
The ingredients for these infernos in the Los Angeles area, near-hurricane strength winds and drought, foretell an emerging era of compound events – simultaneous types of historic weather conditions, happening at unusual times of the year, resulting in situations that overwhelm our ability to respond.
On Wednesday, Joe Biden pledged the assistance of the Department of Defense to reinforce state and local firefighting capabilities, a rare step that highlighted the extent to which the fast-moving fires have taxed response efforts.
As of Wednesday evening, the Palisades and Eaton fires have each burned more than 10,000 acres and remain completely uncontained. About one in three homes and businesses across the vast southern California megacity were deliberately without power in a coordinated effort by the region’s major utilities to contain the risk of new fire starts due to downed power lines.
The Palisades fire now ranks as the most destructive in Los Angeles history with hundreds of homes and other structures destroyed and damage so extensive that it exhausted municipal water supplies. In Pacific Palisades, wealthy homeowners fled by foot after abandoning their cars in gridlocked neighborhoods. In Pasadena, quickly advancing fire prompted evacuations as far into the urban grid as the famous Rose Parade route.
Early estimates of the wildfires’ combined economic impact are in the tens of billions of dollars and could place the fires as the most damaging in US history – exceeding the 2018 Camp fire in Paradise, California.
Fire crews have been facing a second night of fierce winds in rugged terrain amid drought and atmospheric conditions that are exceedingly rare for southern California at any time of the year, let alone January, in what is typically the middle of the rainy season – weeks later (or earlier) in the calendar year than other historical major wildfires have occurred.
The next few days will be a harrowing test. Lingering bursts of strong, dry winds into early next week will maintain the potential for additional fires of similar magnitude to form. In a worst-case scenario, the uncontained Palisades and Eaton fires will continue to spread further into the urban Los Angeles metro, while new fires simultaneously and rapidly grow out of control – overtaking additional neighborhoods and limiting evacuation routes more quickly than firefighters can react. In conditions like these, containing a wind-driven blaze is nearly impossible.
These fires are a watershed moment, not just for residents of LA, but emblematic of a new era of complex, compound climate disaster. Conditions for a January firestorm in Los Angeles have never existed in all of known history, until they now do.
The short answer is that the greenhouse gases humans continue to emit are fueling the climate crisis and making big fires more common in California.
As the atmosphere warms, hotter air evaporates water and can intensify drought more quickly.
Melting Arctic ice creates changes in the jet stream’s behavior that make wind-driven large wildfires in California more likely. Recent studies have found that Santa Ana wind events could get less frequent but perhaps more intense in the winter months due to the climate crisis.
The more complicated answer is that these fires are an especially acute example of something climate scientists have been warning about for decades: compound climate disasters that, when they occur simultaneously, produce much more damage than they would individually. As the climate crisis escalates, the interdependent atmospheric, oceanic and ecological systems that constrain human civilization will lead to compounding and regime-shifting changes that are difficult to predict in advance. That idea formed a guiding theme of the Biden administration’s 2023 national climate assessment.
In the 16 months since the city’s first tropical storm encounter, southern California has endured its hottest summer in history and received just 2% of normal rainfall to start this year’s rainy season – its driest such stretch on record. The grasses from 2023’s tropical storm deluge are still around, adding to the fuel for fires.
On its own, that would be a recipe for disaster. But add to that this week’s historic Santa Ana wind storm, which on its own has broken wind speed records across the region for any time of the year, with gusts as high as 100mph early on Wednesday. These have combined to create extreme conditions suitable for wildfire that, on their own, would tax the state’s resources even during even the heart of the summer fire season – let alone during January when many firefighters are on leave and equipment has been moved into storage.
This is how tipping points happen.
This scene is playing out all over the world, not just in fires.
The 2020 and 2021 hurricane seasons saw a combined seven major hurricanes affect Louisiana and the broader central Gulf coast, sometimes just weeks apart. A similar hurricane swarm happened last year in Florida. In 2023, wildfires burned an area of Canada more than double the previous record, sending plumes of smoke across the continent and raising public health concerns for tens of millions of people downwind.
In the weeks and months ahead, when the rainy season resumes and the next atmospheric river arrives, Los Angeles will be at an elevated risk for catastrophic flooding in the burn scars of the Palisades and Eaton fires, again compounding the disaster for local residents.
Eric Holthaus is an American meteorologist and climate journalist
This article was amended on 9 January 2025 to correct that it was southern California that had its hottest summer on record in 2024 not Los Angeles.
