Editorial: Infernal affairs

Denizens of some of the plushest neighbourhoods in Los Angeles found themselves battling hell-fires that raged upon the city over the last one week. The blaze ripped through over 17,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, a neighbourhood between the beach towns of Santa Monica and Malibu, home to Hollywood celebrities, some who lost their million-dollar homes to the inferno. Over 16 mn people in southern California — from Malibu to San Diego, were put under a red flag warning, thousands have been displaced, more than 12,000 structures destroyed, while at least 24 people have been killed in the aftermath of the fires, which began last Tuesday amid hurricane-force winds.

A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather placed the economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion, lending credence to the notion that the fires could end up being the worst natural disaster in US history. The Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth and Hurst fires had consumed more than 160 square km, an area larger than San Francisco. Reports have pegged the quantum of land scorched by wildfires to 28,000 acres, the equivalent of 20,000 football fields. The disaster has now prompted a political blame game in Washington with president-elect Donald Trump lambasting California's Democratic governor Gavin Newsom for allegedly blocking an infusion of water to Southern California owing to concerns of its impact on a threatened species of fish.

While the theories of an all-encompassing leadership failure are doing the rounds, there are some hard facts on the ground. During his first innings, Trump had issued warnings on better water management and wildfire mitigation through chopping down dead trees and undergrowth, suggestions that had fallen on deaf ears in Newsom's team. In 2019, Newsom is reported to have allocated $1 bn for wildfire prevention. But, a probe revealed that just about 11,400 acres were covered against his claim of 90,000 acres.

Similarly, LA Mayor Karen Bass is among those at the epicentre of the unfolding decision-making catastrophe, as she slashed $17.6 mn from the fire department due to budgetary constraints. It was a measure that even the LA fire chief pointed out as a reason for inadequate funds for firefighting. There are also questions surrounding why a 440 million-litre reservoir was out of service and some fire hydrants had run dry. On the scientific side of things, historically, California’s fire season is known to start in late summer, with the deadly fires taking place in autumn. But now, wildfires have become a year-round phenomenon. A hotter and drier landscape has also contributed to the region being a tinderbox, especially when the Santa Ana winds fan the fires.

Much of the blame has been placed at the feet of the sprawl into the wildland urban interface, where residential units are located on the border of fire-prone landscapes. Apart from the sustenance needs of these denizens, the water is also being used up by non-native plants. Concerns also abound on the contribution of snapped or faulty power lines, which are known to have sparked some of the worst wildfires in recent history. Throw in a mix of an unsustainable, energy-hungry lifestyle, backed by a poor public transport infrastructure that compels people to rely on fossil-fuel powered private vehicles, and you have a recipe for disaster. Needless to say, there are lessons for India, and the rest of the world in the way this inferno has decimated swathes of the world’s fifth largest economy. But is anyone listening?