Wildfires have become so deadly and vast that urban areas need to rethink their approach to fighting them, an investigation into the fires that devastated parts of Southern California last year reported on Friday. The study found that the protocols firefighters relied on as flames erupted in the Palisades and Altadena fires were overwhelmed by the disaster’s “speed, scale, and complexity.”
The comprehensive analysis found that while several state and local agencies fell fatally short in their preparation and response, the clearest lesson from the disaster was the extent to which climate-driven fires are outstripping modern firefighting. “The Southern California fires got so large, so fast, that they outpaced the capabilities of the very people trained to fight them,” Derek Alkonis, a senior research program manager for the Fire Safety Research Institute, said in a recorded news briefing.
The review, commissioned by Gov. Gavin Newsom and conducted by UL Research Institutes, was the second part of a wide-ranging examination. At least 12 wildfires raged across drought-parched Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, killing 31 people and destroying more than 16,000 buildings. The Los Angeles Fire Department failed to adequately deploy firefighters and equipment ahead of time despite heightened risk, decisions blamed on efforts to control spending and overtime.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing