The wealthiest Los Angeles residents have reportedly hired private fire fighters to protect their homes at a rate of $2,000 per hour because their city cannot be relied upon. This is what it has come to for the most privileged.
Private firefighting companies exist to help state and local governments but also take “on call” services too. They have their own “water supplies, trucks, hoses, fire-quenching chemicals, and other industrial-grade equipment.”
The question is: Why doesn’t Los Angeles have those things too? California officials say that they will look into the reasons that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been empty for months, leaving them without 117 million gallons of water that they sure did need to fight these historic fires.
Governor Gavin Newsom said that all reservoirs were full but NBC reporter Jacob Soboroff called him out on that lie.
“That’s exactly what triggered my desire to get the investigation to understand what was happening with that local reservoir,” Newsom replied.
Los Angeles officials held a press conference on Sunday and were asked repeatedly if they were worried about an incoming Trump administration. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said that she wasn’t worried about it and had positive calls with the President-elect but the press kept pushing to root out drama.
The mayor tried to assure residents that they would be focused on rebuilding once the fires were put out.
“We need to cut through the red tape that has always been a problem…to get the rebuilding process started.” Mayor Bass said.
She is taking new heat from The New York Times because she had promised not to travel abroad if she was elected mayor but of course she was caught breaking that promise last week while on a trip to Ghana when the fires broke out.
