LA fires show that disaster response in U.S. has collapsed

Cuyama Valley, California

Jan. 13. Multiple fires erupted across Los Angeles on Jan. 7 prompting mass evacuations. As of Jan. 13, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection​​ (CAL FIRE) has not contained the fires’ spread. In less than a week, the fires destroyed 23,000 homes and killed at least 24 people.

Los Angeles’s catastrophe resulted from multiple, simultaneous outbreaks in four LA neighborhoods: Pacific Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst. The Palisades Fire is by far the biggest and still growing. By the night of Jan. 12, only the Kenneth Fire  had been fully contained. 

Together the four blazes cover 39,000 acres, equivalent to twice the size of New York’s Manhattan island. There are 150,000 Angelenos living within mandatory evacuation zones and an additional 300,000 people remain without power across Southern California. 

Fires intensified

Fires up and down the Pacific Coast have intensified in recent years. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, “Fifteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California history have occurred since 2000, and ten of the most costly and destructive fires to life and property in the state have occurred since 2015.”

The reasons for this include industrial and urban development, extraction of natural resources and ecological strain from a growing human population. These are also key factors in the Earth’s rapid climate change. The state’s fire-fighting strategy has made the problem worse — namely, prioritizing fire suppression over controlled management of fires, which occur naturally and frequently in this region.

But in the U.S. in the 21st century what starts as a natural disaster becomes something much worse. The causes are failing infrastructure, mismanagement of the emergency response and insufficient funding for relief from the federal government. 

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans was made much worse because the Army Corps of Engineers built cheap and poorly constructed levees. The devastation in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017 was worse than in other areas in the Caribbean in part because of the inadequate disaster relief provided by the first Donald Trump administration.

What’s happening in Los Angeles is another example of the collapse of the government’s ability to respond to crises. In this case, the failure stems from the city government’s decision to slash the fire department’s budget in order to increase funding for the police.

Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, the first woman in the city’s history to hold the position, publicly criticized budget cuts overseen by Mayor Karen Bass, who is herself the first woman and second Black person in that role. Crowley told reporters, “My message is that the fire department needs to be properly funded. It’s not.” (Foxla.com, Jan. 10) 

Budget prioritizes cops

In 2023, $1.8 billion of the city’s $11.8 billion budget was allocated to the cops. “Fire and Public Works are the only other city departments budgeted for more than a billion dollars. At $1.24 billion and $1.67 billion, respectively, they’re far behind the LAPD.” (LA Times, Feb. 18, 2023)

A full 40% of all people employed by the city are under the command of the police department — roughly 40,000 people.

City workers have long fought for retirement benefits and pensions. The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) has distributed $32 billion to municipal workers since its creation in 1969. Annually, the state now authorizes CalPERS to spend $2.5 billion in retirement benefits. But less and less of that money now ends up in working-class bank accounts. By the 2023-2024 fiscal year, a staggering 37% of it went to retired cops.

Migrant and incarcerated workers

California’s agricultural industry could not function without half a million migrant workers, over half of whom are undocumented and all of whom are underpaid. The threat of deportation puts them at great risk to have their lives turned upside down. Bosses take advantage of this to pay them lower wages than they would pay to documented workers.

The state’s fire management department also superexploits incarcerated workers, putting them on dangerous, hard jobs while paying them almost nothing. One in 10 of the 7,500 fire fighters currently embedded with CAL FIRE teams in Los Angeles come from state prisons.

“The work of our incarcerated firefighters and staff is an essential part of this effort,” according to the secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). For this essential work, incarcerated workers are paid between $5 and $10 a day.

The CDCR first started sending incarcerated people to fight fires in 1915, when “convict leasing” was widespread across the country. During World War II, the CDCR was operating 41 prison labor camps across the state, called “Conservation (Fire) Camps.” By the 1980s, the Los Angeles County Fire Department had five camps of its own.

When the people who stare down hundred-foot walls of flame finally contain this LA inferno, one in 10 firefighters will be handcuffed and sent back to a concrete cell.

Distracting attention by yelling ‘looters!’

Meanwhile the LAPD seems to be in a panic to justify the enormous resources at its command. Representatives of the repressive state organs are stoking fears of “looters” pillaging the city.

A city supervisor condemned “those who are preying on our residents during this crisis,” as if anyone arrested for looting in Los Angeles right now is not a victim of the crisis themselves. 

“There is zero tolerance for looters,” according to a representative for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. He issued a warning that “anyone found roaming around wildfire evacuation zones could face misdemeanor charges. Looters would face felony charges if caught.” (People.com, Jan. 9)

Governor Gavin Newsom meanwhile has deployed 1,680 National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles — not to aid in fire suppression or the mass evacuations, but to impose a curfew across the burning city. He said, “Looting will not be tolerated.” (gov.ca.gov, Jan. 9)

The ability of the U.S. and California governments to respond to disasters has completely collapsed. And that’s the sum of it: when the people need food and shelter, the government sends tanks and guns.