WILDFIRESThe L.A. Fires Show a Need to Rethink Our Wildland Firefighting Systems
As bad as the fires in the Los Angeles area have been—more than 12,000 structures burned, about 180,000 people evacuated, more than 35,000 acres scorched, and at least 25 deaths—they could have been even worse, but in some ways Angelenos got lucky. Asystem built on luck, however, is not a durable system. It is already strained, and it risks breaking down in a world of greater and more frequent wildfires.
As bad as the fires in the Los Angeles area have been—more than 12,000 structures burned, about 180,000 people evacuated, more than 35,000 acres scorched, and at least 25 deaths—they could have been even worse. Officials noted they didn’t “have enough fire personnel … to handle this,” but in some ways we Angelenos got lucky.
American wildland firefighting today is built on a complex network of local, state and federal agencies that are often called to support one another, traveling long distances across state lines to do so. This is how firefighters from neighboring states like Nevada and Arizona can currently be found on the fire lines in L.A., and why the aircraft overhead bear liveries from nearby Orange County and faraway Quebec. North America’s wildland firefighting systems rely on this sort of mutual aid as backup, and it was sheer luck that many agencies—both near and far—had capacity in this moment to spare. As of Tuesday afternoon, when numbers started to slowly decline, there were 5,123 firefighters assigned to the Palisades fire and 3,408 assigned to the Eaton fire, according to status reports.
But a system built on luck is not a durable system. It is already strained, and it risks breaking down in a world of greater and more frequent wildfires.
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“A system built on luck is not a durable system. It is already strained, and it risks breaking down in a world of greater and more frequent wildfires.”
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In the U.S., the federal forces that form the wildland firefighting system’s backbone are the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, along with a handful of smaller agencies. All are overworked, because of a long history of overburdening and underpaying a workforce that is mostly seasonal. Those agencies face deep and constant staffing shortfalls, leading to a wildland fire workforce in America that faces mental and physical health crises and even homelessness.
The better-supported and more stable local and state agencies, by necessity, must focus on their local jurisdictions first. The only reason Orange County can send so much help to L.A. at the moment is that there are currently no large fires burning in Orange County. If Canadian wildfires were burning, we couldn’t have counted on the Quebecois Super Scooper aircraft we see skimming water from the Pacific to fight the Palisades fire.
L.A. County is already home to some of the highest concentrations—and highest quality—of firefighting resources anywhere in the world. More personnel
