So let's Talk About the LA Fires.

[SweetSue92]

The right ran their mouths about Karen Bass cutting the fire department budget by 17 million

LA Fire Department 2024/2025 budget

$895.6 million

The budget for the Los Angeles Fire Department in Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million

Amidst confusion around budget cuts affecting the Los Angeles Fire Department while thousands of firefighters are battling at least five wildfires, ABC News dug into the city budgets and other publicly available documents for the city.

In May 2024, the city of Los Angeles adopted a Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 budget that cut the appropriations for the fire department by $17.6 million from the previous year.

At the time, the city of Los Angeles was negotiating the union contract with the firefighters' union, the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

On Nov. 5, the City Council voted to approve a union contract for 2024 - 2028. A report that was sent to the city a day prior outlined the fiscal impact of the contract and stated that it would cost approximately $76 million in the 2024 - 2025 fiscal year. This was to increase salaries and benefits for union members.

On Dec. 17, 2024, the LA Fire Commission sent a report to Mayor Karen Bass by Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. In it, Crowley stated that the department is facing "unprecedented operational challenges due to the elimination of critical civilian positions and a $7 million reduction" in overtime hours.

With the new contract approved, the budget for the fire department in Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million. When compared to the previous year's budget (Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024), this current year's fire department budget in total is larger by $58.4 million.

Los Angeles Fire Department budget sustained cuts but saw overall increase

Los Angeles Fire Department budget sustained cuts but saw an overall increase.

abcnews.go.com

So we see that the right has lied once again. And this is nothing more than more bigoted bs from the right-wing media. I'll get to the fire hydrants later. It's time the lying stopped.

Oh honey, don't you remember?

Your game.

Your rules.

You hate it NOW?

Aw

 

[the watcher]

Actually, Newsome is doing the one thing that government can do that is helpful: get out of the damned way. That is only to be used when your management skills draw attention that looks bad. He still wants to be President and bring his crew with him. Newsom suspends landmark environmental laws to ease rebuilding in wildfire zones

 

[Calypso Jones]

Yep. I'm calling the right-wing media a bunch of liars. Fewer people died in this than trump killed during the pandemic. Yet you voted Trump back into office. So shut the fuck up.

you're still a freakin' idiot.

 

[Calypso Jones]

trump killed people? that's news as he would be in prison now for life

Immie forgets conveniently the people that obama and hilliary allowed to die...and then said, 'what difference does that make now'. They get away with murder.

By the way...today is the day 8 years ago that Tapper and a few others started the Russia collusion hoax. Gutter media....deserves to be sued into oblivion and a few put in prison not just for what they tried to do to an innocent man but what they did to the country.

 

[marvin martian]

The right ran their mouths about Karen Bass cutting the fire department budget by 17 million

LA Fire Department 2024/2025 budget

$895.6 million

The budget for the Los Angeles Fire Department in Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million

Amidst confusion around budget cuts affecting the Los Angeles Fire Department while thousands of firefighters are battling at least five wildfires, ABC News dug into the city budgets and other publicly available documents for the city.

In May 2024, the city of Los Angeles adopted a Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 budget that cut the appropriations for the fire department by $17.6 million from the previous year.

At the time, the city of Los Angeles was negotiating the union contract with the firefighters' union, the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

On Nov. 5, the City Council voted to approve a union contract for 2024 - 2028. A report that was sent to the city a day prior outlined the fiscal impact of the contract and stated that it would cost approximately $76 million in the 2024 - 2025 fiscal year. This was to increase salaries and benefits for union members.

On Dec. 17, 2024, the LA Fire Commission sent a report to Mayor Karen Bass by Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. In it, Crowley stated that the department is facing "unprecedented operational challenges due to the elimination of critical civilian positions and a $7 million reduction" in overtime hours.

With the new contract approved, the budget for the fire department in Fiscal Year 2024 - 2025 increased from $819.6 million to $895.6 million. When compared to the previous year's budget (Fiscal Year 2023 - 2024), this current year's fire department budget in total is larger by $58.4 million.

