The inability of American firefighters to contain the “California hell”; The mayor was declared the main culprit
According to Webangah News quoted by Mehr News Agency, newspaper “Daily Mail” quoted informed sources and wrote that a week before the catastrophic fires started in the city Los Angeles, California, Karen Bass” The mayor of this city ordered a reduction of 49 million dollars from the budget of the city’s fire department.
According to these informed sources, this reduction is severe. The budget closed 16 fire stations and severely reduced the fire department’s readiness and ability to deal with the impending disaster, and it is now estimated that these devastating fires have caused at least $20 billion in damage so far. is.
Several wildfires across Los Angeles have started on Tuesday and have killed at least 10 people and displaced tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate; Terrible fires that so far firefighters have been unable to stop and are becoming more widespread every day.
Simultaneously with the rapid progress of massive fires in different areas of the city of Los Angeles, California, the release of images of firefighters trying to put out the flames with traffic cones and buckets of water has fueled criticism against the authorities of this city. /p>
The state of California is the richest and most advanced state in America, but now the Firefighters of the city of Los Angeles are putting out the fire with the most basic tools; But the current criticisms are more towards “Karen Bass” the mayor of the city of Los Angeles and consider him to be the cause of the current situation.
The New York Post published a critical report on how firefighters are dealing with the fast-moving fires in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass faced heavy criticism on Wednesday because It has been revealed that he cut the city’s fire department budget by $17.6 million before this week’s devastating fires; And it is claimed that this budget has been allocated for the massive homeless population, which has not been spent yet.
According to this publication, official figures in Los Angeles show that the cuts to the fire department’s budget were the second budget cut by Bass in 2024-25 – and it wasn’t even what he wanted; If the Bass plan were implemented, the budget of the fire department would be reduced by 23 million dollars.
According to American media reports, 5 people have lost their lives so far due to the continuing fire in the forests of Los Angeles.
According to local officials, more than 536,000 people in Los Angeles have lost power since Wednesday afternoon, and according to Southern California Edison, the electric company that serves 15 million people in the South, Central and Coastal California serves due to bad weather conditions in Los Angeles, it is not possible to reconnect electricity in some areas.
Hundreds of thousands of people were forced to evacuate following the rapid spread of fires, and at least 28,000 buildings are under serious threat.
New pictures of the terrible fires in Los Angeles
Continuing to advance Widespread fires in the city of Los Angeles in the state of California, White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre announced that US President Joe Biden canceled his planned visit to Italy on Thursday to discuss measures It is necessary to focus on stopping the progress of massive fires in the state of California.
American authorities announced that at least 5 people have died in several fires in the forests northeast of Los Angeles in the state of California. Meanwhile, there is a possibility of increasing this statistic.
Assad Al-Najjar Chief Engineer of Los Angeles Municipality told Al-Arabiya network that “it is possible that we will be able to Let’s control these fires completely.”
Robert Luna, Los Angeles County Police Chief, said: The death toll has increased from two to five, and as the search operation progresses, We may see a further increase. He added that the situation is still very unstable and he prays that the number of casualties will not increase, but the reality may be different.
It is said that 3 fires are currently progressing in different areas of Los Angeles, and the biggest one is the fire that is burning in the affluent Pacific neighborhood. “Pacific Palisades” has occurred and so far more than 2023 hectares of land in this area have been burned.
This area is located between Santa Monica and Malibu and is home to many famous artists.
The Eaton fire also burned more than 809 acres in the Altadina area, near Pasadena, Derber and there are reports of the death of two people in this area.
The Hirst fire in the Sylmar area in the San Fernando Valley has also burned more than 200 hectares of forest in this area.
Strong winds have greatly complicated the efforts to contain the fire and caused the flames to spread faster. Anthony Maron, the commander of the fire team of Los Angeles said in a press conference that more than one thousand buildings have been destroyed by these fires.
These three fires are still spreading and containment and relief operations are continuing.
