A Los Angeles firefighter, who wished to remain anonymous, blasted local leaders who cut funding to fire services, telling Breitbart News that the lack of personnel resources and other assets made fighting the Palisades Fire difficult.
The post Exclusive — Firefighter Blasts Lack of Resources: ‘We Could Have Saved Buildings Like Caruso Did’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A Los Angeles firefighter, who wished to remain anonymous, blasted local leaders who cut funding to fire services, telling Breitbart News on Saturday that the lack of personnel and water made fighting the Palisades Fire difficult.
He said that claims that the “ember cast” — the wind-blown sparks and embers that carry fires to distant points — were too thick to save neighborhoods that were remote from the initial fire, but were destroyed, were not credible.
“We could have pre-deployed [ahead of the fire]. We didn’t have the resources. We could have saved buildings like [Rick] Caruso did. They say the ember cast was too thick? [Palisades unit] didn’t have the resources or the water to protect Ralph’s [the grocery store across from the local fire station].”
Caruso, a businessman and developer, managed to save his own Palisades Village mall by hiring a private firefighting company with its own water tankers.
Videos of Caruso’s mall, and the surrounding area, show the stark contrast between private and public services.
Caruso also ran against Mayor Karen Bass in 2022, whose main platform plank was her support for abortion. He lost narrowly, but won in Pacific Palisades.
Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) face outrage from locals for their failure to protect the community from a disaster that was not only predictable, but predicted. Bass cut the local fire department budget by nearly $20 million and was reportedly considering even steeper cuts in future, before the fire.
Those cuts not only affected firefighters, but the also support personnel necessary to keep equipment maintained, as explained by DropSiteNews:
As of May 2, 2024, 86 emergency vehicles were out of commission in Los Angeles because funds had not been allocated to hire sheet metal workers and mechanics to fix them. This includes: 40 fire engines (which carry water and are used to fight fires), 36 ambulances, and 10 fire trucks (which carry equipment, like ladders and rescue supplies). As Captain Chuong Ho testified during a budget hearing, “It just makes no sense to have million dollar fire trucks and engines taken out of service and sidelined because we don’t have enough mechanics to keep them running.”
The fire has burned nearly 24,000 acres, with just 11% containment, as of Sunday morning.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
