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Is the LA Fire Chief right to blame the city council for budget cuts? [1]
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Date: 2025-01-12
The ongoing fires in the LA area are truly tragic. It is a tragedy of historic proportion.
The LA Fire Chief has complained that the city cut $17 million out of their budget and that hampered their efforts to fight the fires in LA. It is true that in May 2024 $17.6 million was cut from the fire department budget. But in November 2024, $58.4 million was added to the fire department budget. Overall, the total budget for the current year (2024-25) is higher than the budget for last year ($895.6 million versus $819.6 million). Furthermore, while $17.6 million is a big number, it represents about 2% of the budget for this year. Would the LAFD have been prepared to fight this fire if there had not been that budget cut? Not really. There still would have been a horrendous, historic tragedy.
Who to blame? If you must blame someone, blame God. Southern California was suffering a drought and then the extremely dry and hot Santa Ana winds hit the LA region at 80 to 100 mph. Truly a natural disaster, an Act of God. This is something that no urban fire department could truly be prepared for.
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