As a California fireman I’ve had a bunch people ask about the LA fires

Here’s the deal.. 

You’re not stopping a wildfire driven by 100 mile per hour winds. 

It’s a freight train and it’s burning whatever it wants. I’ve heard that train multiple times. It’s downright scary. 

This isn’t a climate change issue. 

It’s not a water issue. 

Would more adequate water pressure and supply have helped? Sure. But it wouldn’t have put a dent in this fire, much less stopped it. 

It’s not a lack of resources issue. 

Would more firefighters, better training, and more apparatus have helped? Sure. 

Would it have made any significant difference in these fires? No. 

Was there lack of preparedness? Yes. 

Would that preparation have stopped this fire? Nope. It’s a freight train and it’s burning whatever it wants. 

End of the day, 
We’ve built homes in areas MEANT to burn every decade or so. But then we do everything we can make sure those areas don’t burn, extinguish any fire that does occur as quickly as possible, and we build more homes while we’re at it. 

Well when the perfect storm hits of super high winds, drought conditions, fuel that should have gone through the natural burn cycles and hasn’t for decades… and you add the match.. there’s nothing you can do to stop that. 

If we take anything from this, or any of the other massive campaign fires we’ve had in this state (especially in the last 10 years), it should be that we need to manage the fuels for these fires. We can’t let unmanaged and unburned decade+ year old fuels create one of the elements of the perfect storm. We can’t control the wind, or the rain, or the match… but we can control the fuels. Let’s start there.