By The Fire

by Denice Spangler Adams

Yes, Los Angeles is burning.

What else?!? When will media report what we need to know?

That government has failed us.

Fire related issues and political wrongs need to be reported. Mainstream media talking heads repeatedly report with few exceptions the same old, stale babble during horrific Los Angeles County fires. We feel the loss, the pain, devastation.

As I watch and listen, I wonder: Do you know your accessible road escape routes? Are there sufficient roads for the number in your area who may seek to escape? Do you know your insurance coverage and related limitations for evacuation expenses, especially if you have limited cash flow? Do you know to immediately apply to your County Assessor for a property tax adjustment: reduction of tax on structure for damages, or elimination of property tax obligation on lost structures to be taxed only on land? Will your mortgage be suspended on lost home structure? Do you have a policy rider on your homeowner policy, or ability to pay your mortgage on a destroyed home?

Soon all private insurance companies may pull out of California leaving us with nothing.

Media needs to inform the public. When broke, Cal Fire claim payouts are dependent on revenues from privately insureds, and taxpayers. How does that work exactly? Are contents excluded in CalFire policies, requiring separate coverage like a renter’s policy? What’s the current financial status of CalFire? Heads up taxpayers. What’s our fiscal exposure?

Why in fire photos do we see only wood-framed structures, wood shingle roofs, and trees too close to structures everywhere? Have L.A. building codes been updated? Does LAFD inspect properties annually, if ever?

No Water: Sea Water Has Salt

Why is there reporting on SoCal water shortage to fight fires with no explanation, no coverage of government failures? After all, we voters did pass Prop 1 for $2.7 billion.

Voters approved Prop 1: Invest To Increase Water Storage. No surprise here. Politicians have lied again, promising but then not delivering increased water storage. Rather for our $2.7-billion investment, we got this:

• “The Commission chose the eight projects based on the public benefits their projects will provide, such as flood control, ecosystem improvement, water quality improvement, emergency response and recreation.”

Isn’t water essential for survival?

Fire hydrants went dry in Altadena and Palisades with community members using almond milk, energy drinks, and bottled water in an attempt to help. Young strong men arrived in vans with fire extinguishers telling reporters “we want to help but how with no water?” Visualize these scenes.

Politics matter! Newsom refused to release NorCal water to help SoCal, but little was reported by media on either dry hydrants or Newsom’s rationale. Apparently, Team Trump is unable to intervene until January 20, or maybe water is a state’s rights issue. All this state’s rights stuff with no answers confuses those seeking to be informed.

Where’s the state guard to help? What about the prisoners who fight fires for $1/day? Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass are living up to their negative reputations.

Roads: Evacuation Route Capacity

Why, after the NorCal Paradise Fire, wasn’t road capacity expanded on escape routes? Is it because government is mindless of the terrors of trapped residents, or has it knowingly voted to disregard public safety in favor of electric bikes? One evacuee recommended, “keep your e-bike in the car; abandon your car when in gridlock; get on your e-bike,” to heck with others. They can and did smash abandoned vehicles with heavy equipment to pave the way for fire fighters.

Malibu, Palisades, and the Montecito/Santa Barbara Riviera have much in common: we live mountains to the sea in a “funnel area,” with residents having just one main escape road: Highway 1 or 101. Residents are stuck without road capacity to evacuate. Remember the 1/9/2020 Montecito debris flow? Get a boat or helicopter or fantasize about the cartoon Jetson-Mobile, or stay in place.

UCSB documented Riviera “funnel” dangers that City Council Reps, led by Kristen Sneddon, chose to ignore despite her mentor and former Mayor Sheila Lodge’s reversed position on more area ADUs and increased density housing. Sheila lives on the Riviera and was obviously shaken by the detailed findings. Keep your running shoes on at all times.

Payroll and Pensions First; Security and Safety Second

I live in Montecito one house outside the City of Santa Barbara where our elected city and county officials and bureaucrats are in lockstep with Sacramento. There is no concern for public safety, no push back, only compliance with dangerous mandates. In areas where there’s discretion, the controlling majority minus one or two of over 400 officials cannot or will not even think about public safety. They go along to keep money rolling in.

City officials responded by voting contrary to the UCSB detailed Riviera research recommendations on public safety.

Insofar as water, County officials have refused to dredge Lake Cachuma in my 45 years here.

Now is the time to dredge, no rain, a drought year: .16” of rain, far under one inch. However, government growth and employee compensation again has been prioritized over public safety. Water is survival to everyone but the government affiliated.

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Other Suggestions

L.A., like Santa Barbara, needs to revise its building codes to require and/or incentivize builders, but there’s no mention of exactly what needs to be done, such as:

1) no exposed wood. Frame house parameters with blocks/rebar construction; require tile or metal roofs, no exposed soffits, no wood fencing, no trees within 10+ feet of any structure, use heavy timber only;

2) bury underground utility cables;

3) no more housing overbuilding – no ADUs, no density bonuses – until roads and more water storage infrastructure is constructed.

4) Escape Route Roads must be 36’ wide for off-street parking on one side or 48’ wide for two-sided off-street parking. Convert parkways, front yard easements, into needed parking. Period. No new housing without off-street parking.

I was mandatory evacuated from three fires in nine years, leaving only when I saw flames within walking distance; in the Thomas Fire, smoke was so dense that positioned firemen in front of my home advised “now’s the time to leave.”

Experiences from 2008-2020 have taught me much. Do not rely on government or any insurance coverage. Insurance companies must break even or return a profit. Cal Fire is dependent on private insurance and on taxpayers to cover losses beyond premiums. The CA Dept of Insurance is one more bureaucratic layer with 1,300+ on payroll to mediate, which could result in policy non-renewals or cancellations. Be mindful.

Evacuation is costly and insurance reimbursement is iffy. This is why in my area dozens of single elder female homeowners do not evacuate. Montecito Fire knows who and where we are: unbudgeted costs and hotels are $500+ a night. Once out, we can’t get back into our homes, sometimes for weeks: for me, three weeks to be exact in 2009 Jesusitas Fire, two in 2008; Tea Fire, ten-days, in 2019 Thomas Fire. We’ve learned not to push for reimbursement fearing policy non-renewals.

As I watch L.A. fires, I’ve questions for my newly elected Democrat D1 Supervisor who by the way doesn’t post his contact info online at the County Board of Supervisors (BOS) website. He apparently does not want to hear from constituents, needing a gatekeeper.

Ugh!

Will Supervisor Lee Direct the BOS to:

1) Finally dredge Lake Cachuma to increase water storage capacity?

2) Stop density bonuses, stop bollards, limit on-street parking along connecting evacuation streets?

3) Require development of more parking lots, off-street parking that double for responder staging areas and resident evacuations?

Politicians, bureaucrats, and government aside, I’ve concluded by experience that it’s every resident for himself when it comes to fires and loss.

We need reliable essential information on plans and escape routes from the media. Victims need insurance facts. Voters need to know if and when their money is misused. Everyone could benefit from expanded reporting on fire complexities to know what to expect, how best to prepare and react.

Photos show fire horrors. However, we rely on media – words – to tell us what we need to know.

Expanded Media reporting is essential.