Los Angeles Fire Department budget sustained cuts but saw overall increase

Los Angeles Fire Department budget sustained cuts but saw an overall increase.

abcnews.go.com

So we see that the right has lied once again. And this is nothing more than more bigoted bs from the right-wing media. I'll get to the fire hydrants later. It's time the lying stopped.

Yup, they're doing a great job!

 

[martybegan]

Yep. I'm calling the right-wing media a bunch of liars. Fewer people died in this than trump killed during the pandemic. Yet you voted Trump back into office. So shut the fuck up.

 

[IM2]

China's incompetence with their bio lab in Wuhan killed people comrade ..

China was not responsible for taking care of America during that pandemic. We had the most deaths and infections in the word. That's what trump produced.

 

[IM2]

you're still a freakin' idiot.

So you can't dispute the the facts.

 

[IM2]

Immie forgets conveniently the people that obama and hilliary allowed to die...and then said, 'what difference does that make now'. They get away with murder.

By the way...today is the day 8 years ago that Tapper and a few others started the Russia collusion hoax. Gutter media....deserves to be sued into oblivion and a few put in prison not just for what they tried to do to an innocent man but what they did to the country.

Hillary was never president and Obama handled two pandemics without 1 million people dying.

 

[IM2]

And I see the usual suspects have shown up with the standard idiocy.

No 'water system in the world' could have handled the LA fires. How the region could have minimized the damage​

Even as flames in Southern California continued to carve a destructive path on Friday and fire officials sought to assess the damage and determine how the fires began, a larger question loomed: Could this level of devastation somehow have been minimised, or is this simply the new normal in an era of climate-related calamities?

A CNN review of government reports and interviews with more than a dozen experts suggests the ultimate answer is a mix of both.

Los Angeles city and county officials have characterised the fires as a "perfect storm" event in which hurricane-force gusts of up to 160km/h prevented them from deploying crucial aircraft that could have dropped water and fire retardant on the drought-ravaged neighborhoods early on.

The consensus of experts interviewed by CNN was that the combination of those winds, unseasonably dry conditions and multiple fires breaking out one after another in the same geographic region made widespread destruction inevitable.

As high winds stoked flames Wednesday morning, firefighters could be heard on radio broadcasts relaying an alarming development.

"We've lost most of the hydrant pressure," one firefighter said around 2.45am (local time) as he requested help refilling fire engines, according to a county dispatch recording.
"Got dry hydrants," said another.

Experts told CNN even fully functioning hydrants would not have been enough to battle fires of the magnitude of those that raged this week, particularly when air resources, such as helicopters and fixed-winged aircrafts were grounded due to the wind.

"I don't know a water system in the world that is that prepared for this type of event," said Greg Pierce, a water-resource expert at UCLA.

No 'water system in the world' could have handled the LA fires.

Even as flames in Southern California continued to carve a destructive path and fire officials sought to as...

www.9news.com.au

So once again the right has published loads of bullshit and the usual people have sucked it up as if it is the gospel.

 

[Calypso Jones]

So you can't dispute the the facts.

what do you care about facts.

 

[Calypso Jones]

Hillary was never president and Obama handled two pandemics without 1 million people dying.

Trial runs.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Is IM2 EVER happy?

Here you have a fire burning down all those houses owned by the white devil, and he STILL isn't happy

 

[marvin martian]

Hillary was never president and Obama handled two pandemics without 1 million people dying.

Joe Biden didn't, though. 700,000 Americans died from Covid while he was president, most of them because of the deadly lies he told about vaccinated people being "immune" from the virus.

You fell for those lies (of course), and probably killed several hundred people yourself running around thinking you were immune because of your magic shot.

 

[Godboy]

China was not responsible for taking care of America during that pandemic. We had the most deaths and infections in the word. That's what trump produced.

Dont we get the most foreign travellers in the world? People were still POURING into the US during the pandemic. Kinda makes sense that we would get hit the hardest, dont ya think?

