Controversies Behind Los Angeles's Fires

The Los Angeles fires have attracted a great deal of attention from the media and lawmakers which put it at the center of numerous controversies.

The fires were amongst the most widespread in recent California, spreading to numerous neighborhoods in northern and western Los Angeles County, including the Palisades hills and parts of the Hollywood hill range. They have also caused significant civilian damage, and led to hundreds of thousands of Californians to retreat from their homes temporarily.

Yet, these fires started small, and became significantly larger in the matter of days. The Los Angeles Fire Department generally responded very slowly, with the fires expanding to new neighborhoods. Additionally, the local government of Los Angeles has largely ignored the early stages of the fires.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, was by far the most criticized during the fires. Firstly, she became unpopular after fleeing her own city amid the crisis to a vacation in Ghana, leading many to sign petitions requesting her immediate resignation. Also, she went under fire for proposing budget cuts on the LAFD, which could've contributed to the very slow reaction by the LAFD to the fires.

With the fires having no end in sight, many Los Angeles individuals took to both the streets and online to lament. The resignation of Bass may in fact become a possibility, and many critics like LAFD chief Kristin Crowley became more heavily supported for their evidence and facts-based concerns.

Moreover, some individuals blamed the fires on climate change, which they used to launch initial attacks on the Trump administration with less than a week before his inauguration. Meanwhile, president Biden has largely remained silent about the controversy as he rushes to make last-minute reforms.