Critics point fingers at Mayor Bass and Local Officials During the First Night of the Inferno
By Dolores Quintana
There has been a lot of finger-pointing about the causes of the raging inferno of the Palisades Fire even before the fire has been fully extinguished. Mayor Karen Bass has been assigned much of that responsibility, especially since she made the error of going on a diplomatic mission during what the National Weather Service called a ‘life-threatening windstorm.”
Additional blame has come from conservative pundits on social media, real estate entrepreneur and billionaire Rick Caruso, and even Elon Musk who have accused Bass and other local officials of incompetence, especially due to reports that people claimed to have seen hydrants with low pressure.
Several people have chided Bass that her lack of preparation meant that there wasn’t enough water to fight the fires which led to the almost total destruction of sections of Pacific Palisades and coastal areas of Malibu on the edge of Pacific Coast Highway.
However, Caruso gave an interview to the New York Times where he aired his accusations against Bass and the democratic leadership of the city and county of Los Angeles and offered one very startling admission.
While much of Palisades Village, and parts of the Alphabet Streets burned down, the Palisades Village Shopping Mall, which Caruso owns, seems to have survived.
In the New York Times article, Caruso stated that he hired a “team of private firefighters” to protect his property, The Palisades Village Shopping Mall, and some nearby properties. During the evening, city officials stated that the demand for water surged to four times the normal rate during the night as firefighters desperately tried to quench the flames.
Caruso was quoted in the NYT article as saying, “The lack of water in the hydrants, I don’t think there’s an excuse. This was very predictable,” No mention was made of whether or not his private firefighters brought their own water or used city resources or if Rick Caruso or his team of firefighters alerted local incident command of their intentions and got the legally required permission to operate in an evacuation zone.