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California wildfires live updates: firefighters battle Los Angeles blazes as governor orders water inquiry
Gavin Newsom announces investigation into wildfire water supply as Joe Biden likens destruction to ‘war scene’
California governor orders investigation of LA department of water and power
California governor Gavin Newsom said he has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to some fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir.
In a letter to LA department of water and power chief Janisse Quiñones and LA county public works director Mark Pastrella, Newsom described the reports as “deeply troubling”.
“While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors,” he wrote.
“We need answers to how that happened,” he added.
More than 7,000 structures damaged or destroyed by Eaton fire
Approximately 7,081 structures are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the Eaton fire, according to an estimate by officials.
The fire has burned 13,956 acres and is a 3% containment, LA fire chief Anthony Marrone said.
The current red flag warning will expire at 6pm PT today but a new warning is expected to be issued on Monday.
Los Angeles fire chief Anthony Marrone said the county “would be prepared” to face the return of the high winds and dry brush conditions.
A red flag warning means warm temperatures are expected to combine with very low humidities and strong winds to create an increased fire danger risk.
Lila Victor, 22, a freelance journalist, from Venice, Los Angeles, has been in touch with the Guardian. She says it’s been stressful to see LA ravaged by the fires but that the community has come together to help each other:
I live in Venice, pretty close to Santa Monica. We haven’t had any actual fires or evacuation orders here, but it’s still been very stressful with all the uncertainty. I’m born and raised in LA, so watching my home town be partly destroyed has been really difficult.
We’ve seen giant clouds of smoke. On Wednesday evening, we were up on my friend’s balcony in Mar Vista and my mom saw this bright orange glow – she thought it was a reflection at first. Then we watched as it just expanded so rapidly on the hills in the distance. Later we realized we’d watched the Sunset fire spreading.
I write for a local news site called the Westside Current. On Tuesday, I felt paralyzed, and was asking myself, ‘what can I do to help?’ Then I realized people were posting links online of restaurants that were offering free meals to first responders and evacuees, or were opening their doors to the community – for shelter, wifi, bathrooms, anything. I realized I could be helpful by putting together a list, and keep it updated, so people could find support.
Seeing the community really come together right now – to be there for the people who may need their services, supplies – has been heartwarming. We’ve seen reports of people taking advantage of this horrible situation by looting, but the people rallying together to help each other in the community far outnumber them. To see these little pockets of light is really important.
Sleeping is not easy right now. It’s all so tense. I saw a childhood friend posting online that their home in Palisades – which I used to visit as a child, where I had so many memories – has burned down. And hundreds of thousands are displaced. This has been a real wake-up call for disaster preparedness. Now we’re just gearing up for the next thing that happens.
Three days since the Palisades fire began blazing across Los Angeles, firefighters have begun to contain the five wildfires currently raging in southern California.
Containment, importantly, does not mean that a fire has been extinguished – or that the burn zone is safe to enter.
What it does mean, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association, is that firefighters have created a “control line” around a portion of the fire that flames should not be able to cross.
So if a wildfire is described as 25% contained, then firefighters have created control lines – usually wide trenches – around 25% of the fire’s perimeter. Once a fire is 100% contained, firefighters can begin extinguishing the fire.
It’s key to bear in mind that a fire being 100% contained does not mean it no longer poses a threat.
“Wind and other factors can sometimes cause spotfires to jump these lines,” the Western Fire Chiefs Association explains, which means fires can sometimes go from being 50% contained back down to 30%, for example.
California governor orders investigation of LA department of water and power
California governor Gavin Newsom said he has called for an independent investigation into the loss of water pressure to some fire hydrants and the reported unavailability of water supplies from the Santa Ynez Reservoir.
In a letter to LA department of water and power chief Janisse Quiñones and LA county public works director Mark Pastrella, Newsom described the reports as “deeply troubling”.
“While water supplies from local fire hydrants are not designed to extinguish wildfires over large areas, losing supplies from fire hydrants likely impaired the effort to protect some homes and evacuation corridors,” he wrote.
“We need answers to how that happened,” he added.
Silvia Fernandez, 59, a federal government contractor, in Hancock Park spoke about the feeling of loss while watching the fires across the LA region.
I have watched in a mixture of disbelief, awe and horror on Tuesday to see large smoke clouds first emerge to the west (Palisades) and then to the east (Eaton and Altadena).
When the Sunset fire broke out on Wednesday night, much closer to me in the north, I had this sense of being surrounded by flames and smoke.
Luckily the Sunset fire emerged on a day when the winds had died down and water airdrops were possible. [The Sunset fire is now under control.] But it was very claustrophobic. There was a palpable sense of loss and suffering.
