As firefighting crews continued to slowly gain ground against the devastating wildfires that wreaked havoc in the greater Los Angeles area last week, new reports have emerged that some of the devastation may potentially have been avoidable.
According to the Los Angeles Times, officials chose not to deploy available extra personnel and engines as a precaution in the face of warnings of dangerously strong winds, leaving understaffed fire crews to battle a Pacific Palisades fire that quickly burned out of control.
Fire officials chose not to order the firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift last Tuesday as the winds were building — which would have doubled the personnel on hand — and staffed just five of more than 40 engines that are available to aid in battling wildfires, according to the records obtained by The Times, as well as interviews with LAFD officials and former chiefs with knowledge of city operations.
L.A.'s DEI Fire Chief pushed back against criticism of the lack of deployment, standing by her decision to hold the extra personnel in reserve, which allowed the over-23,000-acre Palisades fire to rage uncontained:
'The plan that they put together, I stand behind, because we have to manage everybody in the city,' Crowley told The Times.
One former firefighter disagreed:
'The plan you're using now for the fire you should have used before the fire,' said former LAFD Battalion Chief Rick Crawford. 'It's a known staffing tactic — a deployment model.'
While various sides continue to point fingers and pass blame, it's clear that, along with large swaths of Los Angeles itself, the procedures and protocols for the LAFD also need to be rebuilt from the ground up.
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