Democratic lawmakers claim it is dangerous Los Angeles wildfires It was a result of climate change, despite reports that the city's fire hydrants ran out of water and the fire department's budget was cut just weeks before the Palisades Fire destroyed thousands of homes and burned more than 15,000 acres.
Several fires burned through the mountains of Southern California in early January, quickly spreading to coastal residential areas and destroying more than 10,000 homes and buildings.
As the fires gained national attention, Democratic lawmakers All parts of the country have begun claiming that climate change, not state policies, caused catastrophic fire damage.
“And what has happened is that climate change has dried out our leaves and plants. Combined with these high winds, these 50 to 100 mph winds that happen every year around this time, a small ember can turn into a massive fire,” he said. Rep. Dave Maine, D-Calif., who represents a district not far from the raging fires, told NewsNation's “The Hill Sunday.”
Water is dropped by helicopter on the Kenneth Fire in the West Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, January 9, 2025. (Ethan Swope)
“Climate change has devastated us,” Min said.
After fires tore through the mountains of Los Angeles, it was reported that local fire hydrants were not producing water and that funding for firefighters had recently been cut by the millions.
Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged these reports He called for an independent investigation It was conducted at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) regarding water shortages in the middle of the crisis, but Democratic lawmakers shifted the blame away from state leaders.
“The scale of the damage and loss is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not a ‘hoax.’ Donald Trump must treat this as a crisis,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, R-Vermont, said in a social media post Wednesday morning. Existentialism.”
Homes along the Pacific Coast Highway are seen left in ash from the Palisades Fire, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, in Malibu, California. (Mark J. Terrell)
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said state leaders who don't recognize climate change as a crisis, usually Republicans, are wrong.
“I am deeply saddened by the devastation that continues to be inflicted on our country and the world and that elected leaders are ignorant, incapable or incompetent to do the smart thing, which is to acknowledge that climate change is real and begin to solve it.” “,” Crockett wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on January 8.
Another Democratic lawmaker, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, said in January that he was “happy to work with Gov. Newsom and help California, which has been repeatedly devastated by the effects of climate change.”
Senator Bernie Sanders said, “The extent of the damage and losses is unimaginable. Climate change is real, not just a hoax.” “Donald Trump should treat this like an existential crisis.” (Ellen Cromie/Bloomberg)
Months before the fires broke out, Los Angeles city officials announced Reduce the fire department's budget $17.6 million, while hundreds of thousands of dollars have been allocated to fund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the state.
Celebrities immediately began pointing fingers at city leadership for investing in programs like a “syringe exchange” program that gives sterile syringes to homeless drug addicts, instead of more funding for fire prevention efforts.
“We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our plants were overgrown, and the trees weren't cleared. Our governor emptied our tanks because tribal leaders wanted to save the fish. The mayor cut our fire department's budget. But 'thank God my addicts Drugs are getting their own drug groups,” actress Sarah Foster wrote in a post on X.
Massive wildfires swept through coastal cities in California in January. (AP)
On the same platform, Khloe Kardashian The Democratic mayor shouted, “Mayor Bass, you are a joke!!!!”
Rick Caruso, a real estate company founder and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, noted that forest management could have mitigated the fires.
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“We knew the wind was coming. We knew there was forest that needed to be cleared 20 years ago,” Caruso, a real estate company founder and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate, told the Los Angeles Times. “This fire could have been mitigated, and may not have been preventable.”
