Tag: los angeles

What Started L.A.’s Firestorm? Hint: It’s Not ‘Climate Change.’

Firefighters say that L.A.’s hellacious firestorm started at 10:30 Tuesday morning in Topanga Canyon. This paradise is — was? — filled with bespoke homes and came with built-in privacy — a rare commodity. People have been uprooted, their family memories are in ashes, and they have to find a place to sleep tonight. Evacuated entertainment stars such as James Woods, Ben Affleck, Eugene Levy, and more likely haven’t had a chance to ask this secondary question: What started this fire? 

First, any number of things could have started the fire that turned into a conflagration that destroyed untold numbers of homes and scorched at least 3,000 acres — and counting — of prime Los Angeles area real estate. Someone could have flicked a cigarette butt out the window. Car exhaust could have sparked dry brush on the side of the road. Arsonists have been known to purposely set fires in Southern California. 

Or maybe it was the same thing that started fires in the past: homeless encampments.

In 2021, Topanga Canyon residents were so concerned with homeless encampments and fire danger that they ostensibly “banned” them. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted to ban homeless camps because cooking dinner or drugs outside in dry brush is a really dumb idea. 

Film producer and conservative Mike Cernovich predicts that before the embers are put out of the Palisades fire, a Hollywood “sh*tlib” will blame it not on homeless encampments or an arsonist but on climate change. 

Keep reading

L.A. Officials Complain There Aren’t Enough Firefighters – After Firing Hundreds Who Refused to Take COVID Vaccine

As fires rage across Los Angeles, city officials are complaining there are not enough firefighters to manage the situation.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said that the department was incapable of managing such a massive natural disaster.

“There are not enough firefighters in all of Los Angeles County to address four separate fires of this magnitude,” he said.

“The LA County Fire Department was prepared for one or two major wildfires, but not the four. This is not a normal red flag alert.”

While their lack of manpower is completely understandable given the incredible ferocity of the fires, it is worth noting that many firefighters were fired for their refusal to take the COVID vaccine.

As pointed out by the popular End Wokeness account X, local news media even ran reports back in 2021 about how firefighters had their employment terminated after refusing to provide proof of vaccination or requesting an exemption.

Keep reading

How years of corruption and mismanagement led to LA running out of water in the middle of the Palisades wildfire

As Los Angeles firefighters faced down the most destructive blaze in the city’s history, they ran out of water.

“The hydrants are down,” a firefighter said over the radio, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Another chipped in: “Water supply just dropped.”

Fire crews were forced to watch as entire blocks of the Pacific Palisades — one of the most scenic and celeb-packed neighborhoods in LA — were incinerated in a matter of hours late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” Rick Caruso, who owns the Palisades Village mall in the heart of the devastated area, fumed to local media. “The firefighters are there, and there’s nothing they can do — we’ve got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning. … It should never happen.”

The water shortage was the result of years of mismanagement of LA’s water system — including a federal indictment of a leader and high-profile resignations — as well as major operational problems that drained reserves too quickly.

The Pacific Palisades fire, whipped up by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses. By Wednesday night, it had spread to 16,000 acres (25 square miles), bigger than the island of Manhattan in New York — and crews had not managed to contain any of it.

LA residents voiced their outrage over the conditions that allowed the fire — and two other blazes in Los Angeles County — to rage out of control. Five people had died as of Wednesday night, several others were injured and at least 70,000 were told to evacuate their homes across the LA area.

Adding insult, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass was 7,400 miles away in Africa, and months earlier she had approved an $18 million cut to the fire department.

“RESIGN! WHY ARE YOU IN GHANA?!,” one person commented on an X post by Bass’ office giving an update on the wildfires.

Keep reading

Firetrucks Use Garden Hoses From Residential Homes to Fill Up Water Tanks as Hydrants Run Dry

Life is hell on earth under full Democrat control.

Wednesday evening marked day two of the horrifying fires ravaging Los Angeles.

