Looting and massive alerts by mistake: Los Angeles fights against fire and lack of control

The best example occurred from Thursday afternoon, already in the early hours of Friday in Spain. Millions of Los Angeles residents received an alert on their phones in which the city’s Department of Emergency Management warned them that they were in an “evacuation notice” zone. In reality, the vast majority of those who received the message were not in evacuation zones. That only increased the tension in a city that has been shocked this week by the multiple fires declared and the enormous destruction they have caused.

The authorities had to send clarifying messages explaining that it was an error. But it didn’t end there. Other erroneous alerts occurred on Friday morning.

The episode only compounds residents’ frustration with Los Angeles’ apparent lack of preparedness for such multiple fires and has revealed an aging and incapable infrastructure, further weakened by budget cuts to the fire service approved last year by the mayor, Karen Bass.

empty reservoir

At the same time that the erroneous alerts were being issued, it was known that a large water reservoir in Pacific Palisades – one of the areas most affected by the fires, with thousands of houses destroyed in this privileged location on the strip of coast that goes in the direction to Malibu – was empty and out of use needing repairs. It was in that area where the fire hydrants ran dry due to the unusual amount of water that firefighters used to try to control a violent fire.

In addition to lack of preparation and bureaucratic failures, the situation has been complicated by the attempt of some residents to take advantage of the misfortune of other neighbors. The authorities imposed a curfew on Friday in the areas affected by the fires to prevent looting, one of the common evils in these situations. As of Friday, twenty people had been arrested for looting businesses and homes affected by the flames. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman warned that those who loot other people’s property will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Los Angeles police have sent two hundred police officers to exclusively patrol the affected areas to avoid this threat.

Scams and drones

Hochman also warned that he will be tough on those who use drones in the midst of the tragedy, after one of the county’s two large seaplanes was disabled after colliding with one of these devices. The prosecutor also detailed that scams are occurring on fundraising platforms such as GoFundMe, in which scammers have posed as people who have lost their homes in the fires.

In the fight against the fire, the authorities had made some progress this Friday. The most aggressive fires – the one mentioned in Pacific Palisades and the one in Eaton, where ten fatalities have been recorded – were beginning to be controlled in a minimal way. The first was controlled by 8% and the second by 3%. The fire in the Hollywood Hills was completely out. There was also substantial control in Hurst (37%) and Lidia (75%, further from urban centers), while Kenneth, which was registered on Thursday, was already under control at 35%.

The sustained improvement of the situation will depend on the evolution of the winds. Most of Los Angeles County was expected to be in red flag status – high dryness and high winds – through midday Friday, and the situation was expected to improve over the weekend. But there is a red flag forecast again starting Monday. The ten thousand firefighters who fight the flames in endless shifts must remain where they are.