I just have this sense of doom. It feels apocalyptic – I know it’s an overused term, but it’s what comes to mind. My neighbors and I watched the aircraft do their magic [dropping water] above the visible flames. I felt fortunate in those moments, to have a little community of safety.
It’s horrible that so much history has been lost, and so much natural beauty.
Just days before Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office, promising to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, Adrian Florido of NPR came across a remarkable scene in fire-ravaged Altadena on Thursday: a group of Latino immigrants, some undocumented, volunteering to save the homes of evacuated residents they did not know.
Florido spoke with a group of about 20 volunteers, who came from other neighborhoods and were trying to douse fires with garden hoses and buckets of water from swimming pools.
“Why come into a neighborhood that isn’t yours,” the reporter asked one undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who works cleaning houses, “to save houses whose owners you don’t know?”
“Our values and principles come first,” the woman said. “That’s what our parents taught us.”
“You don’t need to have legal papers or be a US citizen to help others,” a volunteer from Mexico told Florido.
“When you support someone, you strengthen them. When you stop and ask - could you use a hand? - they’ll remember that.”
We reported earlier that California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara announced that he had issued a moratorium to stop all non-renewals and cancellations by insurance companies for a year.
The LA Times has more some more detail on the moratorium:
The moratorium, issued Thursday, protects homeowners living within the perimeter of the fire and in adjoining ZIP codes from losing their policies for one year, starting from when Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Wednesday.
The moratoriums, provided for under state law, are typically issued after large fires and apply to all policyholders regardless of whether they have suffered a loss.
Insurers have also been urged to pause for six months any pending non-renewals or cancellations that were issued up to 90 days before 7 January.
Firefighters from outside California assist in putting out the state’s wildfires.
10,000 personnel already on the ground, but more are coming.
Colorado governor Jared Polis announced the arrival of aircraft, fire engines, and firefighters from his state to help California on Thursday. Dozens of firefighters from New Mexico and Utah have also traveled to lend a hand.
The US’s neighbors to the north and south are also providing resources. Canada has deployed aircraft to bolster efforts while Mexico is sending in firefighters.
California governor Gavin Newsom thanked Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday for her support.
“Our partnership and shared commitment to helping communities in need is greatly valued,” Newsom said.
US health department declares public health emergency for California
“We will do all we can to assist California officials with responding to the health impacts of the devastating wildfires going on in Los Angeles County,” said Xavier Becerra, the health secretary.
“We are working closely with state and local health authorities, as well as our partners across the federal government, and stand ready to provide public health and medical support. My thoughts and prayers are with the people impacted in my home state.”
The move gives health care providers and suppliers more flexibility to meet the emergency health needs of federal Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
Earlier this week, Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration for the state, which unlocks key federal resources such as support for emergency work and repair as well as assistance to individuals and households.
California governor Gavin Newsom has shared an update on the six other wildfires wreaking havoc in the Los Angeles area.
The Sunset fire in the Hollywood Hills has been 100% contained. Here is where the others stand:
The Lidia fire is at 75% containment.
The Hurst fire is at 37% containment.
The Kenneth fire is at 35% containment.
The Eaton fire is at 3% containment (up from 0% on Thursday).
And finally, the Palisades fire is at 8% containment, (up from 0% on Thursday).
Brush fire breaks out in Granada Hills, but is under control
The Archer fire has burned nearly 31 acres around O’Melveny Park – close to the Hurst fire.
An evacuation order was in place for the area north-west of Los Angeles, but that has been downgraded to a warning since firefighters managed to get it under control.
No injuries or damaged structures have been reported there so far. A cause for the fire is unknown.
Denise, 52, a program manager in the tech industry, from West Adams, has been in touch about how the fires have also affected air quality and the health impacts that come with it.
‘The air is so bad I wear a mask inside’
“I’ve been spending a lot of time on watch duty [an app that shares real-time updates of wildfires] to see where the wind is blowing. Yesterday the closest fire to me was the Sunset fire which was about five miles north [and has now been contained]. I couldn’t see the fire but I could see the smoke coming south.
“The air quality in the city is devastatingly bad. I’m recovering from Covid and wearing a mask inside my house because the smoke irritates my throat. I’ve also noticed a persistent headache for most of the day.
“Most of LA is under a red flag warning, which means the area is dry and anything can spark a fire. As someone who lives in the city it’s really unsettling to think you’re surrounded by things that can go up in flames. It’s a tinderbox.
“I’ve lived here for about 27 years and there have been all kinds of natural disasters. But this one feels like the largest impact on day-to-day life. I don’t recall a situation where so many people I know have been directly affected.
