The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) could have pre-deployed ten engines to the Pacific Palisades ahead of the deadly Palisades Fire on January 7, but chose not to, according to former fire chiefs quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
As Breitbart News has reported, the LAFD, led by Chief Kristin Crowley, apparently declined to pre-deploy resources on January 6, ahead of extreme winds, because of budget cuts that made the department reluctant to pay overtime.
The Los Angeles Times adds that it took 18 minutes for firefighters to respond to the first 911 call about the brush fire that became the massive Palisades Fire. By then, it was almost too late to stop the wind from fanning the first flames.
The Times reported:
The LAFD could have sent at least 10 additional engines to the Palisades before the fire — engines that could have been on patrol along the hillsides and canyons, several former top officials for the department told The Times.
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The Palisades fire’s toll might not have been as bad if extra engines had been pre-positioned much closer to the most fire-prone areas than the two Palisades stations, the ex-chiefs said.
They also noted that LAFD officials pre-deployed significantly fewer engines citywide on Jan. 7 than they did in response to wind warnings in previous years, including 2011, 2013 and 2019.
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.
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