Sheriff Will Not Change Roadblock Policy, Says If You Needed Supplies, You Should Have Evacuated
Written by 991KBU on May 23, 2019
L A County’s new county sheriff … Alex Villanueva … has defended the use of roadblocks around Malibu after the Woolsey Fire … and says policies about closing the area will not change.
It was the sheriff’s first public comment on the controversial roadblocks …. which infuriated many Malibu residents who had stayed behind to fight the fire.
As late as seven days after flames had torched 450 houses in western Malibu … deputies refused to allow food or supplies to be brought in to the hundreds of residents who stayed behind to fight the fire.
Villanueva had not yet taken office … but he defended the roadblocks and said no policies will change.
NEWSCART 75140 SHERIFF ROADBLOCKS
“On the roadblocks, we learned a lot from that too.
If there is a evacuation, a mandatory evacuation, we got to make it a mandatory evacuation. people want to shelter in place?.
We can’t force people out legally however you can’t make those decisions for people who have not evacuated themselves or their dependents because then (they say) ‘Oh, I need supplies’ or ‘oh, I need this or I need that.”
And that we have this back-and-forth going on it’s really messes up the roadblocks.
REPORTER: “So, so you wouldn’t have changed the way that supplies were blockaded from Malibu, or that people couldn’t get in five days after the fire?
SHERIFF: ”Well this is the point. We have to make sure that the process that we are doing is in the best interests of the entire operation —
What damaged the process as it occurred was people didn’t evacuate that should’ve evacuated creating the event to bring in supplies.
So if we’re bringing in supplies that means you weren’t self-sufficient.
REPORTER: “so let me follow up does that mean you think everybody who stayed to fight the fire should’ve evacuated, because they needed supplies afterward, five days afterward?”
SHERIFF: “Well that’s the point. If they needed supplies at some point, they should have evacuated.”
That’s L A County Sheriff Alex Villanueva … speaking with KBUU News at a town hall in eastern Malibu last night.
His command staff have expressed openness to allowing some persons through evacuation lines … if they have completed some sort of training on citizen fire fighting.
