CALIFORNIA WILD FIRES

BBC - As crews battle devastating wildfires in southern California, vivid images have emerged of air tankers dropping bright red and pink powder on Los Angeles suburbs.The eye-catching substance - fire retardant - is now a common sight in the area, blanketing driveways, rooftops and cars.Officials said thousands of gallons of the substance were dropped in the last week to stop the flames from spreading.

But what exactly is in it, and how does it help fight the wildfires?

The flame retardant is a product called Phos-Chek, which is sold by a company called Perimeter.

It has been used to fight blazes in the US since 1963, and is the main long-term fire retardant used by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is also the most-used fire retardant in the world, according to a 2022 report in the Associated Press. 

Robert Reich - In September 1718, Boston organized the “Boston Fire Society,” the nation’s first mutual aid firefighting organization. But it was an on-your-own system. It protected only its members — who pledged to fight fires at each other’s homes, rescue each other’s property, and guard each other against looting.By contrast, Philadelphia’s Union Fire Company, organized by Benjamin Franklin in 1736, was devoted to protecting the city as a whole. Its we’re-all-in-this-together model was replicated around America as cities and towns gained senses of civic responsibility. Public fire departments also proved cheaper, on the whole, than reliance on private firefighting associations that protected only their members.

In Los Angeles this past week, some wealthy property owners harkened back to the on-your-own model by hiring their own private firefighters to protect their own estates and businesses.Private firefighting came sharply into public view in 2018, after it was reported that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West hired private firefighters to protect their Los Angeles mansion from the Woolsey Fire that year.

Demand for private firefighters has grown across America as wildfires have increased in ferocity and frequency. About 45 percent of all firefighters working in the United States today are employed privately, according to the National Wildfire Suppression Association, which represents more than 300 private firefighting groups.

 CNN - Tens of thousands of residents in Los Angeles County who were forced to evacuate the wildfires raging in the area will have to wait at least another week before they can return to their homes to survey damage, retrieve necessities and assess what can be salvaged of their remaining property. More than 12,000 structures have been destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires and securing the evacuation zones goes beyond ensuring the blazes are out. Toxic ash, hazardous waste and charred debris left in the wake of the infernos must be cleaned up, plus repairs to infrastructure such as water and electricity, officials said. As of today, over 170,000 people are still under evacuation notices in LA County. 

The Guardian - Trump’s focus during the fires has been to assail the Democratic leadership of California and its stricken largest city, baselessly claiming the habitat protection of an “essentially worthless fish” stopped water flowing to LA as overwhelmed fire hydrants ran dry.

“Gavin Newscum should resign,” the incoming president posted on Truth Social about Gavin Newsom, California’s governor. “This is all his fault!!!”...

In Washington DC this week, Republicans threatened to withhold unconditional disaster aid for California, an echo of Trump’s first term where he allegedly halted assistance for states he felt were politically hostile to him. Meanwhile, Chris Wright, Trump’s nominee for energy secretary, vowed in a nomination hearing to boost oil and gas production because “there isn’t dirty energy and clean energy”. Wright, who said he accepted the climate crisis was real, came under some pressure for previously saying that “wildfires are just hype.”

Fossil fuel executives have swooned at the thought of a second Trump term, having pushed tens of millions of dollars to his election campaign after he promised to delete a slew of environmental regulations and subject more of America’s land and waters to drilling.