“I know the fires are not an immediate threat to me, but it’s been really difficult to sleep. I’m feeling climate anxiety quite intensely right now.”
Some schools may reopen eventually while others “were completely destroyed,” LAUSD superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a briefing on Wednesday. LAUSD’s Marquez Elementary and Palisades Elementary were burned to the ground and 30% of Palisades Charter High School was also damaged.
Additionally, five PUSD campuses in Altadena have sustained damage, including Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School.
All Los Angeles Unified and Pasadena Unified schools remain closed.
“The confluence of factors – wind, fire, and smoke – have created unpredictable, complex situations that present potentially unsafe conditions for our school communities,” the LAUSD said in a statement.
“Select essential personnel will be contacted by their supervisors regarding potential work duties. As the Los Angeles region continues responding to this unprecedented crisis, the health and safety of our students and employees are of the utmost importance.”
Matt Sadie, 41, an artist manager in the music business, from Altadena, has been in touch with the Guardian. He shared his family’s experiences with the Guardian’s Jem Bartholomew.
‘It’s hard to imagine life there again’
“My wife Sophie and I, with our eight-week-old daughter and cat Luna, live streets away from Eaton Canyon in Altadena, where one of the fires began. We go for walks down that canyon most mornings, it’s a beautiful place.
“On Tuesday we were driving home – we’d gone to try and get our newborn to sleep – when we noticed this bright yellow and orange glow towards the canyon. It was a light you don’t see from an artificial source. And there was smoke.
“We rushed home, fighting intense winds and keeping our baby safe. Once we were in I ran next door to warn our neighbor. He said, ‘We need to get out of here quickly.’ So I ran to tell my wife and we started packing. The power was out, but I but we had battery-powered tea lights – I grabbed passports, cash, documents, baby stuff like blankets and diapers. I got Luna into her carrier quickly, which she doesn’t like. We evacuated in under five minutes. I didn’t think about how we wouldn’t be back for a long time.
“We managed to drive to family in Santa Barbara. The highway was insane, with trees and debris. Going to sleep that night around midnight, we mentally prepared ourselves for losing our home.
“Miraculously, despite most of the houses on our street burned down, we saw from a neighbor’s video that ours remains standing, with only damage to the landscaping (like the fences). It’s as if the flames stopped right at our house. A neighbour, who stayed during the fire, helped protect our home from the flames, and saved all the houses beyond it, too.
“We got insanely lucky, but we don’t feel lucky at all. We moved to the area to give my daughter the best start in life, near a really good school, in a great neighbourhood. Now the school’s burned down and the area is almost totally gone. It’s really hard to imagine life there again.
“We can’t get back home, the national guard has closed off the streets. Looters in the area are the new challenge. The neighbor who stayed behind has been patrolling for other fires and looters, and caught two in the area already. He’s a hero.”
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As wildfires rage in Los Angeles, Trump doesn't offer much sympathy. He's casting blame.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As cataclysmic wildfires rage across Los Angeles, President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t been offering much sympathy. Instead, he’s claiming he could do a better job managing the crisis, spewing falsehoods and casting blame on the state’s Democratic governor.
Trump has lashed out at his longtime political foe Gov. Gavin Newsom’s forest management policies and falsely claimed the state’s fish conservation efforts are responsible for fire hydrants running dry in urban areas. Referring to the governor by a derisive nickname, Trump said he should resign.
Meanwhile, more than 180,000 people were under evacuation orders and the fires have consumed more than 45 square miles (116 square kilometers). One that destroyed the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades became the most destructive blaze in Los Angeles history.
Trump v. Newsom: Round 2 was to be expected — the liberal Democrat has long been one of Trump’s biggest foils. But the Western fires are also a sign of something far more grave than a political spat or a fight over fish. Wildfire season is growing ever longer thanks to increasing drought and heat brought on by climate change.
Trump refuses to recognize the environmental dangers, instead blaming increasing natural disasters on his political opponents or on acts of God. He has promised to drill for more oil and cut back on renewable energy.
On Thursday, Trump said on social media that Newsom should “open up the water main” — an overly simplistic solution to a complex problem. “NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR,” Trump said, adding, “IT’S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!”
Standing on the street in a scorched subdivision as a home behind him was engulfed in flames, Newsom responded to the criticism when asked about it by CNN.
“People are literally fleeing. People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools. Families completely torn asunder. Churches burned down, and this guy wants to politicize it,” Newsom said. “I have a lot of thoughts and I know what I want to say, but I won’t.”