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in the greater Los Angeles area as tens of thousands of acres burn.

Thanks to incompetent Democrats such as LA Mayor Karen Bass, the fire hydrants have run dry and there are not enough resources to fight the wildfires.

Fire trucks are using garden hoses from residential homes to fill up their water tanks after hydrants run dry.

There is no water north of Woodbury in Altadena, according to a Fox 11 reporter.

The fire in Altadena (Eaton fire) is raging out of control. As of Wednesday evening, it was reported that the fire in Altadena is zero percent contained.

At least five people have died in the Eaton fire. Thousands of homes and structures have burned down.

“We saw something really incredible. See this hose? This garden hose? This is connected to the firetruck and this homeowner is filling up the firetruck tank with their hose so that they can fight these fires because they are out of water,” a Fox 11 reporter said.

“Everywhere north of Woodbury – none of the fire hydrants have any water in them which is why these homeowners – you see them spraying, the flames themselves with the garden hose,” the reporter said.

Keep reading

LA’s Incompetent Mayor Karen Bass Reads the Words “URL” Off Her Script During Presser Instead of Giving Emergency Website For Fire Victims

The hits just keep coming.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass held a press conference to brief the public on the ongoing wildfires raging out of control in her city and the greater LA area.

As of Wednesday evening, the several fires burning in Los Angeles are zero percent contained.

Gusty Santa Ana Winds and dry fire hydrants are making it nearly impossible for firefighters to contain the fire.

LA’s incompetent and corrupt Mayor, Karen Bass, was actually in Africa when the fires exploded in her city.

Karen Bass slashed Fire Department funding by $17.6 million a few months before the fires erupted on Tuesday.

Los Angeles firefighters couldn’t even battle the inferno because the hydrants went dry.

Earlier Wednesday a Sky News reporter cornered Karen Bass and absolutely torched her over her failed policies.

Later Wednesday evening Karen Bass held a press briefing and she couldn’t even read a script.

Karen Bass pulled a Joe Biden and literally read the words “URL” off her script instead of giving those in need the emergency website.

“All of this can be found at URL,” Karen Bass said.

Keep reading

Vital LA Firefighting Equipment Was Handed To Ukraine, Reports Show, As Americans Now Caught In Raging Inferno

As of Wednesday afternoon the fast-moving, wind-driven fires sweeping through the Los Angeles areaare still zero percent contained, resulting in ongoing evacuations for 50,000+ residents.

Hundreds of thousands of residential and commercial locations have been left without power in the LA area as the natural disaster has become so large in proportion that it has captured the nation’s attention. Many have been naturally focused on ‘thoughts and prayers’ for heroic LA and California firefighters, and their hoped-for ability to push back the raging inferno. But several local headlines from prior years make clear that area firefighters could have had more resources to draw from, if significant emergency response supplies and items weren’t sent to Zelensky…

“Los Angeles County fire crews are sending some of their extra equipment to firefighters in Ukraine,” a local March 2022 story reads. “The plane carrying that much-needed surplus equipment, such as hoses, nozzles, turnouts, helmets, body armor and other personal protective gear, is expected to take off Friday.”

This began in the opening months of the Russian invasion, and appears to have continued at various times over the last couple years, with large expensive items like firetrucks having been shipped oversees as well.

Putting America “Ukraine first” is the Biden bad foreign policy idea that keeps on giving… and taking away from American citizens caught in the throes of emergency and disaster

Keep reading

LA Mayor Karen Bass cut fire department funding by $17.6M — months before wildfires turned city into hellscape

The Los Angeles Fire Department had its budget cut by a staggering $17.6 million this financial year, records show — as fire crews continue to battle out-of-control blazes ravaging the City of Angels.

The drastic decrease in funding for the fire department was the second-largest cut to come out of embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass‘ 2024-25 fiscal year budget, according to city figures.

The police budget, meanwhile, increased by $126 million, a graphic shared by LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia shows.

Bass had initially wanted to cut the fire department by even more — a staggering $23 million.

