Los Angeles on Fire

States with a smaller population than Los Angeles County ! @GavinNewsom @fema @R5_Fire_News pic.twitter.com/Ebxv6KygpA

— Russel L. Honore' (@ltgrusselhonore) January 12, 2025

Maanvi Singh and Dani Anguiano at The Guardian:

The horrors that unfolded around US’s second largest city this week were shocking – but they were also, to some extent, expected. The blazes are part of the wildfire crisis that’s been unfolding in the American west for the last decade, from the 2017 fire siege in California’s Bay area to the 2018 blaze that destroyed Paradise and killed 85 people.

The fires that ravaged Los Angeles unfolded on a stunning landscape that is prone to burn, yet dotted with thousands of homes built over the years. Hurricane-force winds barreled through an area that hadn’t seen substantial rain in months, leading to massive conflagrations, fanned by hurricane-force gusts. It created a firestorm that spread at a rate that far exceeded firefighters’ ability to respond.

Firefighting forces across the state are deeply understaffed and have been struggling for years to battle the barrage of extreme wildfires. The 9,000 firefighters in Los Angeles county – including crews with the county’s fire department and 29 other fire agencies – were overwhelmed by the size and ferocity of the wildfires across the region, calling for aid from neighboring counties and states.

Infrastructure failed, too. “This is like a third world country,” said Rick Caruso, the billionaire real estate developer who lost the mayoral race to Bass, calling into a local radio station. Caruso was referring to reports that water hydrants in the Pacific Palisades, where his daughter lost her home, ran dry. A Los Angeles Times report that a massive reservoir in the Pacific Palisades was closed for repairs and empty at the time of the fire has raised further questions.

The city did, in fact, have enough water, but the system was not built for fighting multiple infernos. The LA department of water and power (LADWP) said that fire crews drew so much water, so fast in the initial hours of the fight, that the tanks that maintain water pressure to help supplies travel uphill to hydrants were strained.

“We pushed the system to the extreme,” the LADWP CEO Janisse Quiñones said in a news conference. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.” Crews instead had to rely on water trucks.

Volunteer Firefighters

Our textbook discusses volunteering as an example of civic virtue. At The New York Times, Andrew Brown and Ian Urbina write:

IN most places in America, when a fire breaks out, a volunteer shows up to put it out.
But the ranks of volunteers are dwindling. What was once an iconic part of American life is losing its allure, in part because the work — some would say the calling — is a lot less fun than it used to be.

There are still more than twice as many volunteers as career firefighters. But the number of volunteers has dropped by around 11 percent since the mid-1980s, while the number of career firefighters has grown more than 50 percent, according to the National Fire Protection Association. The allure has diminished because fund-raising now takes up roughly half the time most volunteers spend on duty. It’s also harder to fit in volunteer work. The rise in two-income households often means that there is no stay-at-home parent to run things so the other can dash off for an an emergency. Urbanization and the aging of the rural population are taking their toll as fewer young people are available to replace firefighters who retire.

Federal, state and local officials would like to attract new volunteer recruits. The stakes are particularly high because volunteers save not only lives but money — more than $139.8 billion annually for local governments, according to the fire protection association. The time and training needed to become a certified firefighter have also increased. Federal standards enacted to save firefighters’ lives have unintentionally created a barrier for volunteer service: It now takes hundreds of hours to be certified, and new firefighters often must cover the cost of training.

Self-Interest and Public Interest

A core idea of our book is that self-interest isn't everything. Political motivations involve a complicated and shifting mix of self-interest and public interest.  Michael Barone offers a couple of examples:

People like to do well, but they also want to do good.

Let me cite two professions which that worked to put themselves out of much business, out of altruism.

Firefighters are the first example. Firefighter unions and other organizations have actively promoted safer building codes, restrictions on use of flammable materials and unsafe building materials.

These firefighters have lifted the charred bodies of dead children out of burnt-out buildings. They have seen families destroyed by needless fires.

They have worked to prevent such tragedies. And worked successfully: There are many fewer fires than there used to be.

Firefighters have done themselves out of business. They spend most of their time now on routine services which less expensive EMS personnel could handle, and their unions struggle to prevent layoffs.

Another altruistic profession is dentistry. For many decades dental groups have promoted fluoridation of water. They have vigorously encourage people to brush — and floss — thrice daily.

In their practices, they have seen the pain people suffer from because of defective teeth and painful abscesses. They want to reduce such suffering.

As a result, Americans have far fewer cavities and dentists have far less routine work than they did some years ago. In response, they have developed new specialties — peridontry, enamelizing, orthodonture.

Hotshots

In our chapter on bureaucracy, we note that self-interest is not the only motivation for government service. The recent deaths of firefighters in Arizona drive home the point that the danger may outweigh any financial compensation.  In Outside magazine, Kyle Dickman writes about his experience as an embedded journalist in a team of firefighters:

It’s July 12, 2012, and I’m about to be sent to my first forest fire of the season. I arrived yesterday to meet up with the Tahoe Hotshots, an elite group of wilderness fire-fighters based about 120 miles east of here, in a Sierra foothills town called Camptonville. The Tahoe team is part of a sprawling, multifaceted army: 177 federal, state, and county crews who must try and stop a fast-moving, 17,000-acre blaze before it spreads into Stonyford. Known as the Mill Fire, it was started on July 7 by lost hikers and raced east through the Coast Range and theMendocino National Forest. Drought conditions and 60-mile-per-hour Pacific winds have fueled its advance; already, five buildings have burned on the edge of town.

The U.S. Forest Service, which usually runs the show when a big fire breaks out on federal land, has declared the Mill to be a national priority, and there are 1,500 wildland firefighters from around the West assembled to battle it. Some work on engine crews, manning the trucks that deliver water to the front lines. Others are smoke jumpers, who parachute straight into burning forests from cargo planes to stop small fires from growing. Some, like my group, are hotshots, backcountry firefighters who use chainsaws, Pulaskis, and rakes to cut firebreaks of bare earth around a blaze.

He quotes  Tony Barbero, a 32-year-old former third-grade teacher from Berkeley:

“If I had known about this job years ago,” Barbero says, “I never would have gone into teaching. This is it. This is all I ever want to do.”

Selflessness and Service

A major theme of our book is that self-interest does not explain everything in politics. Every day, citizens and public figures make sacrifices for something greater than themselves. An example comes from Saratoga Springs, New York, where the police chief and fire chief stepped down early in order to help others. The Saratogian reports:

Chiefs of the city’s police and fire departments announced they would retire before the end of the year, in hopes of saving the jobs of lower-level police officers who will otherwise be laid off under the 2010 comprehensive budget.

The 2010 budget has slated seven positions to be eliminated from both departments. By promoting officers within both the police and fire departments to fill the chiefs’ positions, at least one position at the lower levels will likely be saved, Commissioner of Public Safety Ron Kim said.

Chief of Police Edward Moore has served with the city’s police force since joining at the age of 19 in 1974, including the last 6-1/2 years as chief. Fire Chief Robert Cogan joined the fire department a year later, in 1975, and has been chief for 14 years. Moore said the exact date of his retirement has not yet been determined; Cogan will retire on Christmas Day.

...

Moore also said he was motivated to retire by a desire to allow others to get from the department what he had.

"My 35 good years with this department have allowed me to raise a family and have a full career. I cannot in good conscience remain on the job while young officers who are just starting their families and careers face layoffs, especially in the current economy," he said

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