But we haven’t yet talked much about the missing firefighters.
At least 3% of Los Angeles County firefighters lived outside the state as of 2022 — many of them senior commanders.
They reside in border states like Arizona or Nevada, and even as far away as Florida and Alaska.
There they can afford to own homes and can send their children to schools that don’t replace math lessons with gender-identity quizzes.
They fly in to do a 7-to-12-day shift, then fly home for several weeks off.
Who could blame them, given the Golden State’s exorbitant cost of living?
On the first night of the fires, when the winds turned a fever dream into a nightmare, the county put out an all-hands call for firefighters.
Everyone was asked to report to work as soon as possible, no exceptions.
But with 3% of the force residing in other states — and hundreds more firefighters living hours away, in Central and Northern California — the investigation may uncover some uncomfortable truths.
How many of our firefighters were missing in action as Rinderknecht’s fire raged beyond control?
How many homes burned because they could not take their posts when ordered?
Why hasn’t Los Angeles set any sort of residency requirement for its emergency personnel, like most other big cities do?
