This article really disgusted me. I never thought this blog would be so careless in writing and posting an article on something as important as this fire.

Just to let you know, TWO major fire departments in the Southern California area were fighting those fires - the Los Angeles CITY Fire Department and the Los Angeles COUNTY Fire Department - before they were joined by other fire departments from around the country and other parts of the world. Are you blaming Bass for the destructive fires for Altadena and Malibu? Because both are under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County, not the City of Los Angeles. Are you blaming the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the destructive fires in Malibu and Altadena? Apparently not.

There was no water shortage. The firefighters in the Pacific Palisades were having water pressure issues with the local hydrants, because so many of them were using the latter due to the size and speed of the fires. Southern California was dealing with the Santa Ana winds in January and they usually appeared in the late summer and fall. The region is still dealing with a drought that had not seen any rain for a long period of time. Which is why those fires were unusual. Also, despite the $17 million dollars (that were supposed to be used by the Department for Human Resources and publicity) cut, the Los Angeles City Fire Department ended up receiving a four percent increase in its budget - a great deal of that money being utilized for firefighting services. I found this out from "The Los Angeles Times". And this makes me wonder why Fire Chief Kristin Crowley had complained about the budget in the first place.

I'm really disappointed in Ms. Landwehr's article. I'm disappointed that she had obviously failed to do her homework and instead utilized SKY NEWS (a British right-wing publication owned by Rupert Murdoch with a history of questionable reporting) as the main source for her article. And I'm disappointed that this blog would allow Ms. Landweher's article to be posted in the first place.