You have to wonder how long California and the Los Angeles area will put up with the most feckless and incompetent leadership that they have ever elected.
After the California wildfires that devastated so many people, Gov. Newsom signed an executive order enacting new wildfire prevention rules. Homeowners are now required to clear flammable materials (including mulch, bushes and plants) except for mature trees within five feet of their homes.
According to Newsweek, state officials and researchers claim that embers are responsible for 90 percent of structures destroyed by wildfire.
Clearing plants five feet around houses will stop this ferocious fire?
Given that the Santa Ana winds can blow up to 100 miles per hour, you have to wonder how not planting bushes within five feet from one’s house will actually save a structure.
I mean, I don’t believe that lawns and flower beds are what fueled the catastrophic fires to begin with. You know what did? A combination of ineptitude among many, many leaders.
First, there’s the Los Angeles Mayor, Karen Bass. Despite the National Weather Service warning of the potential for extreme fire conditions, the good mayor decided to take a taxpayer-funded trip to Ghana to attend the inauguration of their president. Once she learned of the disaster unfolding in her city, she headed back to the USA. Stone-cold silent she was as areas of Los Angeles went up in flames.
Another thing that fueled the fires? Not. Having. Water.
Santa Ynez reservoir: EMPTY at the time of fires.
Instead of being full of water, as a reservoir should be in a fire-prone area, the reservoir sat empty, leaving water supplies and hydrants dry after hours of intense firefighting. The reservoir sat empty for a year after a tear was discovered in its rubber-like protective cover. But no worries, leaders at the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power are now hiring an independent engineer to assess whether the empty reservoir contributed to the failure of its water system during the Palisades fire.
Mayor Bass nominated LADWP CEO Janisse Quiñones with an annual salary of $750,000. Janisse knew about the empty reservoir and broken hydrants months before the fires. Quiñones past employer is also linked to fire scandals. She was previously a top executive at electricity company PG&E, which went bankrupt over liability for several massive wildfires in California.
Another failure of leadership at LADWP to provide water to known fire zone areas during a wildfire event.
Failure at so many levels and to date, no accountability for any of their actions. But you, homeowner, better not plant a rosebush for grandma by her front door! No pretty flowerbeds along your front window sills!
No doubt Newsom’s executive order will ensure that the wind can only blow burning embers four and a half feet or less. You democrats never learn…
DCG
