Fact vs. Spin Regarding the L.A. Firestorm; Don’t Eat Your Christmas Trees, No Matter What Ghent Says–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Jan. 9, 2025

Indy Digest: Jan. 9, 2025

Whenever there’s a tragedy, there’s misinformation and politicization—and such has been the case with the horrific Los Angeles firestorm.

Here are some questions I’ve seen posed on social media, in various ways—with answers to the questions from reliable information sources.

• Why have these fires been so terrible? Despite despicable attempts by the president-elect and other right-wing sources to blame the fires on Gavin Newsom and DEI hiring, among other things, there is one reason, and one reason only, why they’ve been so intense: Climate change.

Our partners at Calmatters report:

As climate change warms the planet, wildfires have become so unpredictable and extreme that new words were invented: firenado, gigafire, fire siege—even fire pandemic. California has 78 more annual “fire days”—when conditions are ripe for fires to spark—than 50 years ago. When is California’s wildfire season? With recurring droughts, It is now year-round.

Nothing is as it was. Where are the worst California wildfires? All over. Whatever NIMBYism that gave comfort to some Californians—never having a fire in their community before—no longer applies to most areas. …

All of Southern California is experiencing drought conditions, with close to zero rainfall since July.

Southern California’s coastal fires typically have to be driven by desert winds. But no longer. Vegetation along the usually moist coast is often so parched that it doesn’t need winds to fan wildfires.

The Daily Show summed this all up nicely, and hilariously, with the help of some clips from Steve Harvey on Family Feud:

• I heard the fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades ran out of water. Surely someone should be blamed for that, right? The LAist did a fantastic fact-check on assertions by some people, including billionaire Rick Caruso, that city mismanagement is to blame for some fire hydrants going dry during the fight against the Palisades fire. However …

LADWP’s explanation for the shortage comes down to three nearby water tanks, each with a storage capacity of about a million gallons. … The first LADWP water tank ran out at about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, while the second ran out at approximately 8:30 p.m. that day and the third and final tank ran out at about 3 a.m. Wednesday. …

Generally speaking, wildfires quickly cause strain on local water supplies.

“It happens pretty quickly in almost any wildfire in most contexts, but especially one like this,” said Greg Pierce, director of the UCLA Water Resources Group.

In order to have a system that could have handled the demands of continuous firefighting through fire hydrants, Pierce said LADWP would have needed to keep much larger reserves of water physically on hand near the locations of possible wildfires.

“There is a theoretical world, and maybe a world we’re entering into, where we could pay much, much more to have redundant water and power supply—because you need both (to fight fire), especially in terrains like this,” Pierce said. “I’m not even sure that would have made a difference when it comes to these types of wildfires, but that’s possible.”

Pierce said that level of financial commitment would be “incredibly expensive,” but that’s what would be needed in order to keep fire hydrants running — especially in mountainous or hilly regions where local agencies also have to contend with pumping water uphill.

“There’s no reason to think that DWP was particularly ill prepared, no one was talking about them being ill prepared for wildfires,” he said. “This caught everyone off guard, as far as I know.”

• Didn’t the city of Los Angeles cut the fire department’s budget? Yes, they did—and city leaders, first and foremost Mayor Karen Bass, are facing criticism as a result. CNN reports:

In June, Bass approved a budget of nearly $13 billion that included a $17 million reduction in the LAFD’s more than $800 million budget for 2025. L.A. Fire Chief Kristen Crowley noted in a December report the funding deficit has affected the department’s “ability to maintain core operations,” including training and response to large-scale emergencies.

The report also highlighted that the department had been unable to perform required brush clearance inspections to mitigate fire risks, and residential inspections for fire safety compliance were reduced.

“Ultimately, loss of funding impairs the Department’s ability to mitigate wildland fires and other hazards effectively,” the report stated.

At a news conference Thursday morning, Bass insisted that the budget cuts have not hindered the LAFD’s ability to fight the wildfires. “I think if you go back and look at the reductions that have been made, there were no reductions that would have impacted the situation we were dealing with over the last couple of days,” she said.

“It’s important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times. Everybody knew that, but the impact of our budget really did not affect what we’ve been going through over the last few days.”

• Is this criticism of Bass legitimate? Perhaps—but as Los Angeles Times columnist (and friend of the Independent) Gustavo Arellano points out, “playing the blame game in a city like Los Angeles, ever at the edge of destruction, is a pendejo‘s errand.” He goes on to say:

Because if we’re going to point fingers at Bass for this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe, we might as well do the same to others.

Let’s blame the residents who chose to live in areas that were an inferno waiting to happen.

Let’s blame the people who went on with their lives as kindling formed through L.A.’s hills and urban greenery dried up.

Let’s blame the fire officials who knew this day would come and should have had firefighters already deployed instead of sending them after the fact, because of the hell that was inevitably going to erupt.

Let’s blame Angelenos whose houses aren’t on fire but keep overusing water when every drop is needed to put out embers from Malibu to Hollywood to the foothills.

Let’s blame incoming President Donald Trump, who went on social media to blame the fires on Gov. Gavin “Newscum.”

Let’s blame Caruso, the sorest political loser in L.A. since former Mayor Sam Yorty, who has spent most of this week of woe blasting Bass to any media outlet that’ll let him while employing a private firefighting crew to protect his Pacific Palisades shopping plaza.

