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Watch: When fire hydrants ran dry during the Pacific Palisades fire, it sparked a wave of anger and even misinformation. Here’s how L.A.’s water system works and what we know about why the hydrants ran out.

wsj.comWhat We Know About Why L.A. Fire Hydrants Ran Dry During WildfiresWhen fire hydrants ran dry during the Pacific Palisades fire, it sparked a wave of anger and even misinformation. Here’s how L.A.’s water system works and what we know about why the hydrants ran out.

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festivusphil.bsky.social
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www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/0...

realclearpolitics.comBari Weiss: Wildfires A Result Of Leaders Putting Niche, Ideological Issues Over And Above Fundamental Issues'The Free Press' founder and editor Bari Weiss criticizes Gavin Newsom and California leadership for their lack of wildfire preparedness on 'The Story.' MARTHA MACCALLUM, FOX NEWS: So, the editors of the Free Free Press publishing a new piece titled, Paradise Lost. The burning of L.A. is not just a natural disaster, it's a manmade catastrophe, as we look at these extraordinary images in Granada Hills, California. Bari Weiss is founder and editor of the Free Free Press. And she joins me now. Bari, it's great to have you with us on set. Obviously, this is a story that raises so many of the questions that William just addressed and that you all speak about in your editorial today. BARI WEISS, FOUNDER AND EDITOR, THE FREE FREE PRESS: Right. I mean, no governor or mayor can prevent 100-mile-an-hour winds. No governor or mayor can prevent Santa Ana winds. This is part of L.A., right? And you could argue that L.A. is paradise, but built to burn. I mean, it's extraordinarily dry. There's tons of brush. There's lots of environmental factors that we can get into. But the reality, and I have lived in Los Angeles for the past four years of my life, the reality, as anyone there will tell you, it does not matter if you identify as a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent, is Los Angeles is being governed and the state of California is being governed by people who have lost sight of the basics of governing. They have lost sight of the idea that we pay you a tax so that you take care of basics for us. And nothing could be more basic than preventing the burning down of, as you just said in your introduction, an area twice the size of Manhattan, right? It's hard to conceive of how big this is. I woke up to text messages. Almost everyone we know has evacuated their home. We know people that have lost their homes. And the reason that there's so little trust and the reason that you saw in that clip that mother confronting Gavin Newsom with such rage is because there's so much that led up to this moment. There was -- you know, just to choose one example, in our neighborhood, you know, a middle class neighborhood in L.A., not particularly fancy, the police, if you called them for a robbery, and there were many robberies in our neighborhood, they would take an hour, sometimes two hours to show up. It had become almost like Brazil. It had become normal for middle class people, upper middle class people to pay for private security just despite the fact that they were paying enormously high taxes already. So, was it the fact that, you know, the city cut the spending and the fire department by $17 million? Was it the fact that they were spending more on homelessness initiatives than on preventing fire? Was it DEI? Look, I don't know. What I know is that the broader context in which this fire is happening is a context of total incompetency and leaders who are putting their niche, luxury issues, ideological issues over and above the most fundamental things, keeping you and your family safe from crime, keeping you and your family safe from fires. MACCALLUM: That's the job. WEISS: That's it. MACCALLUM: That is the job. The job, you know, when you think about the president's oath of office, it starts with national security, with keeping -- and so at the local level, that is exactly what it is too. And I'm curious what you think about the larger movement that we see post- election. And I look at Gavin Newsom there and the brilliant piece by the editors of Free Press, which should be a daily read for all of us, talks about Rudy Giuliani. Now, he couldn't prevent the buildings from falling down. But what did he do afterwards? WEISS: He stepped up. MACCALLUM: And you talk about the Santa Ana winds. You can't stop 100- mile-an-hour winds, but you know that they're there and likely to come in this environment. They're not -- you know, this isn't an unprecedented situation. So, you know, talk to me about Gavin Newsom. When I see him standing there talking to that woman, I'm thinking, what's his -- WEISS: I'm thinking he's never going to be president. That's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking this is a person who is not -- catastrophes happen and then what leadership requires is meeting the moment, right? There are clips going around Twitter right now on Joe Rogan's show from years ago where I think he's interviewing a fire expert in California. They are talking about exactly this scenario. Are you telling me that Joe Rogan, who's living now in Texas, knew more about what could happen in the event of a terrible fire than the governor and the mayor of California of Los Angeles, who was in Ghana when this happened despite the warnings? People look at that and they think I don't trust these people to do the very basics of protecting me again. This is not about Democrat. It's not about Republican. It is about basic competency. And anyone who has lived in California, which is, in my view, the most beautiful state in the union, it's paradise on Earth, and yet it's being run by people who are making an -- who are allowing apocalyptic scenes. And I don't just mean the fires. I mean, there are neighborhoods in L.A. where homelessness and drug addiction is just so, so, so rampant. And, again, I just think that they've lost sight of basics. And part of what the vibe shift more broadly right now that we're seeing is about is about Americans demand for just common sense and policies rooted in reality, policies that don't allow giant swaths of one of America's greatest cities, the fifth largest economy in the world, to be burned to the ground. MACCALLUM: You brought up -- just quickly, you brought up John Lindsay, who was also a presidential hopeful. I think we have an image from 1969, a huge snowstorm that swamped New York City. And these are the moments when you look at someone like John Lindsay or Gavin Newsom and you say, are you the leader that can take us into the future? Are you the guy that makes us feel better when something like this happens, that it's all going to be okay and that your tax dollars are at work in an effective way? WEISS: Right. How can you feel that way when California can't build a high speed rail when they can't do you the very basics? So, it's really hard for people to feel a level of comfort when you put Karen Bass up in front of a teleprompter, and rather than reading the website that people are going to, she just reads the letters, URL. That's not comforting. MACCALLUM: Yes. No, that does not instill confidence in anyone in terms of the ability of leadership to help. Very great to have you with us, thank you so much for joining us and we hope you'll come back soon, great conversation. And we look at these just stunning images in California. God, I wonder if there's electoral change coming, if people demand something different based on what this experience is. Bari, thank you. WEISS: Thank you so much.
Jackfire
@jackfire22.bsky.social

I was a firefighter for 31 years. If you have a large fire and use just a few hydrants they will not be able to supply all the water you need. Look at science not politics