My Dad, a retired CALFire Battalion chief asked me to share this with you. it's from a very well respected retired Fire Chief and fire historian..

Royal Burnett
Saturday Jan 11, 2025

The media has been broadcasting so much misinformation about the SoCal Fires, I hesitate to speak. I’ve heard that somehow the loss of irrigation water in the San Joaquin Valley is responsible for the hydrants going dry in Palisades...That the removal of the dams on the Klamath River some how impacted water storage in La County...these statements are false and those actions have no bearing on the fires in LA County.

These fires are unprecedented… idea that 20,00 structures may have burned is mind boggling, but past fires and past actions have predicted just such an event. I suggest that you young firefighters watch the film “Design for Disaster”. Its a 26 minute film describing the 1961 Bel Air fire with eerie similarities to today’s events. Its available on internet at no cost.

I’ve listened to survivors and evacuees form the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire and others and they have one common theme...they were not given adequate warning. To date 11 persons are confirmed dead in these fires.

In recent years we’ve had other mass casualty events here in California...The Camp fire killed 85 people, the PNF North fire killed 15, the Carr Fire killed 8, the McKinney fire killed 4, the Mill fire killed 4, and the Zogg fire killed 4.

In every one of those cases the survivors complained about lack of notification.

Cell towers burn down or as in the recent LA County case broadcast erroneous information.  In the Lahani case some bureaucrat decided not to activate the warning system so as not to upset the people.  People don’t watch TV or internet in the wee hours of the morning so that system doesn’t work well either.

What is it going to take...how many people must die before our State Government...either OES or CalFire implements an effective statewide warning system? This system must include Incorporated Cities as well as rural areas. The fires do not respect administrative boundaries. 

No system is end all… we will require a combination of telephone, television, internet and Sirens such as an LRAD  ( Long Range Acoustical Device)  to accomplish this goal.

If sirens are used for Tsunami and tornado warnings...and LRAD is used at nuclear facilities to warn of an impending disaster why are California fire  officials so reluctant to adopt such a program?