CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

CNN - With wildfires fires ravaging Los Angeles, the firefighter-turned-senator from Montana wants to fight bureaucracy.  Less than a week into his new job, Montana Republican Tim Sheehy is finding plenty of use for his previous experience as an aerial firefighter and wildfire entrepreneur as he pushes for new legislation to address the new reality of a fire season that never ends.

“There’s a huge dichotomy in America between structural firefighting — the red fire truck, traditional firemen everyone’s familiar with — and wildland firefighting,” Sheehy told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday, adding that the country needs more money to fight wildfires and to cut past wildlife protections when flames are raging.

 

“The entire wildfire community has been speaking for years, shouting from the rooftops that this big one was going to be coming, and we’re not ready,” he said. That big one is now here in Los Angeles, he said. MORE

  

The Guardian - Hundreds of incarcerated firefighters are helping battle the destructive blazes that are rapidly spreading across southern California as a powerful windstorm devastates the region.The California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) said on Thursday that it had deployed 783 imprisoned firefighters while Los Angeles county fights multiple out-of-control blazes fueled by extreme winds and dry conditions. The incarcerated crews are embedded with the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) and its nearly 2,000 firefighters, who have been stretched thin from several simultaneous emergencies.

The CDCR operates more than 30 “fire camps” across the state where people serving state prison sentences are trained in firefighting and support authorities as they respond to fires, floods and other disasters. The sites, also called conservation camps, are considered minimum-security facilities and house more than 1,800 incarcerated firefighters, officials said this week.

On Wednesday, the CDCR said it had deployed 395 imprisoned firefighters to the frontlines. A day later, that number had doubled, and the department said the crews also have 88 staff members supporting them. Their work has involved “cutting fire lines and removing fuel from behind structures to slow fire spread”, the CDCR said.  California, which is grappling with longer and more destructive fire seasons amid the climate crisis, has long relied on incarcerated people for its response. The CDCR crews have at times accounted for as much as 30% of the wildfire force in the state.

CNN - As wildfires rage in LA, multiple local and international nonprofits are on the ground providing life-saving care to victims. CNN’s Impact Your World has vetted multiple organizations that are providing direct aid, including Airlink, which provides airlifts in disasters, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and the Animal Wellness Foundation. By donating through Impact Your World, you can send your donation to a specific group or split it across all of the nonprofits. Click here to donate. 

Claire Wang, The Guardian -As California state and federal agencies lag in their response to the widespread wildfires that erupted this week in Los Angeles, a network of grassroots organizations and small businesses have launched their own disaster relief efforts – from coordinating overnight evacuation services to delivering essential supplies to victims and frontline workers.

After the fires began burning, the worker-owners at All Power Books decided on Tuesday night to convert the leftist bookstore cooperative into a warehouse for emergency resources. Over the next 48 hours, residents all over the city packed the community space with box after box of canned food, masks, blankets, sleeping bags and toiletries. Organizers transported supplies to survivors at different churches and evacuation shelters; they delivered bottled water and snacks to firefighters, many of whom are serving out a sentence as they battle the blazes....  By Thursday afternoon ... the bookstore had to stop accepting donations, as deliveries have maxed out its storage capacity.

The Guardian -  The destruction caused by the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles is the worst the city has seen in recent history. The wildfires, which began on 7 January, have torched the US’s second largest city, leaving at least 11 dead and over 10,000 structures destroyed. Roughly 150,000 Los Angeles county residents remain under evacuation orders. While the region is no stranger to fast-moving wildfires, the multiple blazes enveloping much of the megalopolis are considered one of the worst wildfire events in southern California, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection, or CalFire. In just three days, they have burned roughly twice the size of Manhattan.

WCVB -  Gov. Gavin Newsom penned a letter to President-elect Donald Trump on Friday, inviting him to California to see the devastation left by the fires in Los Angeles County firsthand. In the letter, Newsom recalled the time during Trump's last presidency, when he toured the devastation left by the Camp Fire.

HOLLIE MCKAY -  “Things” are more than possessions; they are the tangible connections to loved ones, past chapters, and a sense of self. “Things” are never just objects; they carry the weight of our lives, stories, and emotions. The worn armchair isn’t just furniture—it’s where you rocked your child to sleep, read your favorite book, or sat with a loved one. The family photographs aren’t just pieces of paper—they’re fragments of time, capturing moments you’ll never get back. The dishes in your cupboard are more than tools for eating; they remind you of dinners shared, conversations had, and the love poured into meals for family and friends.

Even the most minor, most mundane items—a bracelet, a coffee mug, a handwritten note—are imbued with meaning. They represent milestones, loved ones, or even the hope and joy of a future you were building. Losing these “things” in a matter of moments doesn’t just feel like losing objects; it feels like losing the foundation of your life, the threads that connect you to your history, your identity, and the people you love.

For those on the outside, it’s tempting to say, “they’re just things,” but to the one who’s lost them, these things are irreplaceable, layered with memory and meaning. In their absence, the grief isn’t just about what’s burned; it’s about the fragments of a life that can never be recovered.

When everything is gone, grief runs deeper than belongings—it’s the loss of security, identity, and the physical proof of a life once lived. Survival is a gift, but it comes with an unshakable ache for all left behind. Recovery isn’t just about rebuilding but finding a way to heal when the flames have taken more. More