In a post on his Truth Social media network, Trump tried to connect dry hydrants to criticism of the state’s approach to balancing the distribution of water to farms and cities with the need to protect endangered species, including the Delta smelt. Trump has sided with farmers over environmentalists in a long-running dispute over California’s scarce water resources. But that debate has nothing to do with the hydrant issue in Los Angeles, driven by an intense demand on a municipal system not designed to battle such blazes.
Trump hosted Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Thursday night and suggested that, upon taking office, he’d pressure California into changing its water policies.
“We’re gonna force that upon him now,” the president-elect said of Newsom. “But it’s very late because I think it’s one of the great catastrophes in the history of our nation.”
About 40% of Los Angeles city water comes from state-controlled projects connected to northern California and the state has limited the water it delivers this year. But the southern California reservoirs these canals help feed are at above-average levels for this time of year.
Roughly 20% of hydrants across the city went dry as crews battled blazes, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. Firefighters in Southern California are accustomed to dealing with the strong Santa Ana winds that blow in the fall and winter, but the hurricane-force gusts earlier in the week took them by surprise. The winds grounded firefighting aircraft that should have been making critical water drops, straining the hydrant system.
“This is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 25 years on the fire department,” Los Angeles Fire Capt. Adam VanGerpen told CBS This Morning.
Janisse Quiñones, head of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said the ferocity of the fire made the demand for water four times greater than “we’ve ever seen in the system.”
Hydrants are designed for fighting fires at one or two houses at a time, not hundreds, Quiñones said, and refilling the tanks also requires asking fire departments to pause firefighting efforts.
President Joe Biden, who was in California for an environmental event that ended up being canceled as the fires raged, appeared with Newsom at a Santa Monica firehouse on Wednesday. On Thursday, without naming Trump, he explained in a briefing how the hydrants had ended up dry, saying he was seeking to debunk rumors in “simple straightforward language.” In crisis, he said, “rumors and fear spread very quickly.”
“There is in case you haven’t noticed, there is global warming,” Biden said, adding “it’s not about the politics, it’s about getting people some sense of security.”
“Climate change is real,” he said emphatically.
Biden also quickly issued a major disaster declaration for California, releasing some immediate federal funds, and approved 100% federal funding for 180 days.
At the Mar-a-Lago meeting, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — Trump’s rival in last year’s GOP presidential primary — defended the president-elect as being willing to work with red states and blue states in emergencies. He also blamed the media for unnecessarily promoting controversy and political division between Newsom and Trump.
“I worked well with Biden, during his time, with natural disasters, and I worked well with Donald Trump,” DeSantis said, referring to hurricanes that have hit Florida as well as the deadly collapse of a beachfront condo in Surfside in 2021. “So, I’m very confident, as a state that knows — we face these — that a Trump administration is going to be very strong and going to be there for the people regardless of party.”
Still, any additional federal response will be overseen by Trump, who has a history of withholding or delaying federal aid to punish his political enemies.
In September, during a press conference at his Los Angeles golf course, Trump threatened: “We won’t give him money to put out all his fires. And if we don’t give him the money to put out his fires, he’s got problems.”
Trump’s support in California has increased in recent years, which could further embolden him in his tussles with Democratic leaders there. In 2024, he improved on his vote share in Los Angeles and surrounding areas hit by the fires by 4.68 percentage points. And while he still lost the state overall, he grew his overall margin by 4 points compared to the 2020 election.
As for the impact of the fires on Californians, Trump said areas in Beverly Hills and around it were “being decimated” and that he had “many friends living in those houses.” He framed the losses as a potential hit to the state’s finances.
“The biggest homes, some of the most valuable homes in the world are just destroyed. I don’t even know. You talk about a tax base, if those people leave you’re going to lose half your tax base of California,” Trump said.
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As wildfires devastate LA, Republicans point fingers at Democratic California leaders
Trump and Maga allies are using the fires to attack leaders like Newsom – possibly foretelling power struggles ahead
If ever a situation cried out for elevating national unity over political divisions, the dystopian scenes emanating from the Los Angeles fires surely qualified.
The catastrophe that had left at least 10 people dead as of Friday morning, thousands of structures destroyed and forced thousands to flee their homes would – in an ideal and less polarised America – spur humane empathy and solidarity in place of tribal partisanship.
Instead, amid nightmarish images eerily evocative of Cormac McCarthy’s dark post-apocalyptic novel The Road, a political firestorm has sparked from Donald Trump and his supporters that seems as scorched-earth in its characteristics as the blazes ravaging neighborhoods across Los Angeles.
Far from calling a temporary truce, the president-elect and his Maga (make America great again) acolytes have used the fires to attack the Democratic political ruling establishment in Los Angeles and California – possibly foretelling power struggles ahead over a range of issues after Trump assumes office this month.
