Los Angeles Palisades Fire

[Yazata]

Omar from Whole Mars Catalog (the guy who makes those Tesla FSD music videos) is in LA and says:

"Things are getting scary in Los Angeles. Everyone is trying to escape.

Power is going out. Shit is getting apocalyptic."

Elon replied "!!!"

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[Magical Realist]

No, Los Angeles didn’t refuse to fill water reservoirs prior to fires

Firefighters were experiencing water shortages from hydrants because L.A.'s tanks couldn't be refilled as fast as water was being used.

"Los Angeles filled its water tanks earlier this week, prior to the start of the current wildfire outbreak. Fire hydrants used by firefighters ran out of water because of high water demand that is outpacing the speed at which water service officials can replenish the tanks.

“Fundamentally, it is not correct that LADWP refused to properly fill the reservoir needed to fight the fire,” a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) told VERIFY. “On Monday, LADWP filled all available water storage facility tanks (around 114 throughout the City), including three 1-million gallon tanks in the Palisades area.”

Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow at the PPIC Water Policy Center, a think tank that tracks water use and storage data in California, told VERIFY that there isn’t a shortage of water in the area’s reservoirs.

“At no time during this fire has there been a shortage of water in southern California,” Mount said. “Their reservoirs are full. And there is nothing to be done with water that would have changed the course of these fires.”

Homes and fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades both pull their water from the area’s storage tanks, which get their water from several sources, including reservoirs. Even if the city has plenty of water available, an area’s fire hydrants will run out of water if the tanks aren’t being refilled at the same rate the water is being used.

Janisse Quiñones, head of LADWP, said in a news conference that four times the normal demand of water was seen for 15 hours straight in the area of the fires.

This demand lowered the water pressure, which in turn limited the pipes’ ability to pump water into three large tanks at the speed needed to refill, the LADWP spokesperson said.

Quiñones said the first tank ran dry at 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, the first day of the fires. The second tank ran dry at 8:30 p.m. The final tank went dry at around 3:00 a.m. Wednesday.

The LADWP spokesperson told VERIFY that there isn’t a lack of water flowing through the pipes in the Palisades area. The water flowing through the large pipelines in the area are just being used up before it can reach the tanks due to the high demand from other emergency services.

The fires have also hampered the LADWP’s efforts to refill the tanks. In an update posted to its website at 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the LADWP said its crews attempted to refill the water tanks at higher elevations but could not access them because of fire in the vicinity.

To help supply the firefighters with water in the meantime, the LADWP has deployed 19 water trucks between midnight and this morning. Those trucks are refilling at three hydrants identified to have strong water pressure, the LADWP spokesperson said.

The LADWP is also asking its customers in Los Angeles’ Westside to conserve water to reduce the demand in the area.

VERIFY digital journalist Megan Loe contributed to this report."

https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/...eXsKUbWQaw

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Meanwhile Donald Dumbass posts this. Thousands of lives destroyed, entire neighborhoods incinerated, Los Angeles engulfed in “biblical flames,” and all this MF wants to do is throw gas on the fire.

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[C C]

Omar from Whole Mars Catalog (the guy who makes those Tesla FSD music videos) is in LA and says:

"Things are getting scary in Los Angeles. Everyone is trying to escape.

Power is going out. Shit is getting apocalyptic."

Elon replied "!!!"

And yet paradise entails living amidst many inflammable trees. And ensuring that each new home and business is amply surrounded by a tight ring of various incendiary species again, after each Great Conflagration.

[C C]

[...] Adding insult, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass was 7,400 miles away in Africa,

Improving US relations with Africa was Bass's top agenda when she served in Congress. No doubt residents are delighted to see that even though the responsibility of her current job is looking after the welfare of LA, she is still devoting time to securing the betterment of foreign countries.

and months earlier she had approved an $18 million cut to the fire department. [...]

In a twist, the fire department got defunded, while the police department got an increase in funding.

Verify - Yes: Some social media posts suggest that at least some of the LAFD’s funding was redirected to the Los Angeles Police Department’s nearly $2 billion budget. We can VERIFY that the LAPD did get a nearly $126 million increase in funding this fiscal year, according to a graphic shared on X by Los Angeles Controller Kenneth Mejia in October 2024. The same graphic shows that the fire department’s funding decreased by $17.6 million.

Law enforcement stances: "Bass has been criticized by some progressives for her stances on law enforcement. [...] Bass is emphatically against defunding the police. Bass publicly slammed the rallying cry, telling the Washington Post in June 2020 — only a few weeks after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis — that it was “probably one of the worst slogans ever.” She told the publication, “I’m on record — radio, TV, print, hundreds of times — saying that I don’t support defund the police,” she said.

Another reason why progressives would be angry at her is that she owns guns. Of course, that's not unusual for political leaders and government administrators. "We need protection because we're public figures living in elite neighborhoods." 

2022 burglary: On September 9, 2022, Bass's Los Angeles home was burglarized and two firearms were stolen. In a public statement, Bass called the incident "unnerving" and "something that far too many Angelenos have faced." According to Bass, the firearms had been securely stored, and no other valuables were taken from her home.

[Magical Realist]

[...] Adding insult, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass was 7,400 miles away in Africa,

Improving US relations with Africa was Bass's top agenda when she served in Congress. No doubt residents are delighted to see that even though the responsibility of her current job is looking after the welfare of LA, she is still devoting time to securing the betterment of foreign countries.

Right.. because everybody knows her mere physical presence in LA would most certainly have prevented the fires from ever happening. Uncaring leftist bitch..

[Yazata]

A great real time information source for wildfires not only in California but throughout the Western United States is

https://watchduty.org/

They have iphone and android apps and a browser interface. They have all active fires, evacuation orders/warnings and maps, real time fire location maps, street/topographic/satellite imagery overlays, shelter locations and lots more. There are free and paid tiers, with the paid tiers getting more features.

It started in Sonoma County in Northern California after one of the big fires there a few years ago. They have about 15 employees and about 200 volunteers, many of whom are firemen, dispatchers and other first responders.

Right now it's found its moment and is exploding in popularity since everyone in LA and southern California is suddenly using it. Despite the traffic, their map server loads a lot faster than Cal Fire's, which is struggling. And since Watchduty's information comes from Cal Fire and similar sources in places like Oregon, it's equally authoritative.

Check them out, it's pretty good.

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TV was just showing a police car with its lights going, somewhere in West LA. I wondered why they were showing that, then saw that it was escorting a convoy of military hummvs. So the California National Guard is on scene.

There has also been video of MAFFS (fire retardant dispenser) equipped C-130s in action. These aircraft come from Cal Fire's own airforce, along with aircraft from the California, Nevada and several other Air National Guards.

The video that I saw showed these large aircraft fighting strong cross-winds and forced to drop their retardant from higher than desired altitude, reducing the effectiveness of the airdrops.

Despite the winds, there is a constant succession of firefighting helicopters making airdrops on the flames. Some of these pilots deserve commendations for some tough flying.

nsNS

[Syne]

[...] Adding insult, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass was 7,400 miles away in Africa,

Improving US relations with Africa was Bass's top agenda when she served in Congress. No doubt residents are delighted to see that even though the responsibility of her current job is looking after the welfare of LA, she is still devoting time to securing the betterment of foreign countries.

Right.. because everybody knows her mere physical presence in LA would most certainly have prevented the fires from ever happening. Uncaring leftist bitch..

Funny how morons always cut out the damning part of quotes.
In this case:

"...and months earlier she [Democratic Mayor Karen Bass] had approved an $18 million cut to the fire department"

Might help their cognitive dissonance but doesn't fool anyone else.

[Magical Realist]

And it's also funny that as usual Trumpers are twisting the actual facts just to make a democratic politician look bad:

https://www.dailynews.com/2025/01/09/fac...heres-how/

"Critics on social media have alleged that Mayor Karen Bass cut the city fire department’s budget by $23 million this year. The accusation has spread quickly, with many looking to cast blame for the devastating wildfires that have destroyed thousands of buildings in Los Angeles County this week and resulted in at least 4 deaths.

In her story on criticism’s of Mayor Bass during this crisis, reporter Linh Tat addressed the budget question.

“On Thursday, a spokesperson for L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who was budget chair last year, said the city increased the fire department’s overall budget by approximately $53 million in the current fiscal year. However, $76 million – intended to pay for fire department personnel – was placed in a fund separate from the fire department’s regular account when the budget was adopted because contract negotiations with department employees were still taking place at the time.”

As a result, if you just compare the LAFD’s budget last year to this year’s, it looks like it went down $23M. But that’s because when the budget was adopted last May or June, the city was still negotiating those new contracts. The $76M that was set aside in a separate account ultimately was moved once the MOUs were finalized."

So instead of repeating false internet stories blaming people like some hateful self-righteous prig, why don't you post stories of heroism and what people are doing to help in this catastrophe?

Here's World Central Kitchen's website where people can go to donate to feeding the responders and evacuees of the fires:

https://wck.org/

And here's some leftist Hollywood celebrities taking time out from cannibalizing children to help out others in this crisis:

https://www.businessinsider.com/celebrit...nd-homes-6

[Syne]

Some morons think the likes of TYT Ana Kasparian are now "Trumpers."

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[Magical Realist]

So tell us again exactly how democrats caused this disaster? It wasn't Newsom diverting water. It wasn't the mayor being in Africa.It wasn't some of the hydrants running low on water. And it wasn't the LAFD's 23 million temporarily set aside in a separate fund until later approval. So what next? You're basically running out of dumbass lies at this point if you have to quote a disgruntled progressive youtuber...