 

[IM2]

Trump initially refused to give California wildfire aid because it’s a blue state, ex-aide says'

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, former President Donald Trump has blasted the Biden administration for its handling of the disaster — going so far as to accuse Democratic leaders of ignoring the needs of Republican storm victims.

But a review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.

“We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas … to show him these are people who voted for you,” said Harvey, who recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside more than 100 other Republican former national security officials.

Trump initially refused to give California wildfire aid because it's a blue state, ex-aide says

Former White House advisers said Trump hesitated as president to provide disaster aid to California because of the state's Democratic leanings.

www.eenews.net

Trump supporters need to shut up about this fire.

 

[IM2]

what do you care about facts.

I post facts. You don't.

 

[IM2]

Trial runs.

There were no trial runs.

 

[catatomic]

Why Newsom is not to blame for fires

California wasn't designed for many separate massive fires. I am not ignoring Trump's claim. To have that much preparation, you would have to prepare for many things.

For instance, take Fukushima, Japan. There was a Nuclear Reactor that got hit by a tidal wave and left much of Japan unhabitable. Did they know it could happen. Yes, they knew, but they had to have a high population in Japan there was nothing to do otherwise.

Likewise, California could have prepared for 9.0 earthquakes and many massive fires and tidal waves and diseases and all sorts of things, but they're not. It's too expensive and that is what insurance is for. You can't prepare for every meteor. You can't prepare for that many fires. You just don't. It's too expensive.

What ticks me off is people are looting and politicizing it when it's a terrible tragedy.

Donald Trump doesn't know what the hell he's talking about! You can't prepare for things that unlikely. You couldn't prepare for COVID. I'm sorry.

And like 30 people have died now, so you should be celebrating California's financial loss as it hurts Democrats politically.

how much money would it have cost to have waterworks from the Pacific Ocean to fight the California wild fires?

ChatGPT said:
ChatGPT
Building a water pipeline or other waterworks system from the Pacific Ocean to fight California wildfires would have involved significant engineering challenges and high costs. Here’s a breakdown of factors that would influence the cost:

1. Pipeline Construction
Distance and Terrain: California’s wildfires occur in various terrains, from flat valleys to rugged mountains. Building pipelines across these areas would involve extensive tunneling, pumping stations, and reinforced materials.
Cost per Mile: The cost of water pipelines varies depending on size and complexity but typically ranges from $1 million to $5 million per mile. For example, a 100-mile pipeline could cost $100 million to $500 million.
2. Desalination (if necessary)
If saltwater from the Pacific is used, it may require desalination for some applications. Desalination plants cost around $1 billion for 50 million gallons per day capacity, with annual operating costs of $50–100 million.
3. Pumping Stations
Moving water uphill to areas prone to wildfires requires powerful pumps and significant energy. Each pumping station can cost tens of millions of dollars, depending on the capacity and energy source.
4. Storage and Distribution
The system would need reservoirs, distribution pipelines, and other infrastructure to deliver water to specific wildfire-prone areas. Storage tanks could cost millions to tens of millions each, depending on size and location.
5. Environmental and Regulatory Compliance
California has strict environmental regulations. Approvals, environmental impact studies, and mitigation measures could add hundreds of millions to the project cost.
Ballpark Estimate
A rough estimate for such a large-scale water pipeline and infrastructure project might range from $10 billion to $50 billion or more, depending on the system's scale, complexity, and coverage.
Alternatives to Consider
Instead of building a massive pipeline, California has been exploring and implementing:

Aerial firefighting systems (air tankers and helicopters).
Local water storage and reservoirs in high-risk areas.
Vegetation management to reduce fire risk.
Recycled water and stormwater capture systems.
Would you like a deeper dive into any specific part of this?

if you consider the cost, and the unlikelihood of many mass fires, and note that the death toll is relatively small, this should make sense.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Didn't democrats promise something big for the Trump inauguration? Here we go. A little arson here. A little looting there. Pretty soon you have a full blown crisis.