LA Times Analysis Raises Questions Decisions Made By LA County Fire Early In Woolsey Disaster
Written by 991KBU on January 7, 2019
The Los Angeles Times has compiled a comprehensive analysis of the beginnings of the Woolsey Fire.
The first day … the Thursday before it flamed over the mountains and into Malibu.
Among the findings …
Ventura County did not send enough engines to put it out when it started .… Thursday November 8th near Chatsworth.
Ventura County was busy with the Hill Fire … in Newberry Park.
L A County sent its first trucks to Agoura Hills … 10 miles south of the fire ignition point.
That’s because they believed the it was impossible to stop it as it raced across wildlands heavy with fuel and with no access roads… (much of that is MRCA land, not stated by the Times).
Air tankers were kept in service at the Hill Fire … over in Newberry Park … instead of being switched over to the Woolsey Fire.
This … despite the fact that the Hill Fire had burned into area that had already burned several years ago … and it was not spreading rapidly.
The LA Times concludes that “the question officials are facing now is whether different tactics would have stopped the fire sooner”
“It’s clear that those fighting the fire in those first few hours didn’t have the resources they thought they needed, according to radio transmissions…” The Times reports.
– “It’s also clear tactics used by fire officials that day limited the number of firefighters on the front lines that afternoon and evening.”
As for Thursday, the article fails to address these questions:
- Were LA County-area fire strike teams diverted to Northern California at the same time that two major brushfires had ignited in Ventura/LA counties?
- Did Bay Area and Nor Cal fire departments send enough units to Paradise, and if so, why were So Cal units driving up the 5 while two fires were crossing the 101?
- Why were So Cal fire resources so slow in arriving in Malibu?
- If our engines were sent north, where was the backup from south here?
- The LA Times story is worthy but for some reason it stops the chronology at midnight Thursday night.
As for Friday, Nov. 9, it says only “as far as the Woolsey Fire burned that night, the following day would be much worse.”
The LA Times does not even broach the subject of why no substantive fire resources were sent to Malibu, to meet the fire front, 12 hours after it became apparent this would burn to the ocean.
And all the questions about the botched evacuation, the onerous and punitive roadblocks? Not asked, not answered.
The L A Times analysis is here: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-woolsey-resources-20190106-htmlstory.html