Let’s blame ourselves collectively, above all. We’ve long known our paradise can disappear in an instant, yet act surprised, again and again, when it does. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.

• Is there anything I can do to help? Yes, there is. Various media sources, including the Los Angeles Times and KTLA, have compiled lists of ways in which people can help. Personally, we’re donating a few bucks to World Central Kitchen, which “is in Southern California to support first responders and families affected by the fires, providing nourishing meals to people in need,” according to the Times. If you want to join us in supporting this amazing organization, visit donate.wck.org/give/654000/#!/donation/checkout.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• The Wired headline says: “Meta Now Lets Users Say Gay and Trans People Have ‘Mental Illness.’” The story explains: “Meta announced a series of major updates to its content moderation policies (on Tuesday), including ending its fact-checking partnerships and ‘getting rid’ of restrictions on speech about ‘topics like immigration, gender identity and gender’ that the company describes as frequent subjects of political discourse and debate. … In tandem with this announcement, the company made a number of updates across its Community Guidelines, an extensive set of rules that outline what kinds of content are prohibited on Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, Threads, and Facebook. Some of the most striking changes were made to Meta’s ‘Hateful Conduct’ policy, which covers discussions on immigration and gender. In a notable shift, the company now says it allows ‘allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like weird.’” Sigh.

• Our partners at Calmatters say that, to nobody’s surprise, the Los Angeles firestorm will likely drive up insurance rates: “The deadly and destructive fires in Los Angeles—which some say could be the costliest in the state’s history—will further strain the insurance market and worsen the financial position of California’s insurer of last resort. Data about Pacific Palisades, the devastated LA neighborhood whose residents include movie stars and directors, help illustrate the insurance problems plaguing the state. An estimated 1 in 5 homes in the upscale neighborhood were covered by the insurer, known as the FAIR Plan. Property owners in California have increasingly been turning to the plan, a pool of insurers required by state law to sell fire policies to consumers who can’t find regular insurance elsewhere. That’s because, for the past few years, insurance companies have been canceling policies or refusing to write new ones in California, citing rising risk of wildfires. … Last year, State Farm decided not to renew tens of thousands of policies in the state, including about 1,600 in Pacific Palisades. As of September, there were 1,430 residential FAIR Plan policies in the enclave’s 90272 ZIP code, an 85% increase from the previous year, according to the plan’s latest data.”

• Oops. Earlier today, residents across Los Angeles received an errant evacuation alert. The Los Angeles Times says: “Across Los Angeles, phones rang loudly with an alert to evacuate just before 4 p.m. on Thursday. The city Emergency Management Department said the alert was sent ‘in ERROR.’ ‘Evacuation orders have not changed,” the department said in a post on X. Times staff across the metropolitan area—from Long Beach to Echo Park and beyond—received the alert, which did not appear to discriminate by distance from any particular fire. ‘This is an emergency message from the Los Angeles County Fire Department,’ the notice read. ‘An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued in your area.’ … A second alert went out around 4:20 p.m. saying that the evacuation warning was sent in error and was meant to apply only to the Kenneth fire.”

• Keep your eye on the state of North Carolina, where the GOP-controlled state Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the certification of an election victory by a Democrat. ProPublica says: “The move gives the court time to consider a challenge by her Republican opponent, state appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, who has cited debunked legal theories in his previous failed attempts to block Justice Allison Riggs’ re-election. Griffin has sought for his claims to be decided by the Supreme Court he hopes to join, which is led by his mentor. On Monday, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump remanded Griffin’s challenge to the state Supreme Court. … Riggs won re-election by 734 votes—a minuscule margin of victory that was confirmed by two recounts. She will remain on the court while the election results are being contested, though she has recused herself from this matter. Griffin is asking the Supreme Court to throw out roughly 60,000 ballots—an unprecedented request based on a theory that has been dismissed by both the state election board and a federal judge.”

• Another day, another concerning bird flu story. This comes from The Associated Press: “The first U.S. bird flu death has been reported—a person in Louisiana who had been hospitalized with severe respiratory symptoms. State health officials announced the death on Monday, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it was the nation’s first due to bird flu. Health officials have said the person was older than 65, had underlying medical problems and had been in contact with sick and dead birds in a backyard flock. They also said a genetic analysis had suggested the bird flu virus had mutated inside the patient, which could have led to the more severe illness. … Since March, 66 confirmed bird flu infections have been reported in the U.S., but previous illnesses have been mild and most have been detected among farmworkers exposed to sick poultry or dairy cows.”

• And finally … Belgium has asked folks to please NOT eat Christmas trees. Yes, they really did. The Guardian (U.K.) explains what in the heck this was about: “At a time when most people have probably polished off their holiday leftovers, Belgium’s food agency has issued a surprising seasonal health warning: don’t eat your Christmas tree. The message on Tuesday came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s northern Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town website suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried—for use in making flavoured butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply from Belgium’s federal agency for food chain security, AFSCA, was a resounding ‘No.’ ‘Christmas trees are not destined to enter the food chain,” it said in a statement. There is no way to ensure that eating Christmas trees is safe—either for people or animals,’ it said, citing the likely presence of pesticides on most trees cultivated for the season.“

Support the Independent!

While the Independent can always use your support, today, I instead urge you to click the button below to support World Central Kitchen, which is helping people in need in L.A.—and around the world, as always. Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

Read this Indy Digest at CVIndependent.com!