California Wildfires: A Comedy of Government Errors - From Desalination Denials to DEI Distractions
How Policy Failures and Budget Misallocations Fueled the LA Fire Crisis; Urgent Need for Desalination, Firefighter Recruitment Reform, and Aggressive Land Management
Sadly, California has experienced significant wildfires recently, with the Los Angeles area particularly hard-hit. Over 7,500 firefighting and emergency personnel were deployed to combat these fires, which were exacerbated by strong Santa Ana winds, dry conditions, and poor government policies. The recent fires are actually a comedy of errors by the state and county governments. The fires have destroyed structures and forced evacuations, requiring substantial state and federal resources for response and recovery.
Had the California Coastal Commission allowed the Poseidon desalination plant in Huntington Beach and one like it to move forward, perhaps the firefighters would have better water pressure and more water availability. While most of the fires are up the road from Huntington Beach, California needs more saltwater treatment plants to make the nearly endless water supply off its coast more available. The California government must revisit this issue immediately and green-light projects like the Poseidon desalination plant. This is just one of many mitigation methods that California must address over the next year.
Another issue that has been touted online regarding policies affecting firefighting effectiveness is that DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has served as a distraction affecting who gets hired as a firefighter. Firefighters are often given jobs to unqualified applicants or, at the very least, denied jobs to more qualified applicants in favor of less skilled ones. Like many others, the Los Angeles Fire Department emphasizes DEI and capability in recruitment.
However, the recent shortage of firefighters in LA is also due to the vaccine mandate, which is on top of prioritizing DEI policies. Meanwhile, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, cut the city's Fire Department budget ahead of this week's devastating fires – as she prioritized funds for its massive homeless population that largely went unspent. For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, Los Angeles budgeted $837 million for the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), which was roughly 65% the size of the homeless budget of $1.3 billion.
Another mitigation effort that needs to be addressed is increasing the frequency and expansion of the land and brush clearances in California counties prone to wildfires. The state must lower the regulatory hurdles and quash their over-adherence to extremist environmental groups who seek to stop many of these fire prevention measures. Controlled or prescribed fires should happen more frequently to reduce fuel loads by burning off underbrush and small trees under controlled conditions. This helps prevent larger, uncontrolled fires. California has aimed to treat over a million acres annually with prescribed burns and other fuel reduction methods. If California is going to continue to own so much land, then these must expand without being stopped by opposing ecological groups.
These efforts, along with forest thinning and more fuel breaks will help.
Besides government, property owners share some responsibility to thwart future fire destruction, so long as the government can get out of there way. Homeowners and business owners should create a defensible space around their properties, involving clearing brush and dead vegetation within a certain radius from structures to prevent fires from reaching homes and business structures.
Property owners should use more fire-resistant building materials to make homes more resistant to fires, especially in those areas prone to wildfires. Property owners can get their immediate communities together to develop plans for their local areas, assess their risks, and develop Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs). This can develop into more community workshops, training residents and property owners on preparing for a wildfire, including evaluation plans and fire-safe landscaping.
None of these measures will completely eliminate California wildfires, yet they will help to reduce deaths of destruction to structures in the state. As anyone knows, Santa Ana winds are natural, and wildfires will continue over the coming years.
