Yet, even now, firetrucks are detained at the Oregon border for emissions checks.
Yet, even now, firetrucks are detained at the Oregon border for emissions checks.
LOS ANGELES—Barry Josephson enjoyed a peaceful life in his hilltop home in the Pacific Palisades, save for one constant worry: the highly flammable brush that clogged the surrounding government-owned land.
“We all take a risk living here,” the producer of films including “Enchanted” said. “But that land should be maintained.”
There have been at least five fires in the area since Josephson moved there eight years ago. Most were fueled by brush, which consists of drought-resistant shrubs that burn easily and intensely. Impatient with government bureaucracy, including a $150 fee for permission to remove brush from state parkland, some of Josephson’s neighbors cleared it on their own.
They might have saved some of their homes. Of 81 houses in the vicinity, Josephson said 54 are still standing amid the wreckage of this month’s Palisades fire, including his. It is particularly remarkable because investigators believe the blaze could have started a few hundred feet away, around a popular hiking destination known as Skull Rock.
As Angelenos absorb the impact of two massive wildfires that killed at least 27 people and damaged or destroyed more than 12,000 structures over the past two weeks, many are asking why so much flammable material was allowed to build up around now-devastated communities. It was particularly dangerous this winter, as vegetation grew quickly following last year’s record rains and dried out in the subsequent drought.
Fire experts said no amount of brush clearing could have stopped flying embers driven by hurricane-strength winds from igniting many buildings that are now rubble and ash.
But better maintenance of the wild lands could have slowed the fires’ growth, providing critical time to first responders and evacuees. And the lack of preventive work despite pleas from residents and warnings from people inside the government demonstrate how little officials did ahead of a foreseeable disaster.
The delays were caused by a slow-moving tangle of government agencies that own or regulate Los Angeles’s undeveloped land and are tasked with mitigating wildfire risks, according to a review of public records and interviews by The Wall Street Journal. . .
Source (wsj.com)
>LOS ANGELES—Barry Josephson enjoyed a peaceful life in his hilltop home in the Pacific Palisades, save for one constant worry: the highly flammable brush that clogged the surrounding government-owned land.
>“We all take a risk living here,” the producer of films including “Enchanted” said. “But that land should be maintained.”
>There have been at least five fires in the area since Josephson moved there eight years ago. Most were fueled by brush, which consists of drought-resistant shrubs that burn easily and intensely.
Impatient with government bureaucracy, including a $150 fee for permission to remove brush from state parkland, some of Josephson’s neighbors cleared it on their own.
>They might have saved some of their homes. Of 81 houses in the vicinity, Josephson said 54 are still standing amid the wreckage of this month’s Palisades fire, including his. It is particularly remarkable because investigators believe the blaze could have started a few hundred feet away, around a popular hiking destination known as Skull Rock.
>As Angelenos absorb the impact of two massive wildfires that killed at least 27 people and damaged or destroyed more than 12,000 structures over the past two weeks, many are asking why so much flammable material was allowed to build up around now-devastated communities. It was particularly dangerous this winter, as vegetation grew quickly following last year’s record rains and dried out in the subsequent drought.
>Fire experts said no amount of brush clearing could have stopped flying embers driven by hurricane-strength winds from igniting many buildings that are now rubble and ash.
>But better maintenance of the wild lands could have slowed the fires’ growth, providing critical time to first responders and evacuees. And the lack of preventive work despite pleas from residents and warnings from people inside the government demonstrate how little officials did ahead of a foreseeable disaster.
>The delays were caused by a slow-moving tangle of government agencies that own or regulate Los Angeles’s undeveloped land and are tasked with mitigating wildfire risks, according to a review of public records and interviews by The Wall Street Journal.
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[Source](https://www.wsj.com/us-news/climate-environment/how-l-a-bureaucracy-made-it-harder-to-clear-flammable-brush-683f953e)
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