The attacks have used disinformation, wild claims, conspiracy theories and extremist culture-war tropes. But absent from their critique has been any acknowledgement that climate change has played any role in igniting the destructive fires – despite a consensus among experts that they have been caused by exceptional environmental conditions, including near hurricane-strength winds, low rainfall and unseasonably high temperatures.
The Republicans have instead blamed Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, for supposedly failing to ensure enough water was available to douse the infernos – along with his fellow Democrat, Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, who drew flak for not returning from a pre-planned trip to Ghana until after the fires began. Also targeted has been the head of LA’s fire department, Kristin Crowley, derided as a “DEI [diversity, equity and inclusiveness] hire” in reference to her being the first openly gay woman to hold the position.
Spearheading it all was Trump himself with a convoluted post on his Truth Social platform that included his now-familiar schoolyard mockery of Newsom’s name.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump wrote.
“He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California…… On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, [nor] firefighting planes. A true disaster!”
In later posts, Trump called on Newsom to resign and extended responsibility to Bass and Joe Biden, under whose presidency, he said, the Federal Emergency Management Agency [Fema – which last autumn had to tackle destructive storms in several southern states] had “no money”.
The governor’s office rebutted Trump’s claim on water shortages. “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction,” a spokesperson for Newsom said.
Newsom himself accused Trump of fixating on politics rather than easing human suffering.
“People are literally fleeing … People have lost their lives. Kids lost their schools, families completely torn asunder, churches burned down,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“This guy [Trump] wanted to politicise it. I have a lot of thoughts, and I know what I want to say. I won’t.”
It should be noted that Newsom has been challenged elsewhere over his management of California’s forests in the past. Michael O’Leary, the entrepreneur and reality television personality, and local media outlets have publicly accused Newsom of failing to fulfill his promises to clear dry brush, which forest experts have identified as a key fire hazard.
And Bass, for her part, has cut a less than reassuring figure. At her first news conference following her return from Ghana, she declared: “If you need help, emergency information, resources and shelter is available. All of this can be found at URL.” Also damaging was footage of her refusing to engage with David Blevins, a British reporter for Sky News, on her arrival at Los Angeles airport, as she stubbornly remained silent and avoided eye contact.
Nevertheless, water specialists denounced Trump’s depiction of the resources in the Los Angeles area as inaccurate and “irresponsible”.
“Tying Bay-Delta management into devastating wildfires that have cost people’s lives and homes is nothing short of irresponsible, and it’s happening at a time when the Metropolitan water district has the most water stored in its system in the history of the agency,” Mark Gold, a board member of the Metropolitan water district of southern California, told the website CalMatters.
“It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from northern California to put out a fire. It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”
Experts have also debunked claims that firefighters have been hampered by hydrants that lack water. The failure to produce water, they say, can be explained by low pressure caused by sudden excess demand made on the system through trying to extinguish the fires.
Yet factual rebuttals are in danger of wilting in the face of a rhetorical fusillade that has at times seemed orchestrated.
It has featured input on social media and conservative news channels from such Trump world luminaries as the entrepreneur Elon Musk; Charlie Kirk, the rightwing provocateur and founder of Turning Point USA; the Florida congressman Byron Donalds; and even the Hollywood actor, James Woods, whose trenchant conservative views chime with many of Trump’s followers.
“This fire is not from ‘climate change’, you ignorant asshole,” Woods, who cried in a live CNN interview after describing the loss of his home in the blaze, responded to another user on X.
“It’s because liberal idiots like you elect liberal idiots like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass. One doesn’t understand the first thing about fire management and the other can’t fill the water reservoirs.”
Kirk said that Trump should use the disaster to pressure California into “serious reform” – starting with Crowley’s resignation as LA’s fire chief – as a condition for receiving federal disaster funds after he returns to the presidency on 20 January.
The theme was picked up in an exchange on the Fox Business Network involving Donalds, who blamed the fire on “the far-left woke policies of California”. That elicited enthusiastic agreement from the host, Stuart Varney, who said: “Yes. California politics just has to change.”
Trump eldest son, Donald Trump Jr even contrived to link the disaster to support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. He reposted another user’s post linking to a nearly three-year-old news report about the LA fire department donating surplus equipment to Ukraine in the weeks after Russia invaded it.
Writing in Slate, the commentator Nitish Pahwa said the reaction boded ill for the response to climate-related disasters that may happen on Trump’s watch – and possibly beyond.
“We’re getting an early-year preview of how the United States is going to experience and respond to these rampaging climate disasters,” he wrote.
“This is just how every major climate disaster is going to unfold online from here on out … in an ecosystem where social media outlets have purposefully hobbled their ability to provide real-time, reliable updates to users, the people affected by those disasters are literally left in the dark.”
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US right wing fans misinformation fires as firefighters battle Los Angeles blazes
A similar campaign of rumors and lies was seen after the North Carolina hurricane, with DEI a primary target
As Los Angeles firefighters battle ongoing blazes, prominent rightwing figures are spreading bigoted criticism of the response and lies about who is to blame, including that the fire is raging because of diversity within the fire department.
The misinformation echoes the claims that plagued the North Carolina hurricane response. Both disasters led to outrage, which partisan actors seized upon to advance their political goals, muddying the already confusing information ecosystem that accompanies a fast-moving news event.
In what has become a common theme, rightwing media and commentary have said that diversity within the Los Angeles fire departmentis to blame for the devastation.
“Meet Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley,” the X account Libs of TikTok, known for spreading anti-LBGTQ+ rhetoric, posted. “She boasts about being the first female and LGBTQ fire chief in the LA Fire Department. Promoting a culture of DEI is her priority. Does this make you feel safer?” In another tweet, the same account, which has nearly 4 million followers, wrote: “DEI will get people k*lled. DEI must DIE.”
Much of the misinformation also includes claims of mismanagement by the LA mayor, Karen Bass, and the California governor, Gavin Newsom.
The spread of rumors, misinformation and lies can hinder the ability of emergency responders to do their jobs and confuses residents who need accurate, up-to-date information to make choices to keep themselves safe. It also makes it more difficult for people to assess whether accountability is needed for their public officials when lies are commingled with valid criticisms.
False claims of federal disaster relief funds being diverted to migrants have also resurfaced. Criticism of environmental practices, like allegedly protecting fish over people or limiting prescribed burns have been elevated. Unrelated donations to Ukraine became a scapegoat. Donald Trump Jr, the president’s oldest son, intimated that donations the Los Angeles fire department sent to Ukraine in 2022 somehow were related to the response.
People from varying points on the political spectrum, including the Los Angeles Times publisher, Patrick Soon-Shiong, have claimed the fire department’s budget saw big cuts – it did not, Politico notes.
Deflections of the role climate crisis plays in increasing natural disasters have received millions of views.
The Libs of TikTok account laid out a variety of rightwing criticisms in one post on X. “Don’t you hate it when climate change appoints a DEI hire to run the fire dept, gives away fire equipment to Ukraine, stops critical controlled burns, defunds the fire dept, refuses to build more water reservoirs and store water, cancels fire insurance, mismanages forests and brush, and fires firefighters for refusing an experimental vaccine?”
Elon Musk, the owner of X and a frequent spreader of misinformation, claimed: “They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes.” In a response to Libs of TikTok, he wrote: “Wild theory: maybe, just maybe, the root cause wasn’t climate change?”
Andy Biggs, a Republican congressman from Arizona, told Newsmax that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) diverted money to migrants instead of natural disasters – a claim that was debunked repeatedly during the aftermath of the North Carolina hurricane.
Alex Jones, the man behind Infowars and a prolific spreader of lies, has gone even further, posting erroneously that Joe Biden had grounded firefighting plans and that the fires were being spread “by design” as part of a “globalist plot to wage economic warfare”. Musk responded in a now-deleted tweet with a simple one-word: “True”.
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Wildfire response threatens to end Karen Bass' extended honeymoon
LOS ANGELES — Karen Bass probably has second thoughts about that trip to Ghana.
The Los Angeles mayor’s ill-timed international travel — which coincided with historically destructive wildfires sweeping through her city — threatens to spiral into a political crisis for an elected official who has so far enjoyed a remarkably durable honeymoon in the nation’s second-largest city.
She left the West African nation on Tuesday, where she was attending the inauguration of its new president. She arrived Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles, where hurricane-force winds and dry weather created the conditions for catastrophic fires that have killed at least five people.
Bass’ absence — as local and state officials made public appearances as the crisis escalated Tuesday evening — was glaring, making her an easy target for political foes and frustrated Angelenos and tarnishing her image as an assiduous, in-the-weeds leader who prioritizes local issues.
“Of course, you don’t go,” Rick Caruso, the billionaire developer who ran against Bass in 2022, said of her overseas expedition. “That’s not leadership, that’s abandoning your post.”
With Bass missing in action, critics such as Caruso have stepped eagerly into the public relations void, lacerating the mayor’s leadership.
“Is it as bad as Ted Cruz going to Cancun? No. But it could be an indelible dent in her image,” said one veteran Democratic consultant in Los Angeles, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about the political dynamics.
