los angeles – Questions are being raised about why hundreds of Los Angeles Fire Department personnel were initially prevented from rushing to the scene of the Palisades Fire when it first erupted Last week in LA's Pacific Palisades neighborhood.
CBS News has confirmed this Palisades fire started At around 10:30 am on January 7, only 19 fire engines were already deployed in the area.
But it's not clear how many, if any, were dispatched to the first neighborhood that caught fire. For the first four hours that the CBS News crew was on the scene while the flames burned homes, crew members did not see any LAFD firefighters in the immediate area.
LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley, when asked by CBS News on Wednesday how many crews were battling the fire in the early hours, said, “We'll give you the numbers, where, I think it's important that we do that on the pre-deployment side.” Let's talk about.”
crowley First attributed to budget cuts For lack of resources. But according to the Los Angeles Times, about 1,000 LAFD firefighters were not initially activated. Officials confirmed that some were not asked to stop by before their shifts, and others were assigned non-fire-related 911 calls.
The time will be eight hours before LAFD sent an important message To call all off-duty personnel with their availability. even the requested CBS News Los Angeles issued the same message on-air.
Crowley and L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marone both call extremists Santa Ana winds Overwhelmed them. The wildfire has burned more than 60 square miles, killing at least 25 people and destroying more than 12,000 structures.
This kind of devastation could become the new normal due to climate change,
“It's the actions we take before that wind event starts that is going to make the most difference, because we all realize that to put out that fast-moving, wind-driven community fire There aren't enough fire trucks, there aren't enough firefighters. We saw that on Tuesday,” Marone told CBS News.
Marone said the shootings began “long before” the flames arrived, and added that “we must be held accountable.”