The biggest of several wildfires still burning out of control in Los Angeles grew by more than 1,000 acres overnight. At least 319,000 people are now under evacuation orders or in evacuation warning areas. As the firefight continues, questions are beginning to mount about whether L.A. was adequately prepared. Clayton Colbert has good perspective on that. A Malibu resident of 45 years, he stayed behind when the Palisades Fire exploded, figuring he could pump water from his oceanfront home to douse hotspots igniting from embers.
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“That’s our fire hoses there,” he says, pointing to his do it yourself set-up, “we saw this coming.” Colbert is exhausted, with black rings of ash under his eyes. He’s relieved that his home between Pacific Coast Highway and the beach is still standing. As we speak, his neighbor’s home is engulfed in flames. Two firefighters and an engine can’t save it.
No amount of resources would’ve helped, experts say
You hear this a lot in the fire zones, where even fire hydrants have gone dry. But Colbert isn’t sure anything would have mattered, given the hurricane force Santa Ana winds in the L.A. Basin.
“Listen,” he says, “if you look and see what happened in the Palisades and everywhere else, there could be 6,000 firefighters and it wouldn’t be enough.
Still, the political finger-pointing has begun over whether more could have been done sooner. Asked about recent budget cuts, L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley told CBS News that did hamper some training and disaster preparedness.
“We did exactly what we could with what we had,” she said. “If I had a thousand engines to throw at this fire, I honestly don’t think a thousand engines at that very moment could have tapped this fire down.”
