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LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

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Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#221

Post by proc0 »

mempko wrote: post #209
proc0 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'It will continue to happen until people realize the true root cause which is bad leadership... or continue blaming "climate change" and giving up because we're not changing how much China pollutes the air anytime soon. I would rather at least elect better leaders who have their priorities in order.

Except China is working damn hard on climate initiatives.

Good, but from the CO2 stats I've seen it seems they need to work harder and it will still take a few decades, so we'll have to deal with it anyway.

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#222

Post by mmooss »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #193
segasaturn wrote: post #51

Los Angeles Fire Department funding was cut by over $23M only a few months ago. The fires are currently being fought by a skeleton crew of remaining fire fighters and volunteers. Can't say if that funding would have prevented it, but cutting it definitely has not helped. Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/los-angeles-fires-m... Edit: Changing a word, "gutted" -> "cut"

> Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, slammed Bass in an X post claiming the mayor slashed the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget, despite the high risk of wildfires in the region, and raised questions about reports that some fire hydrants in the Pacific Palisades had run dry. It's kind of rich that a local billionaire would complain about this. I'm going to guess that the $23M was…

Soon-Shiong has aligned with Trump, and is openly forcing LA Times journalists to serve his interests. Usually a major newspaper owner would try to avoid the appearance of bias or of undermining the objectivity of the news.

https://www.thewrap.com/la-times-case-against-trump-kamala-e...

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/nx-s1-5163293/la-times-editor...

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/dec/18/la-times-patri...

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#223

Post by leet_thow »

mempko wrote: post #82

Global warming doing it's thing.

From Wikipedia:

The Santa Ana winds and the accompanying raging wildfires have been a part of the ecosystem of the Los Angeles Basin for over 5,000 years, dating back to the earliest habitation of the region by the Tongva and Tataviam peoples.

Honest question in good faith: For those that use the reductionist argument of global warming / climate change for every natural disaster, what do they expect to happen if we hypothetically cut all greenhouse gas production to zero? Some kind of climate stasis Garden of Eden scenario?

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#224

Post by defrost »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #216
defrost wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone tweeted $23 million .. your linked article (thank you for source) follows that with: City budget documents show the department’s more than $800 million budget decreased by around $17 million compared to the previous budget cycle. Which makes the cuts less than %2.12 "Gutted" as a descripter seems extreme and the details that matter are whether these reductions simply trimmed fat, or denied something essential…

Unfortunately that 2% was the part going to actual firefighters. The other 98% was administrative overhead. Both remaining firefighters are spread thin.

From the budget papers (page 11) themselves, $774 million went to salaries, $46 million to expenses.

https://cao.lacity.gov/budget/summary/2024-25%20Budget%20Sum...

Page 6 shows a water flow from revenues to expenditures.

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#225

Post by tonymet »

ApolIllo wrote: post #146
tonymet wrote: post #100

Prayers go out to Snapchat, Riot, Naughty Dog, TigerConnect (nee TigerText) and other West LA / Santa Monica companies whose staff may live in the Palisades , Topanga & Malibu. I remember .XYZ & Headspace are also in the neighborhood. Any other Silicon Beach companies that I missed?

I frequently go past TigerText. I assumed they were related to TigerDirect!

Tigertext (now -Connect) is a healthcare provider-side messaging company. they started out as ephemeral messaging and pivoted to healthcare.

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#226

Post by tonymet »

shreezus wrote: post #149
tonymet wrote: post #100

Prayers go out to Snapchat, Riot, Naughty Dog, TigerConnect (nee TigerText) and other West LA / Santa Monica companies whose staff may live in the Palisades , Topanga & Malibu. I remember .XYZ & Headspace are also in the neighborhood. Any other Silicon Beach companies that I missed?

Google, Oracle, many many others. I live in the area and have never seen a fire move this rapidly. The high winds were a major culprit.

they're down in Playa vista though right?

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#227

Post by bloudermilk »

jondwillis wrote: post #205
bloudermilk wrote: post #170

We lost our house to the Eaton fire this morning. It’s difficult to describe the vastness of the destruction in our community. Everything within a couple square miles of us burned.

That’s devastating, and I hope you can stay strong through the recovery process. As a nearby neighbor a couple of communities over, do you know of anything that I can do or donate to help generally that won’t be a waste/too late? Like donate masks or water or something?

The only guidance I’ve heard so far is that the shelters are in need of bedding. Neither of the press briefings today offered more opportunities for support.

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#228

Post by mulmen »

dawnerd wrote: post #143
gonzo41 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to do fuel reduction burns during winter (when it's wet) so you can reduce the load. They do this near my house in Australia every few years, it's somewhat terrifying to have a slow roll bushfire roll around the house, but it can be managed with care.

We do. And we have setbacks you must maintain and keep brush cleared. But there's still only so much you can do.

"There's only so much you can do" doesn't mean "we have done what we can" or even "we have done enough".

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#229

Post by throwup238 »

Stevvo wrote: post #211
kamikazeturtles wrote: post #192

> The National Guard - along with thousands of firefighters (many of them prisoners working for $10 a day or less) - have been deployed to help tackle the conflagration. I hope their compensation is a little more than $10 a day! By the looks of the fire, those guys/gals are heros.

Worse, upon release, none of them will be able to gain employment as a firefighter; you need a clean record for that.

Nonviolent prisoners who have served as firefighters during their incarceration can have their records expunged since a 2021 law (and it’s retroactive): https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/facility-locator/conservation-camps/...

This was a big deal after the Camp and Complex fires because of some viral articles that drew well justified outrage among Californians so they went a step above and just allowed them to expunge their records completely (so that they can get hired everywhere else too, they don’t have to become fire fighters).

There are some stipulations like the sentence they served must be at most 8 years, but they’re not all banned from continuing their work.

Re: LA wildfires force thousands to evacuate, NASA JPL closed

#230

Post by gonzo41 »

dawnerd wrote: post #143
gonzo41 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to do fuel reduction burns during winter (when it's wet) so you can reduce the load. They do this near my house in Australia every few years, it's somewhat terrifying to have a slow roll bushfire roll around the house, but it can be managed with care.

We do. And we have setbacks you must maintain and keep brush cleared. But there's still only so much you can do.

My other suggestion, which isn't super popular in australia, is we should consider deforesting / reforesting eucalyptus trees. They are a lot of trouble.
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