As the fires rage throughout the Pacific Palisades and Malibu many Anglenos lost their homes and sense of community..
Rick Caruso, who opposed the current Mayor Karen Bass in the 2022 election spoke on CNBC citing the lack of leadership in Los Angeles County. Caruso cited non-working fire hydrants and a lack of attention to the brush in the canyon areas.
“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” Caruso said with exasperation. “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.”
Mayor Karen Bass cut fire department funding by 17.5 million dollars in mid-2024, drawing criticism from a host of political figures. Bass cited the 2023-4 fiscal year where the fire department underspent its budget by about $18 million ($819 million versus $837 million).
County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath appeared across the media outlets including CNN and CBS. Horvath who represents District 30, described herself as heartbroken . Horvath urged residents to remain vigilant. “All resources are focused on keeping people safe and getting the fire under control”.
Horvath added “When I came into office Horvath did not mention any cuts to the fire department in her statement. “I knew coming into this office a couple of years ago I was advised this is most disaster prone district of any county in the country.” Horvath did not mention any of the cuts made to the fire department budget.
As of the time of this writing 5 different fires raged across LA County destroying over 11,000 acres. The Palisades fire has spread to over 5000 acres, with 1000 structures burned and has yet to be contained. The Hurst fire has expanded to over 700 acres and is not yet contained. The Eaton Fire in Altadena has grown to over 11,000 acres, w two people reported dead and over 100 structures burned. The Woodley Fire in the Sepulveda Basin spread to 30 acres and has been contained, The Tyler fire spread to 15 acres and has been contained.
“In West Hollywood there are no reports of major fires or other incidents, and we have deployed field staff to assess roads and attend to downed trees.”, read the statement from WeHoCity.
Property owners who experienced damage or the loss of their property due to the fires, may qualify for property tax, relief, including tax payment deferrals. Information on these programs is available on my website at assessor.lacounty.gov. Click on the disaster, relief page.
Jeff Prang
Los Angeles County Assessor
Karen Bass was a disaster in EVERY political office she has held, yet people voted for her because she was a democrat. Gavin Newsom has run California into the ground, yet, people voted for him because he was a democrat. These are the dangers of a Supermajority. California was always at the top of its game under a two-party system. Republicans keep Democrats in check, Democrats kept Republicans in check. Mass immigration from the Third World altered that as they are almost alway dependent on social programs that Democrats love to use along with union voting power (that burden California… Read more »
Whoever can’t see the sh_ _ show is blind Biden visit limited and shut down air space. Running out of water because someone took too long to refill the tanks??? What is this about?
We have an ultra slow response to original point of flare up it was filmed live for hours on ABC7
The county lays off Firefighters during rainy season around November.
Bass defunded 17 million to FD in 2024
Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass have some ‘splaining to do! Newsom, of course, will charm and talk his way out of it because he’s so good at that, but Bass is not.
City needs to immediately reverse their short term lease rule. And Bass needs to resign.
….and the city closed the dog parks without ANY warning. The hotel next to the Hart dog park is completely FULL of hose displaced by the fires, some of whom have dogs and have lost everything. I met them this morning. The parks need to reopen immediately.
Seriously, you’re worried about the dog parks?!? There are much bigger problems to tackle at the moment.
Caruso makes a valid point and our “leaders” need to be held accountable.
Prison…criminal negligence.