(Mods: that auto-suggested title is different from the one on on the page itself, but it’s honestly a better headline in terms of the article’s contents. Let me know if i need to change it.)
On Thursday, Rep. Andy Harris told Newsmax that money for wildfire aid isn’t a priority for Republicans because “we just put more money into FEMA before we left for the Christmas holidays,” and the Maryland Republican claimed that Los Angeles “mishandled the fire department so egregiously that they ought to bear some of the burden for that rebuilding.”
Even when it was taking homes of rich people, it was also filling the L.A. basin and the San Fernando Valley with choking smoke. I lived there over a decade ago and there were far less intense fires, but still big ones, and you could not be outside for more than a few minutes without feeling your lungs burning… and that doesn’t go into people with respiratory problems.
These fires kill people who are nowhere near close enough to feel the heat or even be blinded by the smoke.
I lived in Van Nuys during the Sepulveda fire, a fire which was really minor, and it snowed ashes for days. I can’t imagine what’s it’s like there right now. Escape from LA vibes for sure.
I seem to have lost almost all of my L.A. fire photos, but I took this one from Mulholland Drive when the other side of The Valley was on fire:
And then, by evening on my side of The Valley…
And that was relatively minor because it was completely out within about 48 hours.