On Wednesday evening, at her first news conference after returning from Ghana, Bass appealed for unity and sought to emphasize her involvement with fire response from afar.
“This is going to be an effort of all of us coming together, and we have to resist any effort to pull us apart,” she said, noting that she was on the phone coordinating with officials “every hour” of her flights on both military and commercial aircraft.
“So although I was not physically here, I was in contact with many of the individuals that are standing here throughout the entire time,” she added. “When my flight landed, I immediately went to the fire zone and saw what happened in Pacific Palisades.”
“I have been in constant contact with our fire commanders, with county, state and federal officials,” she said. “I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane, which facilitated our communications. So I was able to be on the phone the entire time of the flight.”
Bass, who has enjoyed enduring popularity and has built a vast network of allies, has taken most of her hits from players outside the city’s political establishment, including online provocations from conservatives such as Elon Musk.
Her supporters say those attacks are often incorrect or disingenuous, cynically conflating the optics of her absence with more substantive critiques of her governance.
“Aside from getting the photo op in front of the fire, doing all the work — contacting the first responders, working with [city] council, working with everyone — is something that you can do remotely,” said Los Angeles Councilmember Bob Blumenfield.
“It’s a luxury for folks to sit on the sidelines and cast aspersions and be politically divisive at a time when our sole focus at this moment should be health and safety,” he added.
But the salvos against Bass are not simply coming from former political opponents or far-right provocateurs, but at times, the quintessential mainstream of the Democratic party.
“Inexplicable decision to not come back earlier,” Tommy Vietor, a former Obama staffer and Pod Save America host, wrote on X.
Bass also took heat from far-left activists online, who accused the mayor of cutting the fire department’s budget in order to pay for a costly new contract with the city’s police. Also weighing in against her was Patrick Soon-Shiong, the politically idiosyncratic owner of the Los Angeles Times, who echoed the attack, posting on X that “the Mayor cut LA Fire Department’s budget by $23M.”
That assertion is wrong. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November. In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle, according to Blumenfield’s office, although overall concerns about the department’s staffing level have persisted for a number of years.
But the mayor’s team did not push back on the record to inquiries about Soon-Shiong’s post, allowing the incorrect information to circulate widely online for most of Wednesday. Bass briefly noted in the news conference that LAFD’s budget was higher than what was allocated on July 1.
Bass’ critics have also seized upon reports that water tanks in the besieged Pacific Palisades neighborhood had not been full, causing fire hydrants to run dry and crippling first responders’ ability to stop the vast property damage.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in a Wednesday press conference refuted those claims. The three tanks in the area had been filled to capacity with around 1 million gallons of water each, department officials said, but those supplies were tapped out by early Wednesday morning. High winds made it impossible for firefighters to use aerial means to combat the flames, putting inordinate pressure on the fire hydrant system.
“We saw four times the demands of water that we’ve ever seen in the system,” said Janisse Quiñones, the department’s CEO. “We opened every valve available to push as much water into the Palisades area. This fire was different and unprecedented because they didn’t have air resources to fight it.”
Bass said the incorrect information has taken hold in part because of the heightened emotions during the crisis.
“Our families, our friends have been affected and it’s easy to get caught up in information that is not accurate,” Bass said at the Wednesday news conference. “I think most of us know that the internet is not always the best place to get accurate information.”
Wildfire experts said there was only so much that officials could do in the face of the perfect-storm circumstances that aligned to batter Los Angeles.
“It was a 70-mile-an-hour wind, it’s like trying to fight a 200-foot-tall dragon with a tiny little sword. You’re not going to win. Once it gets established and once it starts burning, it’s going to go until the wind stops or you bump into the Pacific Ocean, and then it’s just going to go sideways,” said Mark Whaling, a retired Los Angeles County Fire Department battalion chief.
Bass has proven herself an adept political navigator when it comes to Los Angeles’ most vexing problems, particularly homelessness. She has projected a laser-like focus on the issue, which has kept her favorability relatively high among residents.
And so far, her superpower has been liberal Los Angeles voters’ natural inclinations to back her.
The Democratic political consultant recalled being struck by her innate popularity while watching one focus group during the mayor’s race that was unaffiliated with any campaign..
“They liked her. They wanted to vote for her,” the consultant said, “They liked the cut of her jib, they liked the way she talked.”
But, the consultant added, the current crisis could imperil that goodwill.
The question, the consultant said, is whether the fires will “be perceived as a management problem or purely a natural disaster. ... If it’s perceived as the former, then the price could be very steep.”
Blake Jones contributed to this report.
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