The details on Bass’ budget slashing resurfaced as the mayor faced widespread backlash Wednesday after it was revealed she was away in Africa for the Ghana president’s inauguration — even as wind-whipped wildfires turned parts of her city into an apocalyptic hellscape.

In her absence, Bass found time to praise firefighters and other emergency crews for working “overnight to protect Angelenos affected by fires.”

Keep reading

‘Anti-Hate’ Art Exhibit in LA Featured Participants Kicking Around Donald Trump’s Head

An “art exhibit” in Los Angeles designed to protest against Donald Trump “spreading hate” featured participants kicking around a soccer ball shaped like the former president’s head.

Yes, really.

A a rubber or latex object made to look like Trump’s dome was booted around by players during an indoor game at Superchief Gallery in Los Angeles last weekend.

The art installation was created by a group called INDECLINE and was first debuted the Trump soccer ball four years ago when they invited people at the Mexican border to kick it around.

Laughably, the art collective claimed the point of the display was to demonstrate against Trump “spreading hate.”

Keep reading

LAPD raid goes from bad to farce after gun allegedly sucked onto MRI machine

An officer with the Los Angeles Police Department found out the hard way that you can’t take metal near an MRI machine after their rifle flew out of their hands and became attached to the machine during a pot raid gone bad, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week.

The incident’s details were described in a lawsuit filed by the owners of a Los Angeles medical imaging center, who allege that their business was wrongly targeted by LAPD during a raid in October 2023 The lawsuit was first reported on by Law360.com.

The owners of NoHo Diagnostic Center are suing the LAPD, the city of Los Angeles and multiple police officers, alleging they violated the business owners’ constitutional rights and demanding an unspecified amount in damages. Officers allegedly raided the diagnostic center, located in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, thinking it was a front for an illegal cannabis cultivation facility, pointing to higher-than-usual energy use and the “distinct odor” of cannabis plants, according to the lawsuit. 

Officers raided the facility on Oct. 18, 2023, and detained the lone female employee while they searched the business, the lawsuit said. However, they didn’t find a single cannabis plant and only saw a typical medical facility with rooms used for conducting x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs, the owners said. 

The officers then released the employee and told her to call a manager, the lawsuit said, while they continued to wander around various rooms of the facility. The plaintiffs say the officers’ behavior was “nothing short of a disorganized circus, with no apparent rules, procedures, or even a hint of coordination.”

At one point, an officer walked into an MRI room, past a sign warning that metal was prohibited inside, with his rifle “dangling… in his right hand, with an unsecured strap,” the lawsuit said. The MRI machine’s magnetic force then allegedly sucked his rifle across the room, pinning it against the machine. MRI machines are tube-shaped scanners that use incredibly strong magnetic fields to create images of the brain, bones, joints and other internal organs.

Keep reading

LA CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS FUNDING FORMER IDF SOLDIERS TO PATROL ITS STREETS

THE LOS ANGELES City Council is considering whether to give public funds to private, armed security patrols to protect its religious communities, following a protest against the marketing of West Bank settlement properties at an LA synagogue last month that turned violent. 

In the immediate wake of the incident, city council members introduced a motion to give $1 million to several Jewish security organizations that would expand their work around Jewish schools, religious institutions, and neighborhoods. 

Magen Am, a nonprofit that runs armed patrol services and firearm training programs for the Jewish community, was named as the recipient of $350,000 in the motion. The group is largely made up of former Israeli soldiers, along with U.S. military veterans, according to the group’s website and social media posts, and was founded by a former MMA fighter with ties to the National Rifle Association. The majority of the former Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the group are “lone soldiers,” according to several reports, the term for individuals with no direct ties to the state of Israel who immigrated there to serve in the nation’s military.

The city council has since introduced a new motion, which would give $2 million to various faith groups that want to hire additional security and does not mention Magen Am or any recipients by name. But LA activists are still concerned that city funds will go to an armed group with hard-line political stances.

Keep reading