Land of Fires and Corruption

Instead of caring for the land and people, California politicians ignore their responsibilities and divert money to pet causes, lining their own pockets along the way, while crying "climate change!"

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Embers are blown off a burning tree as the Eaton Fire burns in Altadena, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 8. (AP/Nic Coury)

The hell that is Los Angeles.

What's going on L.A? Where is all the money at? We don't have enough firefighters, police officers, rescue vehicles or aircraft's!! The side of the FWYS look like dirty alleys, homeless are taking over the streets. L.A is not safe! Los Angelins pay alot of taxes! We look like a third world country. We want answers!!!!!

This is just one of the countless comments of anger and despair from an Angelino on social media. Family members and friends of mine have lost their homes. I’m not in LA at the moment. I left over a month ago, in the midst of fires. I almost didn’t make my plane because of delays on the freeway.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. As a teenager in the 1970s I’d drive over Topanga Canyon and spend my Saturdays at the beach. It was a beautiful time to be a girl in LA. And at 17, when my family took off to travel the world again, every young person I met, when they found out I was a “California girl” and from Los Angeles, looked at me with starry eyes, as if I was a movie star, and I have to admit I liked it! That was when the Hollywood fantasy still held true.

It wasn’t all a fantasyland. The reality was that we had fires—and earthquakes—then, too. I well remember the choking air and apocalyptic skies, fueled every year by the dreaded Santa Ana winds. California is a coastal desert, something Californians desperately try to forget with their lawns and impractical plants. But even without that, fires come with the territory.

Unfortunately, instead of caring for the land and the people, our corrupt politicians ignore their responsibilities and divert money to pet causes, lining their own pockets along the way.

Gov. Gavin Newsom visits ruins of Greenville after it was razed to the ground by Dixie Fire in 2021. The fire raged for 24 days and burned over 446,723 acres

As a result, every time there’s a fire, officials throw up their hands in shock and horror, crying “climate change”, as if this was the first time they’d seen a fire and what in the world can they do about it when the entire planet is burning anyway.

Anyone can do a little research and find out the history of fires in Los Angeles. There’s even an LA County Fire Museum, listing fires going back to 1910.

If you go through the fires, you see that many of the more recent ones were started by arson.

Here’s two early examples of 1900s fires:

• Two huge fires burned 115,000 acres in San Gabriel and Ravenna.

• The San Gabriel Forest Fire burned for 27 days and burned 50,000 acres. Five thousand firefighters fought the fire.

A few examples of the worst fires from 1960 onward:

• In 1968, 8 people died in the Canyon Inn Fire in San Gabriel, blackening 21 square miles. One of the five surviving boys in a seven-teenage crew described his experience; “We were cutting a line around it when suddenly the fire came over the hill behind us. I heard the foreman (Thomas) yell ‘run, run, run’ but those fires go like that – He snapped his fingers. “I ran in a different direction.”

• In 1970, Santa Ana winds fed the Wright-Clampitt-Agua Dulce Fire, burning 135,000 acres, the largest area in Los Angeles County ever, up to this date. Although giant fires of indeterminate size in the San Gabriel Mountains in 1896 and 1919 may have been bigger. (1)

  There were eight additional fires at the same time and the fire protection systems were strained to the maximum. Just three of those fires burned 157,058 acres.

• Despite the danger of fires, in 1978 revenue for Fire Protection Districts was cut by 70%.

  That year, the Kanan Fire in Malibu Hills burned 25,000 acres during extreme Santa Ana Wind conditions. The fire reached the coast in just two and a half hours from the start of the fire. 230 homes were lost. The Agoura-Malibu Fire was fueled by at least eight other significant wildfires (including the Kanan Fire) on October 23rd. Agoura, Malibu, and Mandeville Canyons were destroyed.

  The fire was started by an arsonist.

The LA County Fire Museum also gives a history of funding, new and advanced equipment that was added over the years, and responsibilities of the forestry department to maintain our national forests. You’d think by now, with all the history and knowledge accumulated over the years, with all the advancements in science and technology, our government would be better prepared.

Californian officials have never acted more surprised about a fire than they have this year.

As if homelessness, drug addiction and crime wasn’t enough, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes as fires in Los Angeles continue to rage unabated. People watch as firetrucks drive past their homes, unable to do anything because they have run out of water.

President-elect Donald Trump has criticized California governor Gavin Newsom and LA mayor Karen Bass.

“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.

Gross incompetence by Gavin Newscum and Karen Bass…. And Biden’s FEMA has no money -- all wasted on the Green New Scam! L.A. is a total wipeout!!!"

California is the richest state in America, with a GDP of $3.987 trillion!!!¹

Where does all the money go?

It was all the rage to defund the police during the BLM riots. Now it’s all the rage to defund the fire department. How can anyone justify this insanity. And why do Californians stubbornly keep on electing the same corrupt politicians who continually show their disdain for the people with the policies they pursue.

As The Intercept reports:

In June, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass signed an adopted $12.8 billion budget that cut the fire department’s funding by more than $17.5 million, or around 2 percent of the previous year’s budget of $837 million. It was the second-largest departmental operating cut to come out of the city’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget, which shaved funding from the majority of city departments — but not the police. The Los Angeles Police Department received a funding bump of nearly $126 million. The LAFD makes up about 6 percent of the city’s expense budget; the LAPD receives 15 percent of the funds.

“What is currently happening and unfolding is what we have been warning about,” said Ricci Sergienko, a lawyer and organizer with People’s City Council LA. “The consistent defunding of other city programs in order to give the LAPD billions a year has consequences, and these elected officials do actually have blood on their hands. The city is unprepared to handle this fire, and Los Angeles shouldn’t be in that position.”

Other departments that received major cuts included the Bureau of Street Services, the Bureau of Sanitation, and General Services, for an overall budget decrease of nearly $250 million. Funds for rental support, homelessness services, and street lighting were also reduced.

Only three city councilmembers — Hugo Soto-Martínez, Nithya Raman, and Eunisses Hernandez — voted against the budget last May, noting in a press release that it allocated tens of millions of dollars to fund LAPD positions that would likely remain vacant. That’s because the LAPD has struggled to recruit officers in recent years, even as it continues to request and receive funding for those empty positions.

Los Angeles is burning, in more ways than one. So is the entire state. Until Californians wake up and demand some respect from the people they elect, nothing will change.