CLAIM: Newsom says he didn’t lower California’s fireplace funds
Within the 2018-2019 fiscal yr, Cal Fireplace obtained $2.5 billion and had 7,182 personnel, in comparison with $4.2 billion and 12,511 personnel within the 2024-2025 funds, in accordance with the state’s legislative analyst’s workplace. This represents a big improve.
Nonetheless, within the final fiscal yr, wildfire-related funding was lower by over $100 million. These cuts got here from reductions to a one-time surplus funding bundle for a number of state departments. A proposed funds initially lower $101 million, however the last funds lowered it by $144 million.
These reductions meant $12 million in cuts for “home hardening,” $6 million for Cal Fireplace’s “forest data program,” and $5 million for prescribed fires, amongst many different objects.
Jon Keeley, a senior scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey, mentioned, “There’s very little evidence that prescription burning would ever do anything to stop an event like what we saw this past week. We don’t have an unusual accumulation of fuels by and large. But more important than that, our worst fires occur during the Santa Ana wind conditions.”
Chris Subject, a local weather scientist at Stanford who has studied managed burns, agreed: “The L.A. fires reflect the combination of very strong winds and very dry fuels. It is not likely that fuel reduction would have helped.”
CLAIM: Newsom says California didn’t run out of water and reservoirs are at document ranges
The governor referred to as claims that California ran out of water and that reservoirs are empty a “lie,” including that reservoirs in Southern California are at document ranges.
That’s largely true. State knowledge present all however three of California’s main reservoirs are at or above historic common ranges.
And it’s additionally true that some hydrants within the Pacific Palisades space quickly ran dry amid intense demand as crews battled the Palisades Fireplace.
All three 1-million-gallon water tanks within the space ran out of water by 3 a.m. on Jan. 8, lowering water stress for fireplace hydrants at larger elevations, officers mentioned.
Los Angeles Fireplace Division Capt. Erik Scott mentioned officers crammed all obtainable water storage tanks earlier than the fires started, however “extreme demand” induced the tanks to be refilled at a slower fee.
Fireplace officers acknowledged the city system was not set as much as struggle this scale of wildfire, pulling from so many hydrants on the similar time.
CLAIM: Newsom says California’s smelt fish coverage didn’t result in L.A.-area wildfires
“I don’t think we should give California anything until they let water flow down,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
The governor’s workplace responded to the submit on social media, saying there was no such declaration and suggesting that it was “outlandish” to make a connection between the smelt fish and wildfires.
Mr. Trump is right that California did block his plan throughout his first administration to redirect water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta all the way down to farms and cities additional south, after environmental teams opposed the plan as a consequence of issues over endangered salmon and smelt.
However that’s not the explanation the fireplace hydrants close to Pacific Palisades ran dry. As beforehand famous, metropolis officers mentioned three 1-million-gallon water tanks that feed the hydrants within the Palisades space ran out of water as a result of there was such excessive demand that they couldn’t refill the tanks quick sufficient.
“Plenty of water is flowing into Southern California,” mentioned Brent Haddad, an environmental research professor on the College of California. “The problem is that when city water infrastructure was built decades ago, planners didn’t anticipate the conditions brought on by global warming.”
Mark Gold, a Metropolitan Water District of Southern California board member, famous Southern California has ample water provide however an absence of rain within the area dried out vegetation. Mixed with excessive winds, the wildfires unfold quickly.
CBS Information California Investigates
